Quick Audio Streaming - Big Leaps in Streaming Audio

Audio streaming is a technology that has been long developed and invented. However, it was only recently that this technology has been gaining wide recognition from a lot of people because of the numerous sites that have been seen to have contained audio files on it. The embedding of audio files on a site is a development that has struck many net users. A lot of people have loved the idea and a lot of them have seen the potentials of audio streaming in generating more money for a site. To achieve that, enlisted items are being presented below:

o You may want to have a pre-recorded Welcome Note on your site using your own voice to make it a little personal. This gives an air of making your site a bit of having a personal touch. However, do not go overboard when recording your welcome note. It may end up to be irritating that entertaining.

o When advertising a product, it is more motivating if you add some personal testimonials of your old and new clients. You may want to ask these people to record their statement of testimonial for visitors to listen. With the fusion of sounds and personal experiences, the more your visitors will believe the testimonial.

o Limit your audio files. It is not a good practice that you sprinkle all audio files on every corner of the site. By putting too much audio files, you are expressing the notion of becoming too verbose about your site content.

Audio Streaming - How to Succeed - Part 3

HTTP Live Streaming

This is a system based on HTTP and incorporates media streaming and a communications protocol. It was first implemented by the Apple Corporation when they established their QuickTime X and iPhone software systems.

The way the live streaming system operates is to convert the data stream into a number of small HTTP based files. Each file is then downloaded, which in turn loads one small segment of the data stream. As soon as the stream is played, the client has the option of selecting a particular stream from a variety of alternative streams containing the same data but which has been encoded at different data rates. In this way, the streaming session is able to adapt itself to the prevailing rate of data transmission. When the streaming session begins, the system downloads a playlist which contains the data from the various sub-streams that are available.

Since the requests for data require only standard HTTP transactions, then HTTP Live Streaming is able to traverse any firewall or proxy server which themselves allow standard HTTP traffic to travel through.

Terms

HTTP - Also known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is an application-level protocol. There are two principal versions, viz. HTTP/1.0 which uses a separate connection for each document, and HTTP/1.1 that is able to reuse the same connection in order to download, for example, images of the previous page. As a result, HTTP/1.1 could be faster of the two versions since time is taken to set up such connections.

HTTP is a request/response standard used in client-server computing. The client is an application, such as a web browser, on the computer that is used by an end-user. On the other hand, the server is an application running on the computer hosting the web site. The client submits HTTP requests.

Protocol - With reference to computing, the term protocol refers to a series of rules which are applied to computers in order that they are able to communicate with each other when transmitting across a network. It is, in fact, a standard that maintains or brings about firstly the connection, then the communication and finally the transfer of data between computers. Protocols may apply to hardware, or software, or even a combination of the two. In a sense, a protocol specifies how a hardware connection performs.

Streaming Media - This refers to multimedia that are continually received by, and also presented to, the user of the data. At the same time, it is being delivered to the user by a provider of streaming data. The term streaming media refers to the method of delivery of the medium rather than to the nature of the medium itself. It is inferred that the distribution is over telecommunications networks since nearly all of the other delivery systems are either specifically streaming, such as radio and television, or they are characterised as non-streaming, such as books, video cassettes, and audio CDs. Internet television is an excellent example of what may be designated as a commonly streamed media.

Multimedia - It refers to the nature of the media used and content required that uses a combination of different forms of content. Media, in its broadest sense, utilises only established forms of material which may be either printed or hand-produced. On the other hand, Multimedia makes use of a combination of text, audio, motionless images, animation, video, and interactivity forms of content.

Audio Streaming - How To Succeed

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How to Add Streaming Audio to a Blog

According to Verisign, the global registrar for all websites ending with .com, there are around 180 million domains registered all over the world as on April of 2009. Whether all of them are active and alive with relevant content cannot be neither confirmed or denied and it is fairly safe to assume that a considerable portion of these are either parked, forwarded or just kept in safe custody by companies to avoid abuse of their reputed brands as well as hard earned goodwill. Out of this, around 70 million are blogs which to some extent, can be considered as alive if not updated on regular basis. So if you are the proud owner of a blog like me, then we are two among this 70 million or proverbially, two drops in an ocean.

