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Video Streaming Standards

by Faulkner Staff

Copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00016874

Publication Date: 2111

Report Type: STANDARD

Preview

Video streaming is a highly-standardized technology that is based on protocol
developed by a number of international standards bodies. Among many protocols,
HTML5 stands out as an alternative for mobile device and tablet users in
particular, while Microsoft and Adobe also support a release known as MPEG-DASH.
Given the degree of fragmentation in the industry over these and other
standards, the primary market differentiator for video streaming continues to be
product platforms. Software such as Adobe Media Server (which is often
preinstalled by computer manufacturers), Apple QuickTime, the Windows Media Server, and the Wowza Media Server are popular because each tends to be supported by most
Web sites
that offer streaming videos. This report identifies the most commonly
used media
players, the underlying standards, and future considerations related to
the
growing market for online video streaming.

Report Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Description
• Current View
• Outlook
• Recommendations
• Web Links
• Related Reports

Executive Summary

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Video streaming is the process of transmitting content
in a compressed format over the Internet or a data network in real time. This
exchange traditionally occurs between either an Internet- or Intranet-based
server and an end-user’s system. Given (a) the growing popularity of
remote-broadcast software after the onset of COVID-19, (b) consumer
services such as Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, and (c) live streaming options such as
Zoom, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat, it stands to reason that the
enterprise segment might benefit from a standardized video-stream
delivery platform for viewing content.

 

For this reason, an organization’s platform choice is
becoming an increasingly decisive factor in the types of videos and manner of
broadcasts that it offers.
For example, a group that streams live videos “in house”
is less likely to be impacted by running a single video-streaming platform,
while companies that distribute streams to consumers would be wise to consider
supporting as many video formats as possible.

Major
Platforms

There are only a handful of major platforms, with the
high-level ones including:

• Adobe Media Server – Delivers HD-quality
  video to “large” audiences across most Internet-connected devices.
• Apple QuickTime – Handles various digital
  video formats, and runs on Mac.
• Microsoft Windows Media Player – Plays
  multimedia video on a Windows system or device.
• Microsoft Silverlight – Free .NET-powered
  framework that is compatible with multiple browsers, devices, and operating
  systems. Reaches end-of-support status in 2021.
• Wowza Streaming Engine – Streaming server software that can be
  deployed either on-premise or in the cloud; features customizable,
  extensible software; and supports all known streaming protocols.

Top Standards

Unfortunately for many
organizations, there is no common standard for live video streaming,
even among
the aforementioned software. Some of the more commonly used ones,
however, include HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), RTP (Real-time
Transport Protocol), RTSP (Real
Time Streaming Protocol), SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language), HTML5 (W3C’s HyperText Markup Language, 5th Revision), IP
Multicast, MPEG-4, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
(MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Coding), and MPEG-DASH (MPEG
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP).

Description

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Video streaming technology, at its core, represents an attempt to replicate the immediacy of
broadcast television over the Internet. A streaming video presentation can be viewed
in real-time as it is transferred, thus allowing it to potentially provide a
similar experience to watching TV. Users can view and listen to programming as
it is received rather than having to wait until the entire video file
downloads. Video streaming is actually a three-step process:

• Recording and encoding it to work with a particular
  player/server combination.
• Making it viewable by client machines via a video
  player.
• Serving it to the end user(s).

Because the file does not need to be stored on the end-user’s computer, the
content provider has the ability to serve it at a speed commensurate with the
user’s Internet connection speed. A video player can receive packets while
decompressing and playing others for a streaming transmission. The streaming
software decompresses this video data and displays the video on the screen while
also sending audio to the machine’s speakers. This happens as quickly as the PC,
server, and connection speed allow. For this reason, two of the biggest
restrictions to effective video streaming are (1) Internet bandwidth limitations and
(2) overburdened video servers that render programming either unavailable or of a
lower quality.

Market Leaders

Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, and Wowza are considered top companies
for live enterprise video-streaming software.
Table 1 offers a comparison between these companies’ products.

* Silverlight has moved to end-of-support status as of October 2021.
The development framework is currently only supported on Internet
Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11, with support for Internet Explorer 10
having ended on January 31, 2020. There is no
longer support for Chrome, Firefox, or any browser using the Mac operating
system.

Adobe Media Server. Adobe’s Media
Server (formerly Flash Media Server) is a real-time media server that delivers
1080p HD, bit-rate video on demand and live video to Adobe Flash Player, Adobe
AIR, Adobe Flash Lite, Apple iOS, and Mac OS.
This product is designed to deliver content, applications, and media that can be
run consistently across most platforms and browsers. It also supports streaming
music, video blogging, video messaging, multimedia chat, real-time datacasting,
and multi-user gaming features.
Table 2 compares the Adobe Media Server Editions.

Apple QuickTime. Apple’s QuickTime platform is a multimedia platform that can handle various
digital video formats. It offers an extensible multimedia framework that
includes a built-in media player. Version 7 of Apple’s QuickTime platform offers
multimedia technology that includes a built-in media player for viewing HD
Internet video and personal media in multiple file formats.
QuickTime features advanced H.264 video-compression
technology to deliver high-definition video that consumes less bandwidth and
storage. In addition
to the free, basic version of QuickTime, Apple also offers:

• QuickTime Pro
  – Includes functions for converting media to different formats; in addition to recording,
  editing, and sharing videos.
• QuickTime Broadcaster
  –
  Offers features for producing live broadcasts using a MPEG-4-based Internet
  broadcasting system.
• Darwin Streaming Server
  – Open-source version of the QuickTime Streaming Server for
  delivering live or pre-recorded content in real time, using RTP/RTSP
  protocols. The Darwin Streaming Server is available under the Apple Public
  Source License from Mac OS Forge.

