SQU

Collage of Education
TECH4101

(Name:1) Mi Al-Nasri(61563
(Siham Al-Omairi(67157 (2
 Video Streaming Technology

:Definition
Educators are always looking for way that will bring about productive learning
environment. As the appearance of technology: bandwidth, user connection speed and so
on, the audio, and video become more suitable to provide instructional material.
Streaming video can be used for deliver instructional material and recode material. So
what is video streaming? Video Streaming means techniques that help the user to see and
view the material in real-time over the internet before the file complete downloading.

Video streaming comes in different format and the most three popular format are:
Real Net works' real media, Microsoft Windows Media and Apple QuickTime.

:Objectives for using this technology

:Video streaming attempts to achieve several objectives which are the following

o To overcome the problems associated with file download,

o To provide a significant amount additional capability.
o Monitoring Capability.
o To reach a wider and/or more isolated audience
o To give a remote audience an experience as close as possible to being physically
present at the event.

:Features
Video streaming technology has several features which are:
o Asynchronous and synchronous: Students can access the material independent in any
time. Also, students can see what teachers show as they explain for the learners at the
same time.
o Flexible: students can see video any time and any place and they can access easily.
o Provide independent learning students have control over the content. They can start,
pause, skip, and review the material.
o Multimedia support: video support different type of media like text, image, motion and
audio.

:Advantages
Video streaming play an important role in support learning and delivering materials to
Distance learners. It can be used in the following:
 o Helping learners to understand concepts and procedures that can not easily
understood by text or graphics. Video streaming give students opportunity to see
concepts in motion, which help them to visual a process or see something works.
Also, it is worth than using a lot of text.
o Increasing students' motivation because video has visual appeal.
o Video streaming can help supplement text-based materials in online courses that
would stimulate the subject matter being discussed.
o Audience can easily access a streaming video.
o A video can be streamed and accessed on multiple operating systems.
o A stream provides outstanding image quality, for audience, large image size and
crisp image.
o Setting up a stream is relatively easy and inexpensive.
o A live stream can be recorded.
o Video streaming is widely used in Web conferencing, online movie delivery,
broadcast and so on.
o Allows for the secure use of audio and video file: With Video Desk viewers can play
streamed media. They cannot easily make a copy of the file, so if it is virus then not
transmit to your computer.
o Used in transmit large multimedia (voice, video and data) files quickly.
o Low delay before viewing starts and low storage requirements since only a small
portion of the video is stored at the client at any point in time.

:Limitations
A number of problems that may occur from using video streaming technology which are:
• Inappropriate bandwidth led to low video quality.
• Competing technologies to control standards: each institution using different
standards which cause the video can not be seen by the user if they do not have
the right real player.
• Lack of training and technical support can prevent effective video streaming use.

:How dose it used to deliver and support learning

Video streaming can conceptually be thought to consist of the follow steps:

1. Instructors record content to be used in the course using technology like digital
video camera, video camera recorder, ect.
 2. Capture video to digital format: Digital format means that can be read by the
computer. If instructors use digital video camera, then the digitization was already
accomplished. If not then you need to connect analog video to a computer with a
video capture device like (fire port and video capture card) and software to digitize
the video file.
3. Partition the compressed video into packets: After video being digitize, then it is
compressed using encoder uses modern streaming media codec
(compressor/decompressor). This video codec help to reduce the amount of data
to smallest possible amount that require for streaming by eliminating unnecessary
repetitious data. When streaming media into streamable format the instructor need
to consider how the video is to be compressed. There are three criteria that make
up quality of streaming video which are frame rate, color depth and the resolution.
4. Up load media to the server: why we need server? It is important to store video file
and software that can stream the data over the web. The file must be up loaded to
the server and linked to a website so that students can watch the video.
5. Deliver Video to audience: User can view video clips with out completing
downloading the entire file.

:Concerns raised by research and students

This technology gives solution for providing learning through video over internet.
So research and students raised some concerns to be taken while providing learning
through this technology which are the following:
1. The instructor must record the content to be used in the course with a variety of
video technologies such as a camcorder, digital video camera, digital still-frame
camera, or any other specialized software or hardware.
2. Edit the video and audio using specific software or video editing devices.
3. The digital video then needs to be compressed through an encoder. When
encoding videos into a streamable format, the instructor needs to consider how
the video is to be compressed. There are basically three criteria that make up
the quality of a streaming video. The three criteria are (a) frame rate that
designates the number of still images that make up one second of video, (b)
colour depth or the number of bits of data the computer assigns to each pixel,
and (c) the resolution that is measured by the numbers of pixels.
4. Availability: Streaming availability on the global Internet should ideally mean a
server ready to stream content to any clients who have an interest in receiving it.
 5. A final consideration for creating streamed videos is the server. A server is
needed to store the media file and software that can stream the data over the
Web. The file must be uploaded to the server and linked to a web site so
students can watch the video.

:Case Study Example

:Case Study 1

This event was a student fashion show held by UMIST Department of

Textiles. The requirement was to stream it out live over the Web and to provide an
archived copy on the server. The encoder used a Windows98 PC together with a
Hauppauge. The encoded stream was fed over a LAN to a video server running the
free RealServer Basic software. The event was advertised on the Department’s
Web site with a link to a SMIL file on the video server. The SMIL file produced a
presentation with 3 media inserts: the UMIST logo, some ticker text produced using
RealText and the live video window. The stream was archived onto the encoder PC
as it was broadcast. The source video was also captured onto digital videotape and
used to generate an edited version of the WebCast to go up on the server.

Case Study 2

This event was a public seminar on xDSL broadband access technologies

with speakers from the industry. The requirement was to obtain a good quality video
of the presentations and then to create the streaming media afterwards. The set up
was to use a camera crew with 2 cameras, lights, fixed and roving mics, audio and
video mixing, etc. The videotapes were edited and then used to generate the
streaming video using a NT workstation running RealProducer Basic. The
speaker’s slides were converted to jpegs and encoded using RealPix to be
synchronized with the presenter’s video.
 Reference

o Hartsell, T., & Yuen, S. (2006). Video streaming in online learning. AACE
Journal, 14(1), 31-43. Retrieved on 22/11/2008 from:
www.editlib.org/index.cfm/files/paper_6152.pdf?fuseaction=Reader.Downloa
dFullText&paper_id=6152

o PlaySream Company. How Does On Demand Streaming Video & Streaming

Audio Work?. Retrieved on 26/10/2008 from:
https://www.playstream.com/services/ondemand_work.aspx
o Francis, N, & Cunningham, D.( May 2001). An Introduction to Streaming Video.
Cultivate Interactive, issue, 4. Retrieved on 10/11/2008 from: http://www.cultivate-
int.org/issue4/video/#author#author
o Dr. Edgar Huang, Jason Sisk, Todd Kirk, Geoffrey Coryell, Jennifer Stewart. (2007).
Live video streaming technology. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Retrieved on 10/11/2008 from: http://www.iupui.edu/~nmstream/live/introduction.php
o Strom, J. (May 2001).Streaming Video: A Look behind the Scenes. Cultivate
Interactive, issue 4. Retrieved on 2/12/2008 from: http://www.cultivate-
int.org/issue4/scenes/.