Create your own Photoshop Actions
By MP3 Sound | December 3, 2008
Looking at how powerful Photoshop can be in terms of photo editing, it’s probably not important if you suck at taking photographs or being labeled an amateur photographer. As long as you pick up a couple of Photoshop photo editing skills, it will still impress those who see it.
Once you have mastered some techniques then you can make an action to replicate it at any time.
Photoshop actions are the best — they save time and make you more productive during post-processing. They can be used to speed up repetitive tasks, make quick work of time consuming edits, and give you a little creative inspiration.
So let’s get to it — open up Photoshop and follow along!
1. FIND YOUR ACTIONS PALETTE
Before you can do anything, you need to have the right tools in front of you. Make sure that your actions palette is activated and visible. It typically shows up as a tab on the history palette, but this may vary depending on your workspace.
If your actions palette is nowhere to be found, you can activate it under the “Window” menu. Once you do this, you should see a palette similar to the one in this photo. If you don’t have any actions defined yet, you’ll probably just see the “Default Actions” set.
Sets are a way to group actions as you see fit. To create a new set, pull down the palette menu and click “New Set…”. Give your new set a descriptive name. Also note that when you import and export actions, it’s the whole set rather than a single action.
2. CREATE A NEW ACTION
OK, you’ve got some sequence of events you want to record and you’re ready to start the action. As an example, I’ll walk through my “Flickr Horizontal” action that I mentioned in the teaser post.
Before we can begin recording the action, we’ll need to create the action. Pull down the action menu and click on “New Action…”. Give it a name and a keyboard shortcut if you want. Now we have a new empty action that we can record to.
3. BEGIN RECORDING THE ACTION
To begin recording the action, simply select your action in the palette and click on the “Record” icon in the lower action menu or select “Start Recording” from the pull-down menu. Once you click this button, every event you perform will be recorded. This includes menu items, adjustments, layer selections, and any of the Photoshop tools.
There’s no need to hurry through your sequence of events, because the action is not time based. If you’re not doing something to the image, it won’t be recorded. So take your time and get it right.
4. DO YOUR STUFF
Now do whatever it is that you wanted to do. Perform all the tasks, clicks, option settings, and image adjustments that you want included in your action.
If you mess something up or if you accidentally skip a step — don’t worry. After recording the action you can go back and edit the steps, add steps, and re-record steps.
5. COMPLETE THE ACTION
So once you’re done with the sequence, its time to stop the action. Just press the “Stop” button at the bottom of the action palette and Photoshop will stop recording.
For some actions, this is the end of the road. But many of my actions are set to require input from the user at specific points along the way.
6. TEST AND REFINE
I usually don’t get my actions right the first time around unless they’re extremely simple. I find that if I run a few different Photoshop files through the action, I usually uncover some mistakes or find the need to insert additional steps to ensure the action runs smoothly. If you find a mistake with one of your steps, just select that step and “Record Again” (via the pull-down menu). Or if you want to re-order some steps, just drag them up or down the list until they land where you want them.
I’ve also noted a few quirks about running actions, such as error messages that can occur if something is not possible to complete. Or the fact that working with multiple files, renaming layers, and selecting layers are cumbersome tasks with actions because Photoshop is looking for specific file names or layer names each time the action is run.
For complex actions, what you’ll end up with are a few extra steps that ensure a robust action that can handle many different files. But hey, it’s an action — who cares?
IDEAS FOR ACTIONS
So… I think that covers the basics of how to create an action in Photoshop. If I missed something or if I didn’t explain something well enough, let me know and we can follow-up in the comments.
These action things are great, but what can you do with them? It can be hard to think of those repetitive tasks when you’re not performing them, so I’ll share a few of my action needs. I would say that my actions are grouped into three main categories: administrative tasks, specific tasks, and creative boosts. Here are a few of the actions in my arsenal.
ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS
These are things that will drive you nuts because they’re no fun at all. Like every time you want to save a JPEG or TIFF file. Or every time you want to downsize for Flickr or email. I use actions to speed up the process and prevent me from making mistakes.
* Resizing and saving for specific destinations
* Basic adjustment layer setups
* Converting color space and bit depth
SPECIFIC TASKS
Actions are good for little items that consist of a few steps. By using an action, it not only bypasses the need to click on menus or type keyboard shortcuts, but it also allows you to set default values that you commonly use.
So all you Photoshop gurus out there, pipe up and give us more examples of what can be done with these things. What are some of your most useful actions that you couldn’t live without?
Topics: Streaming Audio | No Comments »
Using Mp3 Sound to embed in Wordpress Blogs
By MP3 Sound | November 14, 2008
With the introduction of the new Wordpress 2.6 it is now easier than ever to add streaming audio using MP3 Sound Stream to your Wordpress blog.
