SENATE HEARINGS BEGIN LIVE STREAMING BROADCAST
[Photo courtesy of ZEITBYTE DIGITAL MEDIA AT Zeitbyte Digital Media Logo:]
MANILA, NOVEMBER 26, 2010 (STAR) By Marvin Sy - For the first time in the country's history, anyone with access to the Internet can now watch what goes on in Congress.
The Senate has begun live streaming over the Internet of its sessions, starting with the plenary debates on the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2011.
Apart from promoting transparency and accountability on the part of the legislature, the public broadcasting of the sessions of the Senate would also educate the public, particularly students who want to witness what goes on in the halls of Congress.
The broadcast appears to still be in the testing stage as the live stream occasionally goes down.
But on the few occasions that the server was up, visitors of the Senate website were able to witness the deliberations on the proposed budget of the Department of Education, which went on for most of the day.
It was Sen. Francis Pangilinan who pushed for the live streaming of the sessions when he filed Senate Resolution No. 53 last July.
In his resolution, Pangilinan said that the live feed from the Senate, without editing or commentary, will provide accurate information to the public.
"Opening public proceedings to new media of late has become a vital source of interaction not only in the country but in other countries' government as well," Pangilinan said.
"Our aim is to provide the public in general accurate information, transparency and accountability of legislators in the proceedings in the Senate. This is also aligned with the goals of the Aquino administration of having the public participate in governance," he added.
While admitting that a lot of the sessions involve debates between legislators about certain measures, he said that it is just one of the aspects of their duties.
"Now the public can see and judge for themselves how their elected officials are doing their jobs," Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan noted that live streaming of the proceedings of Congress has been done in the United States and in Canada.
He said that the streaming and recording of the Senate proceedings would encourage greater participation from the public.
"It is a known fact that most of the time, issues and discussions raised during the plenary sessions and committee hearings/meetings are misinterpreted, which cause unnecessary confusion to the public," he said.
To access the live streaming of the Senate proceedings, visit the Senate website at www.senate.gov.ph <http://www.senate.gov.ph/> and click on the live webcast link on the page.
PHNO EXPLAINS USING THE STREAMING MEDIA HOSTING TECHNOLOGY:
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user (Home computer users) while being delivered by a streaming provider like Streaming Media Hosting.
The name, streaming media refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. The distinction is usually applied to media that are distributed over telecommunications networks, as most other delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g., radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g., books, video cassettes, audio CDs).
The verb 'to stream' is also derived from this term, meaning to deliver media in this manner. Internet television is a commonly streamed medium.
Live streaming, more specifically, means taking the video and broadcasting it live over the Internet. The process involves a camera for the video, an encoder to digitize the content, a video publisher where the streams are made available to potential end-users and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. The media can then be viewed by end-users live.
Security remains one of the main challenges with this new methodology. Digital rights management (DRM) systems are an example of a solution to keep this content secure.
[More o comparison of streaming media systems at this link below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_streaming_media_systems]
Streaming is a term too often used incorrectly. When trying to describe how Flash video and music can be delivered to your website, there are actually two very different methods of media delivery you need to know about; HTTP, or "Progressive Download" which is cached in the browser of a viewer before if can be played, and RTMP which is not cached in the browser and is actually true "Streaming". These are two very different methods of media delivery which can dramatically impact both cost and user experience.
HTTP Live Streaming for Apple Devices
With HTTP Live Streaming for the iPhone and Quicktime: "HTTP Live Streaming allows you to send live or prerecorded audio and video to iPhone or other devices, such as iPod touch or desktop computers, using an ordinary Web server. Playback requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later on devices running iPhone OS; QuickTime X or later is required on the desktop.
RTMP stands for "Real Time Messaging Protocol". It is a proprietary protocol developed by Adobe Systems for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and a server. The following RTMP servers are the most popular and they are all supported by this streaming plugin: Wowza Media Server; Open Source Red5 server; Adobe's Flash Media Server, FMS.
MICROSOFT'S new Silverlight browser plug-in allows you to see the IIS Smooth Streaming player. (If Silverlight is not installed, please install it when prompted. Here is the URL for MS Silverlight browser http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/ ) Please check the specs requirement to make sure you have enough memory, etc. We recommend to use Silverlight on Windows 7 only.
If the Internet bandwidth and video rendering capability on your playback device are sufficiently high, you'll experience high-definition video playback of the sample content. You will also be able to simulate end user experiences under varying conditions by simulating drops and recoveries in bandwidth.
If your actual bandwidth is below 3 Mbps, or your playback device is video-challenged, then you will experience the adaptive nature of Smooth Streaming without needing to simulate a bandwidth cap. Click the link below to watch a demo on how MICROSOFT Silverlight IIS Smooth Streaming works:
http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming
What is Live Event Streaming?
Live Event Streaming allows a user to broadcast a live event in real time on the Internet. This capability is one of the most unique and exciting applications of streaming media technology.
Only Streaming Media allows a user to do a live broadcast or webcast in real time on the Internet.
Not only is the very concept of doing a live webcast an exciting and often perfect solution, it is also relatively easy to do: webcasting live can be accomplished by simply having a webcam or digital camera, a laptop or home computer, appropriate cabling, some free software, and a modest broadband connection.
Put all the elements together, and you are online live! At the other extreme, professional productions such as major music or sporting events can be broadcast to tens of thousands of viewers via their web browsers.
Successful Broadcasts: A successful Live Streaming Event broadcast requires planning and testing in order to maximize the viewer experience. Your Live Streaming Event should be viewed by each one of your audience members without any difficulties whatsoever in the highest quality possible.
In order to reach the widest possible audience as you stream your Live Event, you will need to take into account three key factors:
- Network Capacity - Server Capacity - Audience Capabilities
Network Capacity: Before your Live Event you will need to determine the maximum upload speed of the Internet connection at the location of the Live Event Broadcast. What type of connection is available at the location? Has the connection been in place for a period of time and tested? Is there redundancy for the Internet connection or a backup Internet connection should the first one not work? What is the maximum upload speed for the connection?
Server Capacity: At Streaming Media Hosting our Live Event Broadcast cluster utilizes multiple hardware load-balanced servers with connections to our OC-192 backbone. Utilizing Microsoft Windows 2003 and RedHat our Live Event Broadcast cluster can handle even the toughest load.
Audience Capabilities: Before your Live Event Broadcast you will also want to fully evaluate the connection capabilities of your audience. Do most of your users have broadband or dial-up connections? Do they run Windows or Apple based computers? What media players do they have installed on their computers? With Streaming Media Hosting you can reach every member of your audience with our wide array of supported formats and our Tier-1 OC-192 backbone.
Follow-up: After your broadcast you may wish to follow up with summary data of your event and/or you may also wish to ensure that the event impact is still viable long after the event is over.
Streaming Media Hosting has several key services to offer. To measure what kind of impact your broadcast event had in terms of audience reach and viewer numbers, you can view statistical and metric analysis to determine data such as numbers and geographical location of viewers. Streaming Media Hosting can also assist you to develop follow-up e-mails, surveys and web sites to make sure your event impact was delivered and retained. SOURCE: STREAMING MEDIA AT http://www.streamingmediahosting.com/index.htm
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