Incorporate video into your network
Considering the large number of video-related products I've reviewed in the past few months, I should be fed up with video solutions. But every time I start to feel bored, a cool new product arrives for me to review. This month, two products held my attention: EMULive Imaging's suite of tools you can use to create, edit, and broadcast video; and AIMS Lab's VideoHighway Xtreme 98 (VHX 98), a combination FM radio receiver, television tuner, and video capture card.
EMULive's video suite has market appeal, because it doesn't require users to install proprietary players on client systems. And this software suite is robust with features that let you create and distribute video streams across your network.
The "98" in VHX 98 might scare you, because products developed for Windows 98 can offer limited functionality on Windows NT. However, the software and drivers work well, and VHX 98 offers great functionality, including the flexibility to capture television video streams for broadcast across your network.
EMULive Video Suite
EMULive's suite of video products includes 13 applications for creating, converting, and editing video content and distributing content to users. Each EMULive application includes tip menus that contain helpful hints and tricks. I found these insights a valuable complement to the applications' online documentation.
EMULive's tools use a proprietary codec to broadcast audio, video, and audio-visual streams to end users. Users viewing a unicast stream don't need a Microsoft MediaPlayer or RealNetworks RealPlayer to watch an EMULive stream, nor do they need to use the EMULive Active Theatre media player. EMULive streams include a small Java applet, so users can view unicast EMULive video transmissions with any Java-compatible browser.
EMULive Server. EMULive Server can simultaneously broadcast 20 video and 20 audio streams and as many as 1000 unicast streams (i.e., single-user streams that give individual users pause, fast-forward, and rewind control).
To transmit a live stream to very large audiences, EMULive Server supports multicasting. In multicasting, a server sends a data stream on one IP address; thus, all systems on a network can access the stream without hampering network bandwidth. A multicast stream plays continuously from beginning to end, unless an administrator intervenes, and users can't pause, fast-forward, or rewind a multicast stream. To ensure multicast stream quality, EMULive Server lets you limit the number of router hops a multicast stream must make. Unlike viewers watching a unicast stream, users must use EMULive's client software, EMULive Active Theatre, to view an EMULive multicast stream.
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