All Isle of Wight Web Hosting Company hosting packages support HTTP streaming media. You can use our servers to stream audio and video in both Real Media and Windows Media formats.

HTTP streaming is more than adequate for most needs but if you require a full streaming media set-up then click here

The Isle of Wight Web Hosting Company is proud to host Celtica Radio from South Wales on its servers. This radio station uses Real Audio to broadcast to its thousands of listeners.

If you have a music act or business then streaming media is a far more powerful tool than allowing MP3 downloads from your web sites (which our hosting packages also allow). When you stream an audio or video file the user of that file is able to hear or see that file almost immediately because it plays as it downloads. When you download an MP3 you have to wait until the entire file is loaded before you can use it. A typical visitor would have to wait around 10 seconds for a video or audio stream to start playing, regardless of the length of the track or video.

To set up media streaming on our server you first need to compress your file into a suitable format. If you wish to use Real Media you should compress your file into a .rm file with a bit rate smaller than a typical modem - eg 32kbits per second (note the distinction between bits and bytes - 1 byte=8 bits).

You should upload this file to the server and then make a .ram file linking to this .rm file. To make a ram file, open a simple text editor such as Windows Notepad, type:-

http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/audiofiles/mytrack.rm
<<-----blank line----->>

and save as a .ram file. You should then link to the .ram file from your web site.

To stream for Windows Media Player save as a .wma or a .wmv for audio and video files. The latest versions of Media Player will automatically stream these files.

<font face="verdana" size="2" color="white"><b>Your browser does not support some of the effects on this web site. Upgrade your browser now!</b></font>

HTTP streaming media is simply a download of a music or video file. However, unlike large MP3s, the track is played almost as soon as the track starts to download. This is the perfect, easy, way to show your multi-media files on the internet.

If you want your visitors to be able to rewind or fast forward or need to do live audio streaming then you require a special type of server - have a look at this page.