VDOLive Brings Live Video to the Web

by Laurel Krahn

Everyone keeps talking about great multimedia content on the World Wide Web, but many still aren't sure where to find multimedia content or how to access it. At gw2k.com, we try to use the multimedia aspects of the Web to bring you a wide variety of information in interesting ways. As part of this commitment, we're pleased to be able to present video content that shows up on your computer without you having to wait for a huge file to download.

Sound too good to be true? Perhaps. You see, most folks are accessing the Web and the Internet via modems and phone lines. So information can only arrive as fast as your hardware, software, and connection can carry it. One used to have to wait for the entire file to download before seeing a video (or picture) or listening to a sound file. But with software like VDOLive, you can see the video and hear the sound as it is "streamed" to your computer.

If you've ever listened to RealAudio files with the RealAudio player, you're already familiar with this technology. Okay, so maybe you couldn't describe the technical details, but you know that you can listen to the sounds as the information travels between your computer and our Web site. VDOLive does the same thing, except in addition to getting to hear cool stuff, you get to see cool stuff, too. Cool video content.

Now that you know what you can see, you would probably like to know how to do it. Well, as always, it's a good idea to visit our Cool Tools page and check out the VDOLive installation instructions. You'll find that it is easy to install (or should be; if not, we may need to update our installation instructions). To hear the sound, you'll need a sound card and properly configured speakers. It also helps to have the speakers turned on (not that any of the gw2k Web team ever forgets such a detail; we're trained professionals, of course we always have our speakers on). Well...

You have your speakers on, you've installed the software successfully , and you're viewing one of our spiffy Gateway 2000 commercials. Maybe you're noticing that the quality is a bit grainy or slow. Well, don't blame us, we wish it looked better. Remember, it only goes as fast as your connection to the net can go. And sometimes the Internet gets bogged down with traffic. Doesn't mean it's not an amazing bit of technology which can only improve. Thinking about where this technology will be in a month or a year is exciting.

So who is responsible for this nifty Web browser plug-in? The folks at VDOnet Corporation in Santa Clara, California. They make the VDOLive player, which allows you to