One of the most frequently asked questions about delivering online video is "What's the difference between streaming video and downloading video?" Let's face it, as a user clicking a video link on a web page, you often won't know which method you're using, unless you poke around a little. But streaming and downloading are distinct methods of delivery, each with its own benefits and limitations. We'll take a look at the difference between the two methods, and make some suggestions about when you should choose one or the other for your projects.

Delivering From A Web Server:

Delivering your video file using a web server is sometimes referred to as "progressive download" or "http streaming". In fact, it's not really streaming at all, but a very simple bulk download of the video file to the viewer's computer. Let's say you have a video file encoded at 200kbps. You place that file on your Web server, and put a link to the file on your web page. The web server does not know or care that it's a 200kbps video file. It simply pushes the data out to the client as fast as it can. It may appear to be streaming since playback can begin almost immediately. The "progressive download" feature in most media players allows them to begin playing the file as soon as enough data has been downloaded. Of course, you can't fast-forward to the end of the file until the whole file arrives from the server. If the actual network bandwidth is smaller than the 200kbps that the file is encoded at, then you may have to wait a while before you can begin playing it. But even on a 56kbps connection, the video will look great “ you're essentially trading waiting time for video quality. The temporary file is saved to the user&qts computer, so they can re-play it if they want to without having to download it again. Web servers use HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) to transfer files over the network. One of the features of HTTP is that it operates on top of TCP (Transport Control Protocol), which controls the actual transport of data packets over the network. TCP is optimized for guaranteed delivery of data, regardless of its format or size. For example, if your browser or media player realizes that it&qts missing a data packet from the server, it will request a resend of that packet. Resend requests take time, take up more bandwidth, and can increase the load on the server. And if the network connection is sketchy, you could begin to use more bandwidth for resends than you&qtre using for the video itself! TCP is not designed for efficient real time delivery or careful bandwidth control, but for accurate and reliable delivery of every bit.

Delivering From a Streaming Server:

A streaming media server is a specialized piece of software that accepts requests for video files, knows about the format, bandwidth, and structure of those files, and in many cases, pays attention to the performance of the player that's receiving the video. Streaming servers deliver just the amount of data necessary to play the video, at precisely the rate needed to play it. Unlike the web server, which simply starts dumping as much video data onto the network as it can, the streaming server opens a conversation with the media player. There are two sides to this conversation“ one to transfer the video and one for control messages between the player and the server. Because they continue to exchange these control messages with the player, streaming servers can adjust to changing network conditions as the video plays, improving the viewing experience. The control messages also include user actions like play, pause, stop, and seeking to a particular part of the file. Since the server sends video data only as it's needed and at just the rate it's needed, it also allows you to have precise control over the number of streams you serve and the maximum bandwidth you consume. If you've got a 56kbps connection to the network, you won't be able to receive that 200kbps video. You'll have to settle for a lower-quality version that's encoded for 56kbps connections. But streaming delivery of video data does have some advantages: - You can skip ahead in a video, or begin playback at a point somewhere in the middle. This is a convenience to users, but also a boon to you as a provider. It enables interactive applications like video search and personalized playlists. - It lets you monitor exactly what people are watching and for how long they are watching it. - It makes more efficient use of bandwidth since only the part of the file that's watched gets transferred. - The video file is not stored on the viewer&qts computer. The video data is played and then discarded by the media player, so you maintain more control over your content. In a pinch, streaming servers can use HTTP and TCP to deliver video streams, but by default they use protocols more suited to streaming, such as RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol). RTSP provides built-in support for the control messages and other features of streaming servers. UDP is a lightweight protocol that saves bandwidth by introducing less overhead than other protocols. It's more concerned with continuous delivery than with being 100% accurate “ a feature that makes it well-suited to real time operations like streaming. Unlike TCP, it doesn't request resends of missing packets. With UDP, if a packet gets dropped on the way from the server to the player, the server just keeps sending data. The idea behind UDP is that it&qts better to have a momentary glitch in the audio or video than to stop everything and wait for the missing data to arrive. Finally, a streaming server is necessary to deliver live webcasts and to use multicast. For networks that support it, multicast allows more than one client to tune in to a single stream, saving bandwidth at every part of the delivery chain.