Step 1.
Create your audio using a free program like audacity.
I like to create my audio at 44.100 by 96 hz which is usually the default setting and allows MP3 Sound Stream to do the converting and get the best results.
Step 2.
Use MP3 Sound Stream to convert the audio you made with Audacity and create the files needed which are 2 swf files and one htm file.
Step 3.
Now upload the 2 swf files to the server where your wordpress is hosted and make sure the two files are in the root where your blog is loaded.
Step 4.
Now open the htm file that the software created with a text editor or your favorite html editor like front page etc and copy the code into the html area of the post or page where you want the audio to be played.
Special Note: The code is very configerable so if you want to put the files somewhere else on your server then just put in an absolute link to the file in two places in the code in Red. Also you can change the size of the player by changing the attributes in the code also in red.
The first reference in red is for Internet Explored and the second references after the embed tag is for all other browsers.
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And so now you can use MP3 Sound Stream for unique streaming audio in both webpages and wordpress blogs.
Hope this helps.
Topics: Articles | No Comments »
Recording audio for Mp3 Sound Stream and streaming
By MP3 Sound | October 25, 2008
The first audio we will look at recording is a talking file. We will then look at recording or adding a music file.
Preparation
In making recordings, the goal is always to get a clear, undistorted speech signal with as little noise as possible.
Noise that will detract from or ruin signal quality for acoustic analysis can include:
* Any kind of environmental noise
* Speaker movement, especially if movement impacts the microphone or an object close to the microphone
* Voice overlap between speakers
* Noise from the computer system during transfer to computer
The best way to minimize environmental noise is to record in a sound-proofed or sound-treated room. To reduce the effects of noise in an ordinary room:
* Choose a quiet location
* Cover large reverberant surfaces with blankets or cloths
* Unplug electrical appliances
* Close doors and windows
* Turn off lights and fans or air conditioning
* Remove anything that ticks, buzzes, bangs, rattles, squeaks, hisses, or otherwise makes itself heard
* Always make a one minute black recording to see if there are any noises you have missed.
* Make sure you log off any software application like chat programs etc. There is nothing worse than almost getting to the end of your recording and your mail or chat program pipes in with a ding or what ever.
When recording speech form texts it is usually possible to satisfy all, or most of the above conditions. However, to record speech in "natural" situations, speakers often must be allowed to move around and interact with other people, with objects, or with their surroundings. This makes it substantially more difficult to get optimal recording quality.
10 Tips For Public Speaking - Toastmasters
Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and healthy. It shows you care about doing well. But, too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here’s how you can control your nervousness and make effective, memorable presentations:
* Know the room. Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
* Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.
* Know your material. If you’re not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.
* Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.
* Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.
* Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don’t want you to fail.
* Don’t apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience’s attention to something they hadn’t noticed. Keep silent.
* Concentrate on the message — not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.
* Turn nervousness into positive energy. Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm
* Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking.
Things I do.
* I write down my talk and then crop it back. When you write it down and practice saying it out loud you will find you can get rid of a lot of useless stuff.
* I make sure I speak a little slower than I would normally speak.
* Write it down and then edit it over and over again till you get a nice distinct piece of script that is suitable for what you are wanting to convey. In most cases more is not better. Use the Keep It Simple Strategy (Kiss)
* I separate my talk into sections so I can edit it more easily.
* I try and do it in one sitting and then go back and edit the audio file for example: if I make a blunder (I make a lot) then I just do that bit again and leave a bit of a blank space and keep going. When I have finished I can go back and edit the audio file deleting all the blunders.
* I also try and get a good piece of music to put in the background to take some of the emphasis off just my voice. Be aware of copyright laws with this.
When I am talking I try and think happy thoughts so the feeling of the talk will have the right flow and feeling. Your voice will project a little bit of your character so be expressive and enjoy it. This is probably the biggest secret of doing your own audio.
Tips on delivery:
* Make it conversational rather than professional. What some people consider professional often resembles theatre type acting (which seems fake). Where as conversational speaking resembles movie type acting (which seems real).
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* Be you. That doesn’t mean you remain where you are without making improvement. But optimize what you presently possess. Most of what people consider detriments (poor voice, not funny, etc.) can be developed into advantages.
Pace Tip
* Develop awareness. You should be able to feel your pace and sense when you’re going too fast or too slow. Feel your breathing and your heart rate internally as you speak.
* Use pauses to highlight your point and also to add a little variety.
Last but not least is vary your tone so people will stay interested. Exaggerate your voice a little and it will sound so much better. This means increase and decrease the volume a little and be a little expressive in your talk.
How is sound recorded?
A microphone consists of a small membrane that is free to vibrate, along with a mechanism that translates movements of the membrane into electrical signals. (The exact electrical mechanism varies depending on the type of microphone.) So acoustical waves are translated into electrical waves by the microphone.
