Streaming Technology and Business Opportunities Revealed

Author: Topik
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The content of this book may strike readers accustomed to technical books in an unconventional way, as some chapters explore issues related to society, politics, and business. The reason for including these marginal pieces of information is my firm belief that technicians should understand their technology within the human environment. If a technology does not serve humanity and improve people's lives, what reason does it have to exist? Scientists and engineers must take responsibility for what they impose on humanity. I have never approved of technicians hiding behind the beauty they create without facing the problems caused by their technology, nor of making business decisions about a technology and the group it serves, the services it provides to these people, and the reasons why people spend money on it, based solely on technical controversies. Only by understanding the environment in which technology exists can technicians make thorough judgments on how to design products, form features, and solve real-life problems. There are too many poor applications and products because designers have not seriously considered the context of their work. A technical book that cannot present a "big idea" is often confusing and fails to clearly explain its principles—just like "seeing the trees but not the forest." This book, while explaining streaming media technology, strives to compare it with its background issues. I hope my unique perspective will help clarify the process of uncovering streaming media. The rapid development and popularization of the internet have provided strong market momentum for the growth of streaming media business. Streaming media will be widely used in multimedia news releases, online live streaming, internet advertising, e-commerce, video on demand, distance education, telemedicine, remote monitoring, real-time video conferencing, and other internet information services. Some predict that in the 21st century, streaming media will replace traditional television and become the primary video dissemination method. This book is divided into five chapters, comprehensively elaborating on streaming media technology, covering the latest standards, formats, and protocols, and based on this, it explores issues related to streaming media and society, politics, business, and the audience. It analyzes the market prospects and development trends of streaming media from all aspects. At the end of the book, there is a substantial appendix (on compression, encoding, etc.) for readers with different knowledge backgrounds to choose from. This book is easy to understand and accessible, making it suitable for technicians and engineers engaged in research, development, and management of digital audiovisual technology, internet video, multimedia, digital interactive television, broadband applications, 3G applications, as well as investment decision-makers and enthusiasts of internet media.