Conclusions:

All of this adds up to a few simple rules of thumb for when to use streaming and when to use http downloading to deliver your video. The main reason for downloading video from your Web server is that it's simple and you can do it with infrastructure you already have. It's most useful when your videos are short, when you're more interested in delivering high-bitrate encodings than in delivering in real time, or when you want your viewers to be able to keep a copy of the video on their own computers. Streaming is the better solution when your clips are more than a few minutes long, when you want to enable interactive applications like video search or linking deep into a file, or you want to collect statistics on what's actually being watched. Streaming is the way to go when you want to control the impact of video on your network, or when you need to support large numbers of viewers. And of course, it's the only way to do live Webcasts and multicasting.

We Have Moved Our Sites Around

We at WWBN know that it shocked some users when we re arranged our sites around. 

What was at one point blog.wwbn.com is now WWBN.info

WWBN.info is now at WWBN.com

WWBN.com is now at WWBN.TV

The reason for this was that for many years WWBN has functioned and still functions as a transparent middleware for companies who provide video production, distribution and other WWBN services and solutions, but when new customers went to WWBN.com (now WWBN.TV) they did not quite get the information they needed to understand the services we offer.  This company, services and solutions information was at WWBN.info (now WWBN.com).

The WWBN Blog is our new blog to help users learn more about how to use and benefit from the WWBN Platform System and was located on blog.wwbn.com (now WWBN.info)

We apologize if this has caused any inconvenience to any users, customers, partners, and search bots.

Leveraging The World Wide Broadcast Network Platform System

At WWBN we provide companies with new business models that evolve around the delivery of video and other digital assets complementing their existing business offerings and adding to their revenues. These new ways of doing business include Turnkey application-integration with capabilities for managing, auditing, and disseminating digital content.

Business Models Include:

• Pay Per Production
• Pay Per Click Video Advertising
• Pay Per Listing Video Advertising
• Pay Per View for Content Owners
• Pay Per Syndication  for Content Owners

There are revenue share opportunities for all business models offered through WWBN.

WWBN is a powerful base broadcast network platform system that keeps your digital video assets organized, secure, and accessible. We valuable innovative technology, designed to increase the efficiency of broadcasting operations and maximize revenue opportunities.

Our extension modules sit on top of that base and provide active functionality which adds value to the assets stored in the digital asset management system.

    Some of these modules include:

• Media Library Manager Module
• Distribution Module
• Media Order Automatic Retrieval System
• Campaign Management System
• Broadcast Allocation Node System
• SearchADS PPC System
• Syndication Module
• Pay Per View Module
• Live Video Service
• Video Production Processing System

The modular design allows you to get exactly the solution that addresses your needs today, while ensuring that your Media Management implementation can grow and expand with you as your needs evolve. WWBN provides solution for companies that wish to get involved with video or are already involved with video.

WWBN Customer Solutions Include:

• - Advertiser Solutions
• - Ad Agency Solutions
• - Business Solutions
• - Content Provider Solutions
• - Service Provider Solutions
• - Publisher Solutions

The World Wide Broadcast Network Video Gallery

Although WWBN has an inventory of over 50 video players we felt it would be nice to highlight the WWBN Video Gallery.

Once you create an AdTube, ShowTube or SearchTube on WWBN you can opt to have the results on that Tube to be displayed on one of  WWBN's video players.

The WWBN Video Gallery happens to be one of my favorites.  It can use a thumbnail image or a preview video file to show a preview of the video content.

Features Include:

• Category tabbing
• Paging
• Linking back to websites
• Search
• Full Screen
• Optional Pay Per Click Search
• Completely customizable to any look and feel
• Make it private (only you can place videos there)
• Make it public (accept advertisements from other sources)

A sample of this player in use can be found at: Las Vegas Accounting Jobs

Click here to learn more about WWBN Products

SearchTUBE.mobi for mobile users.

