Media streaming offers a means of enhancing Web material with eye-catching multimedia broadcasts incorporating audio, video, and animation, and can make corporate events and training more engaging and lively.

Streaming technology can enable the real-time transmission of recorded events, commonly known as "webcasting," and can make it possible to conveniently distribute pre-recorded and pre-edited media on demand. In other words, media that is stored and published on the Web in streaming formats can be made available for access at any time.

Streaming media is normally transmitted by a media server application, and is processed and played back by a client player application, as it is received. A client application, known as player, can start playing back streaming media as soon as enough data has been received without having to wait for the entire file to arrive. As data is transferred, it is temporarily stored in a buffer until enough data has accumulated to be properly assembled into the next sequence of the media stream.

When streaming technology was first available, the ability to begin playback before the entire file had been transferred was a distinct advantage. Now, however, pseudo-streaming techniques, such as progressive download, allow some other formats to begin to play before file download is completed. So, while the ability to begin playback prior to completing file transfer is a characteristic of streaming, it is not, in and of itself, a differentiating factor.

Once a streamed file is received, processed, and played simultaneously and immediately, it leaves behind no residual copy of the content on the receiving device. An important advantage of streaming media (unlike either traditional or progressive download) technology is the copyright protection it provides. No copy of the content is left on the receiving device. Therefore, the recipient can neither alter nor redistribute the content in an unauthorized manner.

Because streaming media has the capacity to offer protected visual and audio content, the service is technically demanding. By hosting streaming content with a service provider, businesses both large and small can greatly reduce multimedia investment costs such as hardware, software, and technical expertise. Since streaming is quite a demanding application, it requires substantial network connectivity. Using a hosting provider makes its much more affordable to push live or recorded content to recipients, since a company can leverage multiple network connections for a fraction of the cost of obtaining redundant connectivity in-house.

With the wide proliferation of consumer electronics such as digital video cameras and "webcams," both large and small businesses can easily create and digitize multimedia content for the Web.

Multiple formats exist for the encoding and transmission of streamed content, including the Real Media (real.com) format and Microsoft's (microsoft.com) Windows Media format.

Smaller companies can record their own content, encode it into one of these formats using specialized software, and upload that content to a streaming server.

The majority of larger hosting companies, such as Interland (interland.com), offer streaming services along with their advanced shared hosting packages. Some hosting companies, such as BigPond (bigpond.com), offer additional packages that offer media streaming capacity. These services enable firms with smaller streaming requirement to upload small video clips or short-format audio programming. These services usually cost between $50 and $150 per month.

Mid-sized firms with more demanding media streaming requirements can opt to deploy streaming media servers on unmanaged dedicated Web hosting systems. Real Media, Microsoft and Nullsoft (nullsoft.com) all offer server software that can be used on dedicated servers. Unmanaged dedicated servers are now priced between $49 and $250 per month. Commercial streaming software can start at $2,000.

Larger firms, in contrast, can afford to own and deploy their own equipment or utilize managed media streaming services. QuickTime Streaming Server and QuickTime Broadcaster are preinstalled on Apple's (apple.com) Xserve server appliance. The appliance provides a complete, integrated solution for broadcasting and streaming multimedia over the Internet. A base Xserve installation would start at $3,000, not including connection and bandwidth fees for network deployment.

Most large firms, however, select a managed streaming solution, so that they do not have to worry about the technical issues associated with running a media server, like maintenance and bandwidth. Larger firms can choose from a wide array of managed providers, including those certified by Microsoft through third-party evaluation.

Hosting providers certified by Microsoft include Globix, Mirror Image Internet, SmartVideo, Speedera Networks, SyncCast, LLC, and T-Systems Media & Broadcast. These hosts have quality Windows Media Sever deployments running on the Windows platforms. Often the use of managed streaming solutions can cost thousands of dollars per month.