At 10:30 a.m IST, on March 23nd, people around the globe will be able to log on for a quick peek at Mir's final descent. The Space shuttle web cast aims to have people across the globe hooked to their PC's, mouse in hand, mouths wide open.
Broadcasting, as we know it, is all set to change, provided Internet access and technology comply. The concept of webcasting has moved beyond the merely novel to the more acceptable, and functional, option we have today.
The figures speak for themselves. MCY.com Web cast Sir Paul McCartney's December 1999 concert at The Cavern Club: his first since the last Beatles' performance there way back in 1963. The concert attracted over three million viewers and was nominated for 'Best Live Music Event Online' by the 2000 Yahoo! Internet Life Online Music Awards.
More recently, the bad girl of pop, Madonna, had her first live gig online available to fans with connection speeds of 28.8 kbps or Broadband. The concert, in a small London club, drew around nine million viewers and currently holds the title of most-watched event in the history of the Internet.
Then, on March 19, 2001, in Mumbai, Zeenext.com and Jalva Media pulled off the first broadband live web-cast from India, streaming the 4th Lux Zee Cine Awards to Bollywood fans. It also boasted, for the first time, streaming ad insertion for both formats simultaneously, while those who missed the live transmission could opt for the video-on-demand facility.
However, not all Webcasts stick to their plans. An example is that of the Backstreet Boys’ sold-out ‘Black & Blue World Tour’ at Yahoo! on March 23, which has just been postponed a day before the performance.
Set to break all these barriers is an organisation known as the Mir Reentry Observation Expedition which, on March 23, will document the 140-ton space station's plunge through the Earth's atmosphere, as it scatters debris across the South Pacific. The webcast at 10:30 a.m IST promises to capture images of remaining chunks of Mir completely lighting up the night sky as they fall through the atmosphere and hit the water at roughly 600 miles per hour.
How will it happen? By sending up three planes to fly about 200 miles from the projected splashdown area and record the event. The site will offer nearly two hours of on-demand footage, along with background information, and interviews with cosmonauts who spent time on board.
So what, really, is webcasting? Simply put, a broadcast using the Internet as a medium, and comprising audio, video, still images, and text associated with a specific event. The quality of any live webcast depends entirely on the degree of Internet connectivity (bandwidth) available at the venue. As for 'streaming' the term refers to a process where an audio, video or animation file is sent to the user as a continuous file (stream), and decoded by a software application in real time. While it is played through the computer, these files are not saved on to a hard drive.
Webcasting isn't really new in India, but most of it has been on narrow band or ISDN quality thanks to the non-availability of network infrastructure. Outside the country, however, it's catching on. Webcasts offers narrowband and broadband programmes ranging from the BBC World News to live feed News, ValueVision Home Shopping, Gorilla Force Radio, Music Choice Classic Rock, Classical Music and even Rick Dees Top 40 music charts.
If that doesn't interest you, Digital Club Network webcasts live performances by established and emerging bands from independent clubs, while Ampcast.com also has audio and video streaming, along with its live and archived webcasts.
The best thing is that, thanks to the adaptability of the medium, almost anything that can be audio- or video-taped, and photographed, can be webcast, whether it is an art exhibition, promotional event, concert, theatre, sports, or the news.
As with everything else, there are downsides too. What is usually billed as 'perfect picture quality' often fails to impress. For Microsoft's Madonna webcast, some tried getting a stream for over an hour, and failed. The guys at Victoria's Secret tried it too, with a webcast previewing their latest fashion line. But, while lingerie attracted the hoards, bandwidth and the inability of servers to handle large volumes of traffic killed the event. Add to these problems a lot of slow connections, frequent disconnections, a tiny screen, and jerky pictures, and you can have people logging off before an event begins.
What then, for the years to come? The future looks bright enough, if Internet growth and increases in bandwidth are anything to go by. DSL connections, cable modems, and satellite receivers all spell higher quality. Will it work? Will movie halls shut down? Will people stay home and watch their PCs? It's possible, but let's just say that television won't die out just yet.
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