Wi-Fi and Streaming Media Presented By: John Mahramas “Comm. 115”

Why Streaming Media? I choose streaming media because, it play an important roll in today’s internet use. We can watch T.V., listen to radio stations online, and movies as well. People no longer have to go sit down and pop in a CD or turn on the T.V. they can do it from the comfort of their computer. I have learned that recently a new type of streaming media has been introduced and it is known as WI-FI, it is a system where you can connect from virtually anywhere with and it will be used to handle the high latency's and large conference rooms where literally thousands of people are streaming.

My View I have learned an astonishing amount about wireless and streaming media. That it was considered useless when it first came out due to certain computer hardware issues. Where I stand on the issue of streaming media is a bewildered one. I have been raised in a media generation where computers and T.V practically we thrive off of it sometimes. In the waves of generations of kids to come, I think they will grow up in front of the glow of a computer screen. I believe that T.V. shows and educational programming can and possibly will be streamed with in the next few years making it the new Learning and T.V. center.

The Beginning Of Streaming Media. In the mid 80’s and early 90’s streaming media was introduced as a way to listen to audio and video, but only high end computers could do this. Most of the home owned computers could not do this. This was due to the fact that the CPU’s could not hold the bandwidth and the stream would not go through, or collapse. There was also never enough bandwidth to hold or establish a primary connection. But during the mid 90’s something happened streaming begin to work. More advanced hardware came about and bandwidth became more available, networks were becoming bigger, more bandwidth was available to the user, now making them able to stream easier and get easier feeds.

The New Trend Of Streaming Media, Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is the concept that is similar to LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (World Area Network). But it is known as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) it was originally intended for mobile wireless devices, and is still used for laptops but primarily wireless computers and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which is an online phone, and a program called Skype uses this. The reason Wi-Fi is connected to streaming is because it uses the same radio signals that are used during streaming. But the difference is when you stream your should be plugged into the network physically to get a better quality, Wi-Fi can have its wireless radio signals interrupted. Also because so many people connect, to a network or server to stream Wi-Fi also acts as a sort of conference room to handle the high latency's that people have on their networks. It almost acts as a buffer so that high latency streamers can still stream.

Conclusion Streaming media is something that will soon become an everyday part of our lives. New ways of buying CD’s on iTunes now is that the songs are streamed into your library. Videos can now be streamed into your computers network as well. Its amazing how far we have come technologically. I have learned that streaming media is the future and I see how the generations to come will learn, they will be set up at a computer screen where they will most likely learn infinite amounts of knowledge. Streaming media is the future of T.V., Education, Music and movies and proabably many more things to come as we advance further technologically. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. A link to the best web page in the universe the John Mahrams WebpageJohn Mahrams Webpage