Bandwidth and streaming are two pieces of techno-babble that you could be hearing a lot of.
Bandwidth is the amount of information you can get to or from your PC and the Internet. Imagine that your PC is an empty swimming pool, and that the information being transferred to it is water. If you only have a garden hose it will take ages to fill up, but if you had a big fat pipe connected directly to the water main, it would fill very quickly. For a computer that is where Jetstream, and Paradise Broadband come in.
What are they? Basically they are trade names for fast access to the Internet. You can get Jetstream from various Internet providers like Xtra’s Jetstart, while Paradise Broadband is available only to Saturn customers.
Why would you require more bandwidth? Using more bandwidth will make web pages appear on your screen in seconds not minutes. MP3s download about 3 times as fast.Large video files come down in minutes not hours. A 15Mb file would take about 1 hours with a 56K modem, but with more bandwidth you could be watching in a minimum of 2minutes.
You get the most from your bandwidth by using streaming. With web pages only what you see on the page is transmitted to your PC, but with streaming there is a constant flow to your computer from the Internet.
So if you are fed up with the same old stuff on the radio? Let the Internet, and streaming bring you the world. Listen to BBC Radio 1,2,3,4 or the World Service, ABC from Australia, CBC from Canada, or National Public Radio from America. Perhaps you are an immigrant and want to catch up on local news from Iran, or Korea. Maybe you are a sportsfan, it’s all there for the taking.
If radio is not to your liking. No worries, video is available as well. CNN and the BBC provide video newscasts. At wwitv.com you will find links to live TV from Angola to Yugoslavia, orwww.freespeech.org provides an open minded view of world events. Even the Catholic Church has an Internet TV and Radio site.
It’s not only the existing broadcasters who make use of the Internet. There are Internet-only-casters who provide an alternative view of the world. www.antennaradio.com provides music for marginal tastes, whether it be classical, hillbilly or even psychedelic rock. In Australia there is www.digitalone.com.au providing everything from news to sport to music. For heavy metal fans there is www.hardradio.com.
In the spirit of the Internet even the amateur can, and does, do it. live365 provides links to anyone that streams music.
All of these sites have produced a new bred of search engine, radiotower, Internetradiolist, and radio-locator all let you search for that elusive station that plays Klingon opera 24/7. At broadcast.com you can not only find radio and TV sites listed, but also select whole CDs and audio books to listen to and videos to watch.
What software do you need for all of this? If you have Windows you are already likely to have either the Windows Media Player or Real Player. Both are free to download if you haven’t got them already.
Where is this growing bandwidth and streaming going to lead? Imagine a time when allergy screen TV and hi-fi in your lounge is connected to an extremely large storage device. In turn this is connected to a computer that knows which programmes and music you like. The computer seeks them out on the Internet and downloads them tithe storage device. When you are ready, not when the TV stations say you have to,you can watch the news, or the latest Brad Pitt movie, or listen to the new CD by The Mambo Rambo All Stars. Maybe watch the Robbie Williams concert live, or the English FA Cup Final as it happens.
All of which leads to the question – Will TV and radio exist as we know it? Maybe not, see kerbango and replay.
