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May 2012

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Streaming vs. Podcasting

We define the terms and set the stage for making real improvements in your church's audio and video Internet offering.

by Brent Harshbarger

Podcast Unwrapped
In recent years the term Podcast has been uttered from pulpits and platforms in worship facilities around the world to promote the media available on the church's website. What does Podcast really mean? How can it help your church? Let's unwrap the term, build a technical context around it, and determine its best uses in your church.

Brief history of Podcasting

Weblogs-known today as blogs-started as textual daily or periodic online publications of a topic, and sometimes a rant. When technology arrived that permitted mp3 files to be created and uploaded easily to a central location, and just as easily downloaded and listened to by another party, this form of recording and distributing audio became a popular alternative for many bloggers. Audio-blogging was born.

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, which made it easier to download your favorite audio blog or "show" and listen to it on the beach, in the car, jogging or while doing chores around the house. The downside to this technology was that you had to continually go to the Web or blog site to see if there was new content available for download.

Two technologies emerged in the late 1990s that lead to the syndication of Web content. The first was eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and then a key derivative work called Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

In 2004, Dave Winer, one of the creators of RSS, and MTV VJ Adam Curry worked together to create and popularize what is known today as Podcasting. Podcasting is the syndication or automatic downloading of a show or audio blog that you subscribe to. The audio blogs are created and distributed to subscribers so they can listen to them when available. The term Podcasting was taken from the idea of broadcasting syndicated content to iPods for playback at a later time. Listening to or viewing a program after it was created or originally aired is often referred to as time shifting.

The difficulty today is that the term Podcasting becomes synonymous with viewing time shifted or video on demand content over the Internet. In other words, if I can go to the Internet and listen to or view digital media on a church website, this is commonly considered Podcasting, but this is not the case.

Streaming Definitions
To further unwrap the generic use of Podcasting with the listening to or viewing digital content on or from the Internet, we need to take a closer look at three key media technologies: streaming, downloads, and progressive downloads.
All three of these technologies are defined in contrast to real time delivery. Real time delivery just means you are viewing an event as it happens; however, the event doesn't have to be live. When thinking about an event that is real time but not live, consider your favorite network television show. It is shot and edited weeks if not months before its premiere on the network. When it is played for the first time on the network it is viewed in real time but it isn't actually live.

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Brent Harshbarger is the Founder of m3tools, a firm dedicated to helping multimedia ministries with the tools to connect them to the world, www.m3tools.com. You can contact the author via email at brent@m3tools.com.