Typically, higher pressure corresponds to higher voltage, and vice versa.
A tape recorder translates the waveform yet again - this time from an electrical signal on a wire, to a magnetic signal on a tape. When you play a tape, the process gets performed in reverse, with the magnetic signal transforming into an electrical signal, and the electrical signal causing a speaker to vibrate, usually using an electromagnet.
How is sound recorded digitally?
Recording onto a tape is an example of analogue recording. We will be dealing mainly with digital recordings - recordings that have been sampled so that they can be used by a digital computer, like the one you’re using now. Digital recording has a lot of benefits over analogue recording. Digital files can be copied as many times as you want, with no loss in quality, and they can be burned to an audio CD or shared via the Internet. Digital audio files can also be edited much more easily than analogue tapes.
If you have a tape recording use the Audacity software to turn it into digital sound.
Microphone Techniques.
If you do a search on the web for this topic you will find thousands of pages and it can become very confusing and complicated so I am going to make this very simple for you without any confusion.
Plug it in and do some tests.
I suggest a head phone mic for a couple of reasons. Firstly if you want to read off the screen it gives you hands free to be able to scroll through your text. This means no scuffling of paper in the background. Secondly you will always be the same distance from the mic so you wont have to worry about volume variations so much.
Now the fanatic audio guys will say you can’t get a good sound from them but from my experience you will get a good enough sound and if later you want to get more technical then go out and get the more expensive mic etc.
Obvious points to remember when using amplification of any kind:
Pointing the microphone towards a speaker when you are too close causes a high pitched noise called FEEDBACK.
Having the volume too high will cause FEEDBACK and DISTORTION.
Incorrect wiring & connections can cause electric shocks, equipment breakdowns, horrible humming or even pick up the radio!
The most common mistake is holding the microphone too close or too far from your mouth. This results in your vocal sounding muffled and distorted, too distant or no vocal sound at all. With a little practice this is easy to rectify and should become a part of your rehearsal routine.
To avoid distortion, ensure the mic is held no closer than 2 to 3 inches from your mouth during normal vocalization. You will have to experiment a little as the distance is dependant on the individuals natural power and ability to project.
Gradually move the microphone away as you continue to talk or sing and listen to the effect - at what point does the vocal sound start to fade? - That is your furthest point to remember. The optimum distance for clarity is between the shortest and furthest points.
There are times when you will be using more volume, hitting higher or lower notes or almost whispering. Practice using different distances and positions to see how using the mic creates different effects.
Avoid moving the microphone closer to your mouth when aiming for high or more powerful notes and practise using the microphone to enhance or lessen certain effects until it becomes second nature.
Topics: Articles | 2 Comments »
Internet Marketing Training
By MP3 Sound | October 17, 2008
Why is it that the people you want to learn from aren’t accessible?
Many times the argument is that they’re too busy making money to teach/share what they are doing.
That’s certainly fair but it doesn’t make it any easier for the people who need some advice.
If you can relate to this, then you’ll appreciate a monthly service I just found:
Click here to get your introductory free offer.
Even though this person runs a $15 million dollar business, doesn’t have any private clients and hardly ever coaches people one-on-one…
He has decided to offer something a lot more affordable than his group coaching program which costs $500/month.
It’s called Marketing Tutorials and you can ask questions and get video responses.
Pretty cool eh?
In fact, you can see and hear a full explanation of these videos here:
Click here to get your introductory free offer.
Anyway, if you’re looking for some guidance but don’t have the budget for some high priced coaching, then this is for you:
Click here to get your introductory free offer.
Enjoy!
Quentin
P.S Click on the link below if you’d like a free sample of one of his videos:
Click here to get your introductory free offer.
Topics: Streaming Audio | No Comments »
History of Streaming Audio
By MP3 Sound | October 15, 2008
The history of streaming media is largely rooted in the advancement of much older technology. There would be nothing to stream if the media didn’t exist in the first place. The first form of media would be the captured media; the ability to take a photograph was developed in the late 1820’s by using light and transferring that radiation from the light into a sensitive material. With this innovation, the next step in the evolution of picture media was the moving picture first introduced by Thomas Edison in the 1890’s. The motion picture is created by presenting multiple photos in sequence with slight changes creating the illusion of movement. Edison’s film projection device successfully did this through the projection of light through a moving film strip flashing once each time a single frame from the film crosses the lens.
