Streaming Media - 2008 Industry Sourcebook - (Page 121) high time HD a priority. The bitrate race may have slowed down, but as high-definition online video has become a reality, publishers and CDNs are making by Geoff Daily f or years, a video's bitrate was worn as a badge of honor. With streaming graduating from the postage stamp to the playing card, higher quality was the competitive edge that everyone strived for but too often failed to achieve due to immature delivery technology and an immature broadband marketplace. But in the last couple of years the drive toward higher quality seemed to slow, and bitrates began to plateau. First around 300Kbps for baseline, acceptable-quality video. Then at 500Kbps for getting-pretty-good, high-frame rate video. Settling in around 750Kbps for best-of-breed video that looked OK full-screen. While bitrates flattened, the last 2 years have seen an exponential rise in the connectivity available to millions of users. 5Mbps is now common, and more and more users are gaining access to 10Mbps-plus, with the potential for 100Mbps fiber-powered speeds on the way. Internet video is rapidly moving from an era of bandwidth scarcity to one of overabundance. The streaming industry is racing to find ways to fill these pipes with a host of technology companies developing new offerings to support high-quality delivery of fullscreen video, including high-definition. (For a discussion of what exactly qualifies as HD, see the sidebar "What Exactly Is HD?") And with this higher quality, demand for online video should continue to increase, both in terms of the number of people wanting to watch and the willingness of viewers to watch for a longer period of time. But within all this opportunity and promise lies potential hazards and the uncertain realities of being on the cutting edge of any technology. How can I deliver full-screen HD video? How might it impact my business? How can I balance the promise with the reality? What are the pitfalls I'd be wise to avoid? WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM 121 buyer’s guide http://WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM
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