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Webcasting, also referred to as audio, video or media streaming, is a generic term for a technology that allows audiences to view television programming or listen to radio programming over the Internet. Webcasting is revolutionizing the television industry because it can be accessed at any time of the day, from any corner of the world, over the Internet. This year the webcasting medium celebrates its fifth birthday. The toddler stage, with all its stumbling with different standards and crawling for bandwidth, is at long last behind us. NYU Libraries' Avery Fisher Center and TV & Media Services, in collaboration with ITS, have finally cut their teeth and successfully executed several live events supporting this technology. Together we continue to prepare ourselves for an unprecedented growth spurt and structural complexity that will transform the technology from a slow and jerky Internet novelty into a major new communications medium.
Bobst Library's Avery Fisher Center and the Television Center first used streaming media in the fall of 1997, when we webcast the proceedings of a Media and Democracy Conference in live audio. We received the analog audio signal over a simple analog telephone line from Cooper Union's Great Hall and plugged it in to a server in Bobst's Electronic Resource Center server room. The next big test of the technology came with Commencement 1998, when we successfully streamed both audio and video. The event was produced in the park in a television production truck and transmitted with microwaves from the truck to a receiver on top of the School of Education Building. Then the signal traveled over fiber optic cable to the Television Center, where it was modulated over the NYU Broadband and then demodulated at the ERC server room for encoding onto the Internet.
Having proven that the technology worked and the team effort was a success, we were ready to move on to a higher level of complexity, which would allow us to expand the audience. NYU Libraries and TV & Media Services have production resources and technical expertise that allow us to ramp up our webcasting services. Campus Media supports live events on campus; the Television Center has high-end video production and post-production tools; and NYU-TV serves as one of the primary vehicles for content delivery to the university community. Lectures, guest speakers and events are staples of NYU-TV programming. However, NYU-TV is normally distributed over Campus Cable and the Broadband system, and cannot be accessed by faculty or students who live off-campus. Due to these constraints, webcasting is the next logical step in distributing NYU broadcast content. The developing NYU Digital Library includes archives and catalogs of these webcasts.
In the fall of 1998, the NYU School of Law's "Strengthening Global Democracy" conference with President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair provided a great opportunity to work with this technology. We worked in conjunction with the White House and an outside vendor to provide the live encoding and large bandwidth required for such a historic event.
When making plans for Commencement 1999, we collaborated with ITS to expand our bandwidth and increase the licensing that would firmly lay the foundation for reliable webcasting services here on campus. Due to its broad appeal, Commencement is the perfect webcasting opportunity. Friends and family who are unable to attend the ceremony in person can log on and watch from anywhere around the world. The webcast was viewed in Japan, South America and several locations in Europe.
Anyone who has ever taken a film, music or language course, or any class requiring the use of media other than print, will certainly recall the inevitable trip to the library to view video or listen to audiotaped educational materials. These materials are an obvious choice for streaming media. In the summer of 1998 the Avery Fisher Center encoded language tapes for French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese in Real Audio and made them available for students over the same ERC server that fall. When ITS set up its industrial-strength server and software early in 1999, the AFC started experimenting with encoding music for class reserves. Fall 1999 saw the first roll-out of music files for Kent Underwood's School of Education course, "The History of Western Music."
We hope to be adding several new music classes in Fall 2000. All music selections are taken from recordings owned by the Avery Fisher Center. We are using Real Audio, encoding the files at 20Kbps (providing acceptable sound over 56K modem dial-up connections). Streaming services for course reserves have been very popular (see {http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/e-reserves/} Replacement URL: http://library.nyu.edu/collections/ereserves.html). During the 1999-2000 academic year, there were 24,341 hits for language and music combined.
The basic architecture needed to disseminate or archive broadcasting material over the Internet is straightforward: a programming source such as a video or audio signal, an encoding station, and a media server. On the receiving end, the minimum requirements to view or hear a webcast are also relatively simple: a computer equipped with a 486 processor, 28.8 kbps modem, 16 megabytes of RAM , a sound card, speakers, and the appropriate software to play streaming media files. The Television Center formats its programming to be viewed using Real Player software, which can be downloaded for free. The TVC's encoding station uses Real Producer G2 software to encode media files. Analog video (such as videotape) can be encoded, or video already digitized as MPEG, AVI, and Quicktime may be converted to RealVideo for streaming.
Webcast images piped over existing phone lines at 28 kilobits per second are often jerky and slow; allowing only 10 to 12 frames per second. Because broadcast television is delivered at 30 frames per second, this disparity becomes even more accentuated when viewing a program with a lot of movement, such as a sporting event, although it is acceptable for panel discussions and lectures. Soon, however, with the commercialization of broadband-type technology coupled with the exponential growth of the Internet's audience, these shortcomings will be a thing of the past.
The synergy that webcasting creates between audio-video content, publicity and distribution makes it invaluable for our educational purposes. Our success with past events can serve as a model for delivering NYU conferences, lectures and events to the NYU community and even beyond, to those who can't otherwise attend due to space, location and time constraints. Unlike past content delivery systems that are confined to physical spaces and specific time slots, webcasting allows immediate and convenient access to education, information and entertainment material 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The digital library of the future will include sound and sight.
Although at present webcasting may not offer the same broadcasting quality as satellite or cable television, it has already surpassed these other technologies in affordability and ease of use. Webcasting and streaming media is on a parallel gestation track with the evolution of the Internet. Television is shedding its analog cocoon and quickly developing the digital wings that will allow us to continue servicing the video and audio demands of the University in the Internet age.
For further information on webcasting or NYU-TV, contact Jose Calero of the Television Center at 998-5168. To view archived materials, consult www.nyu.edu/nyutv/, and click on "online events." For more information on digital reserves, call the Avery Fisher Center at 998-2534. 
Posted September 22, 2000. Revised February 23, 2004.
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