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Backstories

Streaming For Everyone

Produced by Bill Birney

Microsoft Corporation

February 2005

This month we take a look at a unique implementation of streaming media—one that demonstrates that streaming media today is more about enabling great ideas than fumbling around with esoteric technologies.

La Belle Elaine's Bridal Shop wanted to develop a webcam so brides-to-be could model gowns for relatives and friends over the Internet. The shop's owner, Stewart Chung, didn't want the unattractive surveillance-cam look one gets with updating image files, so he decided to use Windows Media to stream his webcam. With Windows Media he gets sharp colorful images, fluid motion, and sound. Friends and relatives anywhere in the world can tune in over the Internet, and sit in as customers model bridal gowns on the shop's runway in real time.

Streaming service provider Playstream gave Stewart advice on how to build and wire an encoding workstation, and made it easy and cost-effective for him to configure and run the webcam. All he has to do is start Windows Media Encoder with a profile pre-configured by Playstream, and the stream is up and running. Playstream is a good example of a streaming service provider that goes out of their way to understand and meet the needs of their customers, whether they're small mom-and-pop shops or Fortune 500 businesses.

Streaming From a Bridal Shop

Stewart Chung shows us his mobile encoding station, and Playstream describes what goes on behind the scenes to get the stream from the station to end users over their worldwide network.

Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 4:37)

Making It Easy For Customers

This story is really all about how to grow a business by making it easy and affordable for anyone to distribute high-quality, streaming media content. First, remove the mystery and intimidation of technology.

Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 3:26)

The encoder and server connect using the PUSH or PULL method

What Are PUSH and PULL?

Playstream uses the PUSH method to get the stream from the encoder to the server. Ground-breaking, never-before-seen animation techniques are used in this video to describe the PUSH and PULL methods.

Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 1:55)

To view last month's Backstories column, see Editing a Feature-Length Film on a PC.

For More Information

Bill Birney
Bill has worked as writer, director, and producer on numerous film and video projects, as well as music composer, sound designer, and disc jockey. He's co-written several books for Microsoft, including the Windows Media Resource Kit, and is a regular contributor to the Knowledge Center.

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