Re: FN-FORUM WOW! .TV

date posted 20th July 2001 23:15

> what i mean is that a connection to the internet has a certain upload
speed
> and certain download speed, so what upload speed is required for a server
to
> successfully serve streaming media to a small audience - maybe 10 hits per
> day?

Unfortunately the news is not good. You need to make sure that the maximum
number of users to visit your site can all have access to your streaming
media. Otherwise your site will just not be a 'hit'.

The bandwidth (upstream) required can be calculated like this:

Maximum number of concurrent users * bandwidth of streaming media

Example: 100 users * 56K

Although 56K should not be encoded higher than 34 Kbps, if you use 56K then
you have some contingency built in.

If you have multiple bit-rates, then you need to do a little guestimate.

You can of course after a period of time look at your stats and fine-tune
this, but by then you would have signed some sort of longish term agreement
with your ISP, so getting it right from the start is quite important.

Also, Real Server licences are based on number of concurrent users. That's
also quite pricey.

If you use broadband streams encoded at 300Kbps and higher then things get
quite scary.

I programmed a streaming media calculator in VB, so calculating is very
quick. Let me know if you want some figures.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Willie Jordaan
Audio-Visual, Multimedia & Interactive Producer.
http://www.interactivefreelancer.com
Phone: + 44 (0) 7932 087 353 Fax: +44 (0) 870 136 4058