Why the Basics are Important

The simplicity and relatively low cost of entry into streaming media is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it's great that anyone can be an Internet broadcaster (CARP issues notwithstanding). On the other, the quality of online programming can often range from bad to worse.

The problem lies in the fact that most streaming media producers don't have a background in media production and may not be all that clear on the other issues involved. To complicate matters, the world of streaming media progresses at such a rapid rate that most folks are more concerned with staying ahead of the curve rather than understanding the underlying technology.

For example, it won't do you any good testing the latest video encoding software if you don't know how to produce high quality source material. However, if you understand how streaming media encoding software works, you'll be able to use this knowledge to make wiser decisions during the creation and encoding of your streaming media programming.

The importance of understanding the basics applies to the entire streaming media production chain:

• Understanding how audio and video equipment works enables you to produce higher quality source material
• Understanding how audio and video codecs work enables you to encode the highest quality programming for your intended audience
• Understanding the differences between browser implementations enables you to showcase your programming on HTML pages that render correctly across a range of browsers
• Understanding the strains that streaming media places on servers enables you to implement an infrastructure that is up to the task of streaming live events

Over the next year, this column will roughly follow the structure of the book, and cover a number of topics in each phase of the streaming media production process. In the book, streaming media production is broken down into four main phases: creation, encoding, authoring, and serving. I'll try to cover a number of helpful points in each phase. Tentative future column titles include Audio Production: It's all about Level, Video Production: It's all about Light, Codecs Don't Have Eyes or Ears, and Cross Platform Authoring Techniques.

This is an interactive column - if you have suggestions for a subject, please drop me an email and I'll see what I can do. I'll also try to tackle recurring problems and feature them in columns.

Streaming media is a multi-disciplinary field, which makes it tricky to master. In fact most organizations will likely have the streaming media production chain split across multiple departments. Regardless of whether you're a programming executive who wants to better understand the medium, or an audio engineer, or a network administrator tasked with architecting the server structure, the final product benefits when we all understand how the various pieces of the puzzle fit together.

In my years as a streaming media pioneer, evangelist, instructor, creative director, and executive producer, I have come to believe that the most important thing we must do as an industry is produce programming that is every bit as good as anything else available to our audience. The traditional broadcast mediums, such as television and radio, have well-defined standards and years of experience to fall back on. We must look to our fellow broadcasters and learn from them. With our field changing as rapidly as it does, re-inventing the wheel is both time-consuming and foolish - which brings us right back to the basics.

Next Month: Streaming Media Production - Equipment Does Matter