Glossary

Streaming: Streaming is the technology that allows multimedia files to be played back on the Internet without the user having to download them.

Codec: Codec is the abbreviation for encoder-decoder and designates a specification for transforming one data stream or signal into another.

Bitrate: The term bitrate refers to the number of bits that are conveyed or processed through a digital transmission system or between two devices per unit of time. Accordingly it is the speed of data transfer.

Firewall Friendly: A firewall is a program that serves to filter what enters and leaves a system connected to a network. It's usually used to guarantee that communication between the Internet and the user, whether a company or an individual user, is carried out according the security norms established by the person who installed it.

Flumotion's technology is firewall friendly. This means that the files created by Flumotion's platforms won't be blocked by the firewalls installed by corporations to maintain their security.

Leading formats: The leading formats are the audio and video players that are used the most by Internet users.

For video one of the best known, without a doubt, is Macromedia/Adobe's Flash, which has achieved a presence on 98% of end users' computers and has become the most in demand format thanks to platforms like YouTube. Flash files usually have the extension SWF and can be played back through a web browser or using a Flash player.

Microsoft's Windows Media is another of the formats preferred by users since it works with the player installed by default on the majority of PCs with the Windows operating system. Windows Media files have the extension WMV for video and WMA for audio.

Ogg-Vorbis-Theora - OGG is a free, open-standard container format developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. Among the multimedia projects the foundation has set in motion are Vorbis, a codec for audio, and Theora, a codec for video.

Thus OGG-Theora is a high-quality open source format for video playback and OGG-Vorbis is its audio equivalent.

However the reigning format for playing audio files is MP3, developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), a proprietary format used by iTunes and Winamp that is higher quality and more stable than MP3, is set on taking over the lead from the format preferred by users up to now.

Quality Standards

MP3 Audio Format:

• 32 kbit/s - AM quality
• 96 kbit/s - FM quality
• 128-160 kbit/s - Standard quality
• 192 kbit/s - DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) quality
• 224-320 kbit/s - near CD quality

MPEG-2 Video Formats:

• 16 kbit/s — minimum acceptable quality
• 128 – 384 kbit/s — recommended quality for business videoconferences
• 1 Mbit/s — VHS quality
• 5 Mbit/s — DVD quality
• 15 Mbit/s — HDTV quality
• 36 Mbit/s — HD DVD quality
• 54 Mbit/s — Blu-ray quality