Oracle Video server, Manual

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What Is Streamed Digital Video?
Concepts 1-3
Figure 1–1 Traditional digital video vs. streamed digital video
This important feature of streamed digital video and video server systems is called
video-on-demand
, and it means that you can configure the video server to enable
your clients to watch what they want to when they want to, choosing any title that
has been digitized and stored for delivery.
Another way to make streamed digital video available to clients is to schedule it.
An administrator can schedule delivery of a specific video at a specific time on a
specific channel and customers can tune in and watch it. Near video-on-demand
(NVOD) is one application of scheduling in which the administrator schedules
delivery of a video to begin automatically every few minutes on a different
channel. For example, you might schedule “Marvin’s Room” to begin at 8:00 p.m.,
and every 15 minutes thereafter, until midnight. If customers miss the 8:00 show or
have to pause in the middle of the movie, they can wait just a few minutes, and
tune to the appropriate channel to see or resume the movie.
Traditional digital-video media such as
laser discs operate in a “spiral” fashion.
The medium supports only one viewer
at a time; use then “spirals” to the next
viewer, back to disc storage, to the third
viewer, and so on. Each viewer has the
entire video during viewing, and it is
unavailable to any other viewer.
Streamed digital-video media delivers
the video as a series of small pieces. As
soon one small piece of video has been
sent to one viewer, that piece is
available to be sent to another. Thus,
streamed digital video can
simultaneously serve many viewers.