Figure 1 shows the QuickTime player.

Figure 1. QuickTime Player

Source: Apple

Microsoft Windows Media Player. The Windows Media platform and its set
of end-to-end components – including the Windows Media player, encoder, codecs,
server, and software development kits (SDKs) – provide a comprehensive staging
environment for the creation, distribution, and playback of audio and video
content, offering high-quality presentation at any bit rate. In addition to
serving consumers, the platform enhances communications and training for
enterprises and improves digital media commerce opportunities. It meets the
needs of content and service providers by delivering media-rich content and
services. Developers can also take advantage of a more efficient platform on
which to build their products and services. Figure 2 depicts the Microsoft
Windows Media Player.

Figure 2. Microsoft Windows Media Player 12

Source: Microsoft

Wowza Media Server. The Wowza Media Server offers a
customizable media-streaming server and cloud-based solutions for helping to
build, deploy, and manage high-quality live and on-demand video. This software
includes the Media Streaming Engine, for creating video with broadcast-quality
live video streaming software – available “in minutes, with unparalleled control
and flexibility” – for any use case or device. The portfolio also includes the
Wowza Streaming Cloud, a managed live-streaming solution with end-to-end
workflows and support for building a streaming service on REST APIs.

Current View

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Currently, there are only a small number of
video
streaming standards
groups and industry alliances, notably among them the MPEG Industry
Forum; DASH
Promoters Group; World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its HTML Working
Group; and
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Even though these industry
organizations and standards bodies attempt to create and promote
standards, they become littered within the proprietary and customized
architectures
of the few applications mentioned in this report. These leaders tend to
push
proprietary technology into standards to create the appearance that
their
products adhere to and support them.

While the standards listed in Table 3 are relevant to video streaming, they are, at this
point, hardly checklist items to most streaming video buyers.

Outlook

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Despite the lack of a single, broadly accepted standard, video streaming
continues to grow in popularity. Based largely on the popularity of various online content services, video
streaming seems poised to continue to buck the trend of squabbles over industry
standards and proprietary approaches. Video streaming becomes more pervasive
each day. A number of users actually have Flash Media Server, Windows Media
Player, and QuickTime
installed on their systems, allowing them to view content from a multitude of
different Web sites.

Instead, considerations
such as network bandwidth and, to a lesser extent, computer processing
speed
have become the primary drivers of video streaming advancement, as
platforms and
standards coexist on the Web without any noticeable slowing of growth in
streaming technology. Market leaders seem unable to agree on standards,
protocol support, or the development of proprietary technology for it.
As a
result, eliminating fragmentation, improving player integration, and
improving cooperation between vendors
seems unlikely.

Platforms

For this reason, product
platforms seem to continually play larger roles in shaping the
technology trend.
Microsoft, for example, has expansive access to PC users and corporate
IT
environments. Apple, meanwhile, takes a large share of the consumer
market with
its popular iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac devices. These companies have
also
designed various codecs to increase video streaming quality while
decreasing
file size, thus making it so that less bandwidth is required. A video
codec is software for compressing and decompressing digital video.
Despite having made
strides in these areas, neither Microsoft nor Apple can control issues
such as
dropped packets, latency, and Internet connectivity issues that
sometimes affect
transmissions. For this reason, many organizations looking to stream
video turn
to content delivery networks and caching providers.

Browsers

Another consideration is the
potential to stream video to Web browsers. Unlike streaming media players that
can only display streams created and served by their associated platform,
Internet browsers such as Chrome, Explorer, Firefox, or Safari can, for the
most part, display content for most Web pages.

Recommendations

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Streaming
video has two major applications for business:

• Providing content or
  assistance to customers
• Offering a way of communicating with employees,
  business partners, or the media.

For consumers or users who are otherwise
streaming outside of a corporate setting, the best recommendation would be to
support all video-streaming platforms on a single system, if possible. For
larger organizations, however, the decision to choose a single platform provides
it with greater control over its user base, as well as the ability to streamline
enhancement and maintenance tasks within a streaming infrastructure.

For this reason, computer system selection can largely
determine which media platform, and thus standard, should be deployed. The
choice of mobile device support also complicates this decision, as not all
devices support all formats. One final option is to outsource one’s streaming
video operations to a content delivery network. This option works best when offering streaming to customers, or when
internal use is sporadic and consists mostly of a large number of users. These
providers attempt to move data closer to the end user to improve streaming and
also remove the burden of dealing with various platforms and standards.

Web Links

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• Adobe Systems: http://www.adobe.com/
• Apple: http://www.apple.com/
• DASH Industry Forum: http://dashif.org/
• Internet Engineering Task Force: http://www.ietf.org/
• Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/
• HTML Working Group: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/
• World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/
• Wowza Media Systems: http://www.wowza.com/

 

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