How Streaming Video and Audio Work

When the internet first caught on with consumers in the mid-to-late 1990s, people had to buy a modem, hook it up to their computer and a phone line and dial the phone number for their local internet service provider (ISP). Connections were miserably slow.To get more news about moonlive, you can visit official website.

The web was not designed to stream audio or video when it was first created in the 1960s, but enterprising developers found a way to help customers listen to real-live audio and the first live audio streaming event was broadcast on Sept. 5, 1995, for a game between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees. It was novel at first, and there wasn't a lot of long-form content. Between maddeningly slow connections and glitchy software no one was going to sit down to watch a movie on their home computer.

In just a few short years, technologies improved to make streaming video and audio more of an everyday occurrence. Companies like Netflix and Hulu delivered live movies and television. Content creators such as Paramount and Disney started their own video streaming networks, and tech giants like Apple and Amazon joined in. You can watch old classic TV shows or the latest movies on demand.

Streaming audio has matured as well. You can listen to live sports around the world, or turn your computer or smartphone into a custom radio channel with music providers like Deezer, Pandora, and Spotify. People commute to work or the grocery store listening to true-crime podcasts or the latest audiobooks.

In the last decade, audio and video streaming became popular enough to encourage cable and satellite TV providers to "cut the cord" and canceled their cable or satellite TV subscriptions for cheaper streaming options. In June 2021, media research company Nielsen revealed that streaming video has become more popular than over-the-air TV in the United States. Streamers' share of the market was 26 percent to over-the-air TV's 25 percent. That may not seem like much, especially when cable TV still had 39 percent of the market, but streaming media is likely to continue to grow, and cable subscriptions likely to decline.

You may have participated in a live streaming broadcast yourself. During the COVID-19 pandemic many people tuned in for remote meetings or online classes. Tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet can handle live audio and video streaming simultaneously in one broadcast. It's a little like when the telephone companies promised us videophones in the mid-20th century, only better.
If you're brand-new to streaming, you'll need a high-speed internet connection. You'll also need a device to enjoy the video or audio content on — that could be a smartphone, a computer, a tablet or a TV. Computers may be the easiest to set up for streaming. You can access the websites for many streaming video and audio providers and enjoy the media right in your browser window. You may also find a dedicated desktop application for a streaming service.

Although smartphones and tablets have web browsers, you're far more likely to use an app developed specifically for that particular service. If you wanted to watch or listen to a live game in progress, you might open the ESPN app. To hear the news, you might listen to TuneIn Radio, which offers live and recorded broadcasts from all over the world. Many services require paid subscriptions, but many others are ad-supported or completely free. For streaming audio, most people rely either on go to the website of the program in question or to a podcast platform which has a host of programs, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. These can be found on your smartphone.

TVs require hardware to make live streaming connections. Often this is a device you plug into a port on the television such as Roku, Amazon FireStick or Google Chromecast — these are the devices that allow your TV to access the apps for streaming live content. If you have a smart TV, this hardware is already built in. Just turn on your TV, go to the "Apps" section and you'll see an operating system designed to run streaming apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, PlutoTV, YouTube and many more. The most popular apps are usually pre-installed but your device or TV will let you download new apps as well. (If you still subscribe to a cable service, the newer cable boxes allow you to stream videos and apps through them, too.)