WEB MEDIA SCHOOL session -23  REAL MEDIA STREAMING 

RealNetworks offers free software that not only compresses but streams the files on its own proprietary player. More people have downloaded this helper application than any of its competitors. Windows, requires a CPU that's 486 (or above) with a sound and/or video card. Macintosh users need an A/V machine or a Power Mac with 16-40 megs of RAM minimum. 3 or 4 gigabyte hard drive is suggested

To add a movie to your Web site, Adobe's Premiere is available for Windows and Mac. Premiere allows you to take movies and assemble them on a timeline, and there's an audio track and lots of filters . We suggest Strata Video Shop. If you have a high-8 or video camera and plan to do any digital transfers, you'll need a cord to connect the camera to the computer. If you're running a feed from a television, VCR, or laserdisc, cables are required You'll need to get either the RealEncoder or RealPublisher both are available at http://www.real.com).

Capturing sound

The next step is to digitally capture the sound .If it's on a compact disc and you have a CD-ROM drive, you can import it or open up the file from your sound-editing application. If the sound you want is stored on vinyl, cassette, or a digital audio tape (DAT) machine, run a patch cord from the "audio out" port of your mixer, DAT machine, or stereo receiver to the "audio in" port on the back of your AV computer.

When you save the file, pick a format that your sound editor supports, and use the proper suffix in the file name to avoid confusion. To save the file in audio international file format (AIFF), call it YOURFILE.aiff.

Editing the audio file

Shareware audio editors are available online.if you're using Windows, CoolEdit is reliable. Sound Forge, an audio suite for Windows, has an intuitive interface and filters. For the Mac, Macromedia's SoundEdit is relatively inexpensive.

If your sound-editing application has a Normalize function, now is the time to use it. This boosts the entire signal to maximum levels without distorting it. Expert functions, like Equalization, Compression, and Noise Gating should all happen at this stage as well.

In 1995, Progressive Networks' RealAudio firmly established its product. We prefer 12 maximum. Traditional sound on web pages used bulky formats such as .wav files or .mid files. When you request a Real Audio file. the first 2 or 3 seconds of the file is downloaded to your computer and starts to play . By the time the first few seconds of sound have been played, the next few seconds are ready, creating a continuous "stream".

In order to use Real Audio, you need an Internet Service Provider that has a Real Audio server. Real Audio encoder software, is used to create Real Audio files. The encoder is used to take your sound (or video) and convert it to a Real Media format. At the end of the encoding process, you will have a file whose name ends in either .ra (audio only) or .rm (Real Video as well as audio-only).

 The .rpm and .ram extensions.(known as meta files) are simple text files which are used to tell web browsers the location of your Real Audio files. You can refer directly to the Real Audio source files but this often causes browsers to fully download the file before opening it.

 The Real Player plug-in is installed automatically by both Microsoft Explorer 3.02 onwards and Netscape Navigator 3 onwards

Real Audio files are "requested" from a web page by clicking on a link. In the same way you click on an underlined piece of text or image on a web page to be taken to a new page,

 <A HREF="yourmedia1.ram">Click here to enjoy our Real Audio presentation</A>

1. Download the Real Audio Encoder.

Open the RealEncoder. Select your digitized audio file from the dialog box, and then select your codec The 5.1 encoder has a dozen codecs to choose from, from "Audio 14.4 Music-mono" to "Audio 56k Music-Stereo, Be sure to test several codecs. If you have the storage space, offer your audio file in different compression versions.cassette tape running through a good system.) The number of surfers runningT1s or T3s is surprisingly high these days, so provide the best possible quality files for your bandwidth-endowed surfers in addition to low-bandwidth options.

1. The encoder which will take a .wav or mov.file as an input and create an .ra file as an output.
   Example = song1.wav goes in, song1.ra comes out
   Create a .ram text file (using notepad or simple text) which lists 1 or more Real Audio files you want to play. Each line should have the complete internet address to get to your .ra file.
   Example: mysongs.ram =
   http://www.mydomain.com/song1.ra
   http://www.mydomain.com/song2.ra
   http://www.mydomain.com/song3.ra

   Create a hyperlink to this .ram file on the web page 
   Example: = href=http://www.mydomain.com/mysongs.ram
         Move the .ra files to your Web server using an FTP program, specifying "raw data" as the media type.                      

TIP - For 16 kbps encoding, a 1MB .ra file would contain 10 minutes of audio.

 

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