Media Architectures
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[edit] Overview
A digital or multimedia architecture is a method for the creation, storage and playback of digital media forms or types, like movies, audio files, animations, and interactives.
There are several flavors from which to choose for a project. QuickTime is an architecture, as was Video for Windows (now Windows Media). For the web, the most popular digital media architectures are QuickTime, RealSystems, Windows Media, and Flash/Flash Video. MPEG-4 is not only a video format (at its simplest profile) that can play out to various receiving or display devices, but is also an architecture that supports interactive objects with scripted behaviors.
Within an architecture are various algorithms that can be used to compress and decompress media files. These are called Codecs.
[edit] Guidelines
It is no surprise that industry players actively engaged in the research and development of digital media architectures and file formats aggressively promote their proprietary technologies, encouraging content providers and end-users to embrace their tools and players. Like most private and public sector entities, the University’s various departments each subscribe to different technologies, depending on their needs and their support and maintenance resources.
The threat to the University, if some consistency is not promoted throughout the delivery of digital media through networks and the Internet, will be a proliferation of files and formats which cannot be played, cannot be shared, and (where appropriate) cannot be re-purposed. None of these conditions are acceptable within an academic institution (except where information must be protected for financial, privacy, patent, copyright, unpublished research, security or other similar circumstances).
Akamai is a company offering many services for online businesses, including hosting and distributing media on demand. They offer a collection of whitepapers, one of which is entitled "Best Practices for Producing On Demand Video for the Web." http://www.akamai.com/html/perspectives/whitepapers_content.html. It is a good technical guide to video formats, encoding best practices, bitrates discussions, and media on demand delivery. No endorsements of Akamai products and services are to be inferred; however, the guide summarizes nicely the major media architectures and includes references to additional resources.
For a comparison of digital video files, encoded within various architectures and for different Internet bandwidths, the following resources are available...
- Comparison of Media Architectures (using a 1-minute movie)(QuickTime, Real, WindowsMedia, MPEG-4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2)
- Encoded and posted by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/sampler_compare_archs.html
- Comparison of Progressive Download & Streaming Movides, organized by production values found in source materials
- Encoded and posted by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/sampler_linear_movies.html
- Streaming Media Format and Encoding Matrix (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime, Flash Video at various bandwidths)
- Encoded and posted by MultiMediaPros, Inc.
- http://www.multimediapros.com/encoding.asp (scroll to matrix at bottom of page)
[edit] Resources
- Akamai Whitepaper-- "Best Practices for Producing On Demand Video for the Web"
- http://www.akamai.com/html/perspectives/whitepapers_content.html
- Overview of Digital Media Architectures, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchitecture.html
- Overview of the QuickTime Architecture, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchquicktime1.html
- Overview of the RealSystem Architecture, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchrealmedia1.html
- Overview of the Windows Media Architecture, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchwinmedia1.html
- Overview of the MPEG Architecture, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchmpeg1.html
- Overview of the Flash Video Architecture, authored by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/2B_mediaarchitecture.html
- Comparison of Media Architectures (using a 1-minute movie)(QuickTime, Real, WindowsMedia, MPEG-4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2)
- Encoded and posted by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/sampler_compare_archs.html
- Comparison of Progressive Download & Streaming Movides, organized by production values found in source materials
- Encoded and posted by Media Solutions, University of Utah
- http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/html/sampler_linear_movies.html
- Streaming Media Format and Encoding Matrix (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime, Flash Video at various bandwidths)
- Encoded and posted by MultiMediaPros, Inc.
- http://www.multimediapros.com/encoding.asp (scroll to matrix at bottom of page)
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