Due to unreliability to synch up to the film and the occasional needle skip, voice overlay was rarely attempted but this set the groundwork to create new devices that will be able to improve the ability to synch up sound correctly to a film. Some of the ways they have done this is by embedding the sound signal into the film itself and with the improvement of digital technology, they have also been able to have multi-channel high definition surround sound on a separate optical disk synched up to the film by some sort of embedded time code. The creation of media was great, thousands gathered into packed rooms and special theaters to watch these films and very few people had an audio playback device because they were so expensive. These technologies were restrictive in how many people it can reach, they can only be played through one device at a time. What was needed was a way for many people to be entertained, informed, or contacted in any other way transmitted to many places from a single source.
The existence of the radio wave existed in the late 1880’s but was never used to transmit full messages until the next decade where the message was used to transmit telegraph signals over the airwaves. This was used to create transmission and communication over vast waters like the English Channel and some ships had started carrying these devices to communicate to each other. Voice was soon introduced into the airwaves and the first official radio broadcast station to transmit voice which was established 1917 in Wisconsin. In 1928, the first televisions were sold as well as the first television broadcast permits were distributed by the government. Not all of the televisions were run by cathode ray tubes (which are still used today), but using a scanning disk and lamp system which created a blurry orange color picture and created an image that was roughly the size of half a business card. These devices quickly became a huge part of American culture, entire buildings would gather into a single room to marvel at these devices and companies knew this. Now, almost every household in the world have a television set in their homes.
The relevance of all this previous technology to telecommunications and streaming do not occur until the early 90’s when the World Wide Web was first made commercially available to the public. Through the web, many people were able to connect and share information with hundreds of thousands of other computers around the world. But the bandwidth for consumers was so small that bits of text were the only things that could feasibly be transmitted and downloaded. Audio and video media has also been digitized at this time but a one minute sample of audio would take up roughly 10MB of space which if transmitted through the consumer’s modem lines would take most of the day to download, not worth the download at all. At this same time, companies are working on implementing even higher definition audio and video which would further reduce the potential of streaming over the internet. Another branch of digital media development was developed apart from the hi-definition developers, their purpose was to create a way to get more media into the net. Many protocols of file compression were created around this time and many failed.
What gave the consumer the greatest interest in what the internet can do for media is the use of MPEG-1 layer 3, or MP3 for short. The MP3 is an audio compression format that had the ability to take that minute long 10MB file and reduce the file size to one sixth of that original size and reproduce the sound with virtually unnoticeable degradation. The use MP3 is also the sole reason for the creation of the monstrously popular distribution software known as file sharing today. With the popularity of MP3, people realized how important compression can be to the internet and greater amounts of money had been allocated to do more research and development of it. Many formats had been developed and eventually bought out by two giant companies, Real and Microsoft. Microsoft had even managed to legally steal the Real player’s RTSP streaming protocol in which Microsoft had invested over eighty million dollars into before releasing their own streaming media player in 1997. Today, both companies still exist and are huge competitors rivaling each other with many smaller programs available as well.
Older technology such as the ability to record audio, capture photographs, broadcast radio and television were much needed stepping stones that paved the way for streaming content. With the creation of TCP/IP, the internet was born-but solely for military and governmental use. It was not until the 90’s when the internet or World Wide Web was accessible to consumers-bringing about new inventions created for users such as file sharing. If it were not for file sharing, the need for smaller file sizes for sharing would not be as great as it is. This gave way to compression techniques such as MP3, AVI, WMA, and MPEG, bringing about the creation of Hi-Definition for better visual quality. Corporations were eager to control the growing market of media players which was here to stay. This sparked the media player wars which was an all out attempt to dominate the online media content viewer of choice. The winner would also dominate streaming media content as the future of the media delivery business. A very lucrative one, considering billions of billions of people will be future customers.
Streaming content is never downloaded. It is in essence “channeled” or broadcasted to your computer. This is what makes it so attractive; users do not need to download large files in order to play their content. It’s a great way of delivering huge amounts of media without actually downloading it. Could you imagine downloading a thirty minute news segment before actually playing it? This would take up a lot of time to download, plus it wouldn’t be live if it were downloaded. In other words, streaming also opens up new frontiers such as live content. Users can tune in to a live broadcast as its happening without downloading a thing. This technology is widely used in financial markets where they use live streaming quotes to make decisions. It is a great example to show you the need for streaming. Investors cannot make decisions on data that is 30 minutes old. They need up to the minute or second data.
The underlying workings of streaming files involve the use of metafiles. These are very small text files that contain the address of the file and location of the streaming media server. The web server sends the metafile to the client machine, the user in turn opens the metafile which opens the correct application to view the stream which opens the streaming content, stores it in the buffer and begins playing the file. The reason why we use metafiles is very simple. Since we don’t want users to spend their time downloading content, we use metafiles to tell them where the content is stored instead of initiating a download. Metafiles contain information about the stream such as the IP address of the server it is located on and the type of file (.mp3, .wmv, .rm).
