Streaming media delivery in higher education: streaming media management and delivery systems

The aim of this chapter is to highlight essential criteria required to set up a streaming media server within Higher Education Institutions. It explores different types of video content and highlights the importance of streaming media technology by differentiating between the traditional Web server software and streaming media server software. This is then followed by the explanation of different streaming media protocols and how the video content gets transported from the streaming media server to students’ computer. The chapter also explores different types of methods used to deliver streaming videos over the Internet, different streaming media software, encoding software, and encoding parameters used for converting high definition/quality videos into streamable quality. Section 3 of this chapter highlights the importance of folder and file naming conventions, exploring essential video metadata which is required to create and manage video files, Digital Rights Management technology to securely deliver video over the internet, and how to publish a video on the Internet.