31/07/2014
What do we need to host multimedia content on our server :
If we want to have multimedia files (i.e. sound or video files) on our website, we may need to take special considerations when choosing our hosting provider. There are basically two methods of putting multimedia files on the website:
1. Individual files: If we want to put our collection of small music files or video clips, we can simply put them on our server as individual files and provide links to them from our web page. People will be able to download them and play from their hard disk. If the files are small and our site is not specifically oriented towards serving multimedia content, this is the option for us. We do not need to take any additional precautions, just make sure we fit in our provider's storage and bandwidth requirements.
2. Streaming: If we want to set up Internet radio, or put large video files on our server, we should consider streaming. It's the option where users can connect to our server and play our content just as if they tuned to radio or TV station. It is much better suited for multimedia oriented sites. However, our server must have special software installed on it in order to handle streaming. We should check with our hosting provider if it supports streaming.
When we choose to host multimedia content, we need to be careful about our bandwidth requirements. Multimedia tends to consume lots of bandwidth, especially when we plan to make our site popular.