Real Time Streaming Protocol is the actual blueprint for streaming media. RTSP defines how media will be streamed between the server and client. It defines the different types of connections that will be used in different types of situations to deliver the content best. RTSP is designed to work with time sensitive media like streaming audio and video, as well as any application where time based delivery is essential. It is pretty much the code for streaming. All streams follow the same rules on how to work and RTSP it that rule. Another way to look at RTSP is like looking at TCP/IP. TCP/IP defines how the internet will work. It specifies how the packet will go from one computer to the next reliably and how to check for errors. The internet is dependant on TCP/IP to function and streaming is dependant on RTSP to function as well. So without RTSP there would be no such thing as streaming.
With the advent of streaming, it has brought with it efficiency. Internet users of different speeds can all view the same clip even though one person is on a 28.8 modem and another is on cable. This is possible thanks to RTSP’s ability to handle multiple bandwidths on one stream. For example, you can encode a single audio music clip for 28.8 Kbps modems, 56 Kbps modems, 112 Kbps dual ISDN, and T1 connections. Your Web page links to this single clip, and when a visitor clicks the link, RTSP determines which encoding to use based on the available bandwidth. RTSP can even adjust this choice to compensate for network conditions. If a fast connection becomes bogged down because of high network traffic, RTSP seamlessly switches to a lower bandwidth encoding to prevent the presentation from stalling. When the congestion clears, RTSP switches back to the higher bandwidth encoding.
Despite its advantages, streaming in general has been off to a slow start. It’s still not as common on the internet as it should be. Reasons for the slow growth of streaming media may have to do with the slow implementation of it. The technology is still fairly new and web designers must learn how to implement it in their websites. This is fairly common with new technology as it must first be learned before it can be implemented. Thanks to larger bandwidth, powerful computers, and better video compression algorithms, today’s internet is capable of delivering streaming media such as news, radio, and even live television with unsurpassed quality and speed.
Some issues with bandwidth needed to be resolved before streaming in general could take off. Speed barriers of traditional 56k modems were broken with the adoption of broadband such as cable, DSL, and satellite internet service which promise speeds up to 3 mbps. A common problem for streaming on slow connections such as modems was its inability to download the content fast enough for it to play smoothly. With the wide adoption of broadband such as cable and DSL, this resolved problems of the files playing faster than they were being downloaded and enabled higher quality playback thanks to larger bandwidth. In order to successfully stream media on the web you need to have enough bandwidth. Everything contained on a web page including text, graphics, animation, audio and video requires a certain amount of bandwidth to move across a network. Bandwidth is similar to the width or capacity of a pipe. For example, a high capacity water pipe might allow a maximum of twenty gallons of water per second to stream through it.
On the other side, a low capacity water pipe might only allow 1.5 gallons of water per second to stream through it. However, on the web we’re pumping packets of data measured in bits, kilobits and megabits per second. The term called data rate refers to the rate per second at which data is electronically transmitted across a network line. On the internet data rate is measured based on kilobits per second. For example, a 28.8 modem has a bandwidth capacity of about 28 kilobit’s per second.
The cost for streaming is now mainly associated with server cap which is the limit or cost of server space and bandwidth. Prices can range anywhere from hundreds of dollars a month for a very small amount of bandwidth all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for huge websites like google, yahoo, msn and other websites that have streaming content. In their case, these huge companies don’t just have one streaming server for their content. They have many streaming servers situated at strategic and geographic locations in order to accommodate the largest audience at the best speed and quality. It seems that no matter how much technology advances, space is still a challenge that has not been able to be conquered. This “limit” on bandwidth is what makes it expensive. If we had no limits on bandwidth, we would never pay for it.
Sometimes we fail to give credit to the basic developments in technology. After all, many of the advancements in today’s streaming content in largely due to the advancement of much older technology. Older technology such as TCP/IP and many other advances is what streaming rests its foundation on. If it wasn’t for these basic underlying advances, streaming would not exist today. Thanks to larger bandwidth, powerful computers, and better video compression algorithms, today’s internet is capable of delivering streaming media such as news, radio, and even live television with unsurpassed quality and speed. The prospect for the future is good. We are still in the very early stages of streaming implementation. It will be interesting as we see how this technology will develop itself in the future to accommodate our ever so changing needs. One thing will remain for sure. Live content delivery over the internet is here to stay. This market has no choice but to grow. You can bet your last dollar on that.
In order to send an audio or video over the internet, and because of the bandwidth consuming nature of streaming, more efficient ways of content delivery was needed. File compression is the main technique that is used to keep file sizes down to a minimum. It allows for transmitting the maximum amount of data through a limited amount of bandwidth while keeping the integrity of the file as intact as it is possible. Compression in its very nature introduces additional obstacles in the streaming world itself. Also, we shouldn’t forget that the disadvantage of compressing files makes us lose precious quality but the advantage is that it offer smaller file sizes, which makes it faster to download a file. In file compression we should differentiate audio file compression from video file compression since the processes are different for each type.
