Re: bandwidth (and other support) required for multicast

[Henning G. Schulzrinne]

"Ole J. Jacobsen" wrote:
> 
> Just out of curiosity: Why aren't we using something like a RealAudio
> stream? This seems to work well for everything from radio stations to
> ICANN meetings. I know it only works ONE way, but I also know that
> "questions from the multicast audience" are rarely heard anyway.
> 
> The thing about Real (and I guess the Windows Media Player) is that it is
> widely available and used, while the multicast tools seem tied to
> high-end workstations. Maybe that's just my impression?
> 

There are two parts to this question: codec and retrieval mechanism.
RealAudio supports RTSP, an Internet (proposed) standard, and RTP, as
long as you use non-Real-proprietary codecs. Theoretically, they should
interwork with other similar tools, such as QuickTime. It should be
possible to get implementations for all platforms that are not exotic
(e.g., Amiga or OS9). We (and others) offer free servers for modest
streaming loads.

-- 
Henning Schulzrinne   http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs