Multimedia Playback

Abstract

The desire to use the Internet to broadcast audio and video to consumers has been around almost as long as the Web itself. Multimedia browser plug-ins, usually restricted to certain audio and video formats developed by certain manufacturers, and streaming servers to provide content to these plug-ins, have been around for several years. In recent times, format-specific plug-ins have been shunned by many web developers, who have opted to use the Adobe Flash Player browser plug-in, largely due to its proliferation. Flash Player boasts an installed user base of around 99% of Internet-connected browsers (according to Adobe’s own statistics at http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/) and is available for Windows, Mac, Solaris, and Linux platforms.