To facilitate the compression of audio files, whether these are in the form of speech or music two different techniques are used. These two techniques are predictive encoding and perceptual encoding. However, we shouldn’t forget that there are a few differences in the compression of the audio files depending on what type it is. The main difference is how much we need to compress, for instance for speech audio files, we need to compress a 64-Khz digitized signal. In the other hand, for music audio files we need to compress a 1.411-Mhz signal. The differences between the techniques tell us what type of audio files we can compress with each one. For example, in predicting encoding, we encode the differences between the samples (which means differences within the samples), instead of encoding the samples values. We will usually use this technique to compress speech audio files instead of music audio files. There are a number of standards defined for this technique, for example GSM, G.729, and G.723.3, among others; these range from 5.3 Kbps to about 13 Kbps.
In the perceptual encoding technique, the study of how people perceive sound or psychoacoustics is used. The main idea is to use the flaws present in our auditory system, such as masking a sound with another. Masking sounds can happen not only in frequency, but also in time. The difference is that in frequency masking, a loud sound in a frequency range can mask a softer sound in another frequency range. And in temporal (time) masking, a loud sound can deaden our ears for a short period of time, even when the sound has stopped already. This technique is mostly use in compressing music audio files because it needs at least 1.411 Mbps and is the most conventional or most common compression technique used to create CD-quality audio. MP3, which is part of MPEG is one of the standards using this technique. MP3, in this technique, analyzes and divides the spectrum into several groups. The frequency ranges that are totally masked have zero bits allocated to them, and the frequency ranges that are not masked have allocated to them the largest number of bits. As it is obvious, the frequency ranges that are partially masked will have allocated to them a small number of bits. In MP3 three data ranges are possible: 96 Kbps, 128 Kbps and 160 Kbps.
Another type of file compression is video files compression, which is extremely different from that of audio files. In video file compression, a video is composed of (or divided into) multiple frames, where each frame is an image. So, in video files compression, we first compress these images. Video file compressions also have standards established in the market such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). The processes in JPEG are different from the ones in MPEG. In JPEG, a picture is divided into blocks of pixels - this depends on whether the picture is in gray scale or in color. The purpose of this is to decrease the number of calculations for each picture, since the number of mathematical operations needed for each picture is the square of the number of its units. The main idea in JPEG is to alter the picture into a linear set of numbers that reveal the redundancies or lack of changes in the picture, so this can then be removed by using a text compression method.
One of the steps in JPEG is called Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), where each block of 64 pixels undergo an alteration which changes the 64 values in order to keep the relative relationships between the pixels, but where the redundancies are not exposed. Another step is known as quantization, where the values are quantized to decrease the number of bits needed for encoding. In quantization, we have to divide the number by a constant and drop the fraction, which in the end will reduce the number of bits even more. However, one of the disadvantages of JPEG comes to sight in this phase because this is the only step that is not reversible, and in this step or phase, we lose some information that we cannot recover later. Also, another step after quantization is compression, where values are read from a table - created before - and redundancies are removed completely.
The other type of video file compression mentioned was MPEG, in which a motion picture is defined as a rapid flow of a set of frames, and where each frame is considered an image. MPEG defines a frame to be a spatial combination of pixels, and a video as a temporal combination of frames sent one after the other. These two types of combination create two different types of compression, which are spatial compression and temporal compression. However, for MPEG video file compression is spatially compressing each frame and temporally compressing a set of frames. In spatial compression, each frame is a picture that can be compressed independently from the others. In temporal compression, redundant frames - frames that don’t show too much changes - are removed. In addition, and in order to compress data temporally, MPEG divides frames into three classes: I-frames, P-frames and B-frames. The differences among these classes of frames are very simple.
I-frames are intracoded frames; these are independent frames not related to any other frames. These are only present at regular intervals to deal with sudden changes that cannot be shown in neither previous frames nor in the future frames. These also cannot be assembled from other frames. The P-frames are predicted frames; these are related to the preceding I-frame or P-frame. These contain small segment of changes from the preceding frame, therefore, P-frames can be build only from previous I-frames or P-frames. An advantage is that these carry fewer information than other frames types and so, they carry fewer bits after being compressed. Finally, B-frames are bidirectional frames; these are related to the preceding and following I-frame or P-frame, so they are related to the preceding and the future frame. However, these are not related to another B-frame. One advantage of MPEG as a whole is that it already has gone though two versions, one known as MPEG1 and the other as MPEG2. The differences between these versions rely mostly upon what was designed for and the data rates. MPEG1 was designed for CD-ROM with a data rate of 1.5 Mbps and MPEG2 was designed for high-quality DVD with a data rate of 3 to 6 Mbps, which is twice to even four times the data rate of MPEG1.
Nonetheless, the streaming industry is currently a very common place for lossy compression, which is when a stream (or file) is compressed to decrease it’s size, but as a tradeoff, it decreases in quality. Also, in lossy compression, parts of the file information are removed and then the player place in predicted information based on the last frame played and the next frame known. An example of this - regarding video compression - is JPEG, which is called lossy compression because of the quantization phase, since in this phase - as we said before - we will lose some of the file information that cannot be recovered later on. However, the stream or file will still be recognizable to the user but so will the lower quality. Also, streaming audio and video, whether it is stored or live, are sensitive to delay and neither of these can accept retransmission, which makes us see that there is still much progress to be done in the streaming industry as a whole.
One of the main concerns that experts have in mind or issues that they are striving for today is lossless compression, which is simply compressing files without degrading the quality of those. Also, multicast services and the use of some protocols, such as UDP and RTP needs to be developed a lot more, since today in the streaming media, whether it is stored audio/video files or live audio/video files, we use only unicasting services or multiple unicasting services and the TCP protocol. However, all we can say is that thanks to advancements in compression algorithms, lossy compression is beginning to be less common in streaming media today, but more as mentioned before there is still a lot of development needed in the streaming industry.
Since in steaming, the file never actually exists in the user’s computer at any one time, the user receives the file via streaming and either views or listens to it. Live steaming allows you to build the stream very quickly from the source, either a camera or microphone and record the event. This is then sent to the users as soon as the stream is built instead of it actually saving it as a file.
Live streaming radio resembles the traditional radio but instead of using frequencies to deliver the live content, you access the material via an IP address. Nearly every radio station in the country now has a presence on the internet. Internet radio has been around since the late 1990’s and has grown popular year by year. Nearly every radio station now has a presence on the web where they still broadcast the traditional way via frequencies but simultaneously send their content via broadband.
Although this may seem difficult from the person who is unaware about it but quite frankly it is not. From the disc jockeys mike, the audio enters the Internet broadcaster’s computer for encoding via a sound card. The sound card changes the wave sound to 1 and 0’s so the computer can understand it. After the sound card, it is then sent to the encoder system in the computer. Encoding programs like SimpleCast provides a simple way of taking audio from your sound card or line in and encode it ready for streaming. SimpleCast allows the option of encoding the sound in the most popular streaming formats like mp3, real and wma9. All this is done in real-time.
After the encoding process has completed, the audio is compressed and sent to the server. Instead of the file residing in the server in the same way a streaming file may be saved in a server, it is sent there to be delivered via the internet. The server has a high bandwidth connection to the internet. When a user clicks on a link on a webpage, lets say the radio stations, a meta file referencing an IP Address and in turn the meta file opens the correct player and the player opens the stream. The same happens when the source is actually live.
Now there are even stations that don’t even broadcast via sound waves but have and exclusive presence online. So the only way a user can hear their content is when they are connected on the internet. An example of such a station is www.di.fm .
Radio live streaming is well known but TV is now making waves in the way it uses the internet to stream its programs. In the United States, it may not be as popular but in other countries like Germany, there are TV stations that are broadcasted via broadband. An example of such a station is www.viva.tv and another popular one not exclusive to Germany is bbc.co.uk.
The amount of people using the internet daily is increasing year by year. And with the availability of fast internet connection, more interactive websites are becoming more and more popular. Just a static website is no longer acceptable, websites using flash and video and audio material is what makes a website more appealing. The statistics obtained by www.itfacts.biz prove that 74% of Web users have viewed online video at least once and 51% do so a minimum of once a month. More data collected show that 27% watch streaming video at least once a week; and 5% view Web video streams daily, according to Online Publishers Association.
The primary users of streaming video can be broken down to 4 main groups. The Brokers, Students, Businesses and the regular consumer.
Brokers use methods where by a java script will update every number of times and display quotes of a certain stock. A company called Datek is about to change all that. It is the first company to actually use streaming quotes online for brokers to use. It is an idea that will catch on as big fortune 500 companies realize that there is a market for it. A new company called esignal.com is also joining the Datek in providing live streaming quotes.
Students are also experiencing the benefits of streaming in their education. Lectures can now be streamed online and one of the biggest benefits of this is that students who want to review material can re-watch the lecture at their leisure which is a bigger benefit then using the traditional voice recorder. UCLA is a very good example of a university that has adopted streaming lectures. It has a live and on-demand program for streaming lectures. Some students oppose this because they claim that posting lectures online robs the student of the incentive to attend class, and puts too much emphasis on presenting information rather than on the instructional interactions between students and instructor.
Businesses are now catching on the big potential of using streaming in their organizations advertisements. Streaming Media can be a highly efficient way of advertisement for branding campaigns but also to announce new products like film releases. A recent study commissioned by Measurecast, a streaming audio measurement firm, polled 100 ad agency executives and found that nearly two-thirds of the agencies have recommended streaming media advertising to their clients in the last 12 months and will continue to do so in the future. When you go to sites like nissandriven.com and sony.com, you will notice that these websites are filled with flash and various interactive technologies. There are even small videos you can view of the performance of lets say Nissan’s 350Z and majority of them are streamed.
Consumers are by far the largest users of streaming content on the internet. After all, it is because of them that the technology really exists in the first place. Live shows can now be viewed online without having to actually go the concert. If you have AOL, they often have their Concert Series which allows users to be able to view a live band on the internet and the content is live. Video on demand is another niche in the market that is booming. Being able to watch a video of your favorite artist at will is very attractive and an example of a service that offers this is Yahoo. Yahoo has their launch.yahoo.com site that anyone can register and listen and watch the video of their favorite artist. If you can’t watch the news, you can log onto abc7.com and watch the news there, right in your office and still be up to date with the news happening in the world.
The future for streaming is still uncertain. The technology behind streaming has had positive effects on other media fields as a feasible way to save space in broadcast and Hi-Definition media. In television, re-run shows are compressed to the point of much lower quality to save money on broadcasts to increase profits from sponsors and save money from using less bandwidth. In the Hi-Definition realm, companies are beginning to approve certain lossless compression codecs in order to fit more precious information onto available optical disks. Optical disks have also improved with shorter wavelength lasers allowing for even more information to be stored onto a disk and the ability to read multiple layers multiplies that amount. There have also been discussions of placing fluorescent lower layers to counteract the problem of lower layers being more difficult to read allowing for many more multiples of layers to be able to fit onto a single optical disk. What about advancements for actual streaming over the internet? Better compression codecs will most likely be developed to fit even more information into the limited consumer bandwidths. Surround sound over the internet will be available as well. Bandwidth is also getting cheaper. Pretty soon, every house in the world will have the ability to get onto the internet and many will have available speeds many times faster than current broadband lines which will help make streaming that much more accessible to the consumers. In the end, it is all about satisfying the consumers, and the consumers will always want more than whatever is available.
Topics: Streaming Audio | No Comments »
MSincome Product Range
By MP3 Sound | October 13, 2008
MSIncome produces high quality streaming multimedia products that allow you to add audio, video and content to your web pages for a one time cost.
Simply click on one of the covers to see more information and samples.
All products come with tutorials and easy to follow instructions. Adding streaming media can be a little daunting when your just starting so we offer full support and training for all our products. We also update reguarly according to our customers input.
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MP3 Sound Stream provides a simple CLICK AND GO system to allow anyone to add streaming audio to a web site….. for just cents in the dollar. MP3 Sound Stream’s semi automatic interface means you do not need to know anything about compression or streaming protocols. If you can copy and paste then you have most of the skills needed for to be able to add streaming audio to your website today. Compiles from MP3 or Wav files. Click Here For More |
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HI FI Audio Stream is built on the same foundation as MP3 Sound Stream however it has the automation removed for those who want more control over the compression of their files like muscians and professional audio compilers. HI FI Audio stream is mainly for those wanting high quality stereo streaming and are delivering mainly to a broadband audience however it will also compresss very tightly. It uses your original mp3 or wav file so an understanding of mp3 production and compression is helpful though not necessary. More Information |
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MSI Web Video is software product that interfaces between your video and website. It is not a compiler of videos however we provide all the tutorials and continually update these with new software and information to help you. Video is not as easy as audio however it is being widely used now that broadband is becoming more widely accepted. Use it for business or fun and the skills you will gain far out way the cost of the product. More Information |
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Whether you are producing video for a network or for a small scale audio production, a teleprompter is one of the most crucial additions to your studio. The only problem is they are very expensive. MSIPrompt is a personal teleprompter that allows you to do most of the basic functions for a fraction of the price. More Information |
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MSI Jukebox is a simple piece of software that allows you to add two or more mp3 audio files to the Jukebox player. This is so easy that anyone can do it. The software will link the files for you to upload and will then stream those files either automatically or on request. You choose the quality and type of MP3 files you want to stream. More Information |
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MSI Fetch is a PHP script used to display RSS content. It can be used to display other’s content on your site, your intranet or your desktop. It is also known as an aggregator or feedreader and it parses RSS (or RDF or backend) files (xml files) and shows content formatted.
This is probably one of the most cost effective and easiest to use online RSS Content Management systems on the market today. It gives you the versatility to turn your website into a viral marketplace delivery centre for just cents on the dollar.
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