While Microsoft and RealNetworks
provide alternative proprietary direct linking
methods for linking their media formats, these
methods do not preserve the full integrity and
features of their standard “reference file”
method. PlayStream’s easy linking service
preserves each format’s full capabilities,
like streaming via UDP, the preferred protocol
for streaming and play-list management capability.
For Apple’s QuickTime users, they do not
have the option of a direct linking method until
now, with PlayStream’s easy link service.
Prior to this technology, QuickTime developers
had to create separate “reference movies,”
that “point” to QuickTime media “hinted”
for streaming, and they also needed to understand
and implement <embed> tags into their HTML
that linked to the QuickTime “reference
movie” file and then hope that their ISP
had properly configured the MIME types on their
Web server. Now, anyone with a PlayStream Account
can email a streaming QuickTime clip over the
Internet by typing a simple hyperlink.
PlayStream’s easy linking service not only
preserves each format’s full capabilities,
but it extends these capabilities with new features,
all integrated into a unified, simple link. Its
modular architecture allows for PlayStream to
roll out future technologies that will empower
our customers with new options and services. For
example, our “Ad-insertion” module
enables customers to establish and manage “pre-clip”
and “post-clip” streaming ad-insertion,
regardless where the streaming advertisement resides;
in your PlayStream account or at your ad agency.
This means that PlayStream customers can easily
integrate streaming commercials from outside ad
agencies with a level of simplicity unmatched
in the Industry—with simple point-and-click
ease.
PlayStream customers have the option to link their
media through each format’s proprietary
linking method or through PlayStream’s easy
linking service, or any combination of both. Customers
who desire to forego the creation and management
of separate reference files, without sacrificing
features or capabilities of that format, will
appreciate PlayStream’s easy linking service.
This technology also enables RealNetworks’
RealMedia, Microsoft’s WindowsMedia and
Apple Computer’s QuickTime media to stream
without any MIME type configuration required on
your Web server by your ISP, an issue that our
Technical Support department encounters quite
frequently with our customers. The technology
also works with embedding streaming media into
Web pages or email (in HTML).
PlayStream’s easy linking service is a combination
of technology and service. The technology is a
stand-alone application that operates as a separate
server. PlayStream operates multiple linking servers,
and then load-balances these servers to provide
for 99.9% maximum “uptime.” By linking
to our cluster of PlayStream linking servers,
customers are able to forgo the “client”
side process of managing streaming media reference
files, and pass that task over to the “server”
side, where our service automatically handles
the linking translation and conversion. PlayStream’s
linking service then redirects the streaming media
link, which is now in the appropriate format’s
proprietary method, to PlayStream’s Small Business Services streaming
servers, which are also load-balanced for maximum
“up-time.” PlayStream has filed a
patent application for its easy linking technology. |