World Wide Broadcast Network, Inc. has in beta mode the SearchTUBE Mobile Search System. The system includes content from content providers around the net.  Advertisers can use PPC to rank their content for advertising.  SearchTUBE.com has been successful in attracting users from around the globe and we are hoping to do the same for mobile users.

If anyone has comments in regards to the site we always welcome suggestions in order to improve on our services.

If you need video encoding services click here: Video Encoding

Note: WWBN Video Conversion Services support most type of mobile phone, smart phone, PDA and so on. Such as IPhone, Palm Treo, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Simense, Pansonic, Sharp, Sanyo, NEC, Ktech, VX, etc., because 3GP, 3G2 and/or MPEG4 formats are supported.

Here we list out some typical mobile phones in the following, however they are not all. If you are not sure whether your phone support 3GP, 3G2, H264 and MPEG4 (.mp4) or not, please get more information from your mobile phone dealer or manufacturer.

Mobile phone video formats list

+: support   -:not support    

Best practices for video submission to submit.WWBN.com:

Although WWBN will read mRSS and Video Sitemap XML it is considered best practice to associate a video with a landing page URL. WWBN will take a feed and provide a video on search results that are associated with a URL.  So if you submit a feed from a video sharing site, WWBN will display your content on our search results, if the user elects, he can then go see the content on the URL associated with the feed (in most cases the video sharing site) by clicking on a URL displayed along side your listing.

You can however use video to drive traffic to your website.

The best use of the WWBN system is to use Searchmercials.  A Searchmercial is a video designed specifically to drive users to your landing pages upon conducting a directory search or search engine search.

The purpose of a searchmercial is to appeal to the users searching the web by providing the search results sought by the user in video format and providing the user with enough information to warrant the user to click and go to your landing page URL.

In essence WWBN treats all content as searchmercials, as we provide a link back to the originating site, but it would be considered best practice to purpose those videos to entice users to go to the landing page they describe or promote.

Recommended Use:

• Create a searchmercial for each webpage you want to attract users to.
• mRSS and Video Sitemap structures will enable you to associate a landing page URL and a video URL

You can optionally manage your media content by creating a WWBN passport account with the same exact email address used to submit your feed as the account username.  Once verified, you can then claim the videos associated with that email address for:

• Pay Per Click bidding to rank your searchmercials
• Context Ads - Contextual Searchmercials
• Content Match Searchmercials
  
• Video Players - Create your own broadcast network, add players, channels of distribution, accept advertisements and more!
• Distribution - Distribute your content to other distribution channels.
• Syndication - Earn syndication revenues from your content.
• Programming - Create ShowTubes or AdTubes, schedule programming and more!

Some Searchmercial Suggestions:

1 Identify your goals

• Establish specific goals and success metrics so you can choose creative messages, keywords, and landing pages that will help you achieve your search objectives.
• Focus on relevance in everything you do, Make sure your video creative, landing page, and keywords connect people with exactly what they're looking for.

2 Produce clear, compelling videos

• Test multiple video creatives.
• Be concise - and avoid repetition.
• Mention the keyword in the video to show relevance.
• Emphasize unique aspects of your landing's page information, product or service.
• Include a strong call-to-action.

3 Choose useful destination pages

• Send users to a destination (landing) page that relates to your videos. If your videos offers a free product, link directly to the page that clearly displays that product.
• Target different destination pages with videos customized for those pages and use different keywords.
• Make it easy and intuitive for prospects to become customers.

4 Track results frequently and modify your efforts

• Track your conversions. WWBN assigns a unique tracking URL to each of your videos and keywords to identify which of your customers clicked through to your site from your video. This will also tell you which ads and keywords converted the most clicks to sales.
• If a keyword isn't performing well, consider changing your keyword matching to exact match, for example, or delete it. However, if a keyword is performing well, add more keywords like it.
• Compare performance across multiple creatives per video group or campaign, and disable the ones that aren't doing as well.