Some blog for fun, some to scam, companies blog to spread brand awareness, some want to showcase their talent and others to make a living. Whatever may the purpose be, your blog should have to stand out from the crowd in delivering the content. Adding streaming audio to your blog is one way you can deliver content differently. By virtue of their dynamic nature, blogs are very good at getting indexed faster by search engines rather than their static counterparts. There is a lot of software out in the internet that claims to stream audio but, a few of them are in fact, capable of doing it. Most software simply links to a remote audio file which is exactly NOT how streaming audio works.

Contrary to conventional perception, it is the process that undergoes in creating compressed encoded files that is difficult rather than embedding it to a specific part of your website. Making streaming audio practical and accessible to all users depends upon the underlying format/program. Audio files can be encoded in Java as well as flash with both of them having their own ups and downs. However, the crowd favorite seems to be flash based streaming audio by virtue of its availability in 94 percent of computers worldwide that are connected to the internet. The element of flexibility, interactivity through a vast selection of customizable players that can be branded to seamlessly blend with the websites that hosts them also tilts choice towards flash based streaming audio. The compressed encoded files are uploaded to your web hosting account via ftp and in the case of blogs, is referenced from there into the post or page where you want the audio player to appear. Some software will only let you to reference files from the same server whereas others allow you to reference files from anywhere over the internet. So before you buy the appropriate streaming audio software, do some math on not only your present requirements but about audio streaming applications that may arise in the near and foreseeable future.

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Website Streaming Audio Uses

Streaming audio is becoming more and more common with successful websites that are able to draw a considerable amount of visitors and most importantly, retain them in the long term. With streaming audio, you are literally providing the visitor an option to consume or use the content through their choice. Today's world and the market that we each and everybody are a part of is all about choices. Your use of streaming audio is only limited to your imagination and in case you are a little short of ideas or needs some brainstorming to start anew, then have a look at some scenarios where you can employ streaming audio for your benefit.

1. Personal Introduction - You have a personal website or a blog where you want to introduce yourself which includes but not limited to your name, where you live, what you do and what all are you interested in. Is it wonderful when you can speak a little bit about yourself and the whole world can listen to it?. It also facilitates a direct interaction between you and the visitor whom you do not want to lose. You might be thinking that a video is more appropriate, well, you need to sit in a good background with proper lighting, well groomed and dressed and also add along with this the effort towards a well edited clip. You can record an audio introduction about yourself even in your underwear and nobody is going to know it unless you boast it.

2. Give an Interview - You have in course of time, became an expert in your field which each and every one should be looking at, and you are requested to give an interview. You can give a written transcript of the interview BUT there is an enormous amount of authenticity if visitors can listen you speaking out on their favorite topic.

3. Welcome new visitors to your site - Nothing can be as impressive, inspiring, unforgotten and confidence boosting as a welcoming streaming audio message that you can put on your site for new visitors. You can simply put a "Thanks for visiting http:// www. yoursite.com" in text but imagine the difference that makes when you see a "Thank you" message pasted on to the door of a store and when the store owner comes to you and thank personally for coming to his store. An audio message can be the difference between a one time and a loyal visitor.

4. Customer/Fan testimonials - Many a time, you would want to sell products like software or e-books which is how most monetize their sites. A customer testimonial is an indispensable, inseparable, inevitable yet the most forgotten part of a sales copy. Consumers throughout history have relied upon the recommendations and reviews of others while arriving at decisions and when they hear a voice form a real human who says that the product is good or effective or does what it claims to be, then it subjectively assures him and provides the confidence to buy the product.

Downloadable Audio Books Rapidly Rising in Popularity   How to Use Audio in Business   Using Videos In Your Website