1 Introduction

  • Article

The Smooth Streaming Protocol describes the wire format that is used to deliver (via HTTP) live and on-demand digital media, such as audio and video, in the following manners: from an encoder to a web server, from a server to another server, and from a server to an HTTP client. The use of an MPEG-4 ([MPEG4-RA])-based data structure delivery over HTTP allows seamless switching in near-real-time between different quality levels of compressed media content. The result is a constant playback experience for the HTTP client end user, even if network and video rendering conditions change for the client computer or device.

Sections 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 2, and 3 of this specification are normative. All other sections and examples in this specification are informative.