Information Technology Services

Audience

Whether your target audience is restricted to a classroom or expansive enough to attract international users, it is important to know a few things about encoding rates and window sizing.

When a user clicks on a link to access the streaming media, it will "encode" at a defined data rate. The objective is to find the optimum data rate that best fits the user's connection speed. Streaming media can be viewed on every connection level from dial-up (56kbps) to T1 Broadband (500kbps). If the media will be restricted to on-campus users only, then the compressor can optimize a high data rate. However, if you have commuting students trying to access the material from home, you should be prepared to have multiple encoding rates. Excluding dial-up connections, most cable Internet services work at a decent level of broadband. Information Technology Services suggests encoding between 100kbps-300kbps to keep quality and size at a premium.

The window size refers to the size of the loaded media player. These dimensions are pre-set by the compressing consultant based upon the client's request. It is important to remember that a larger window does not always produce a better image. The bigger the window needs to be, the higher encoding rate needed to support the detail. It is possible to have a larger window stream within a minimal data rate, but the image quality will suffer greatly. Use the chart below as a reference guide to help determine what system best meets your objectives.

NOTE: Frame Rate is measured in "frames per second." Standard video and television run at 30 fps, while motion picture film will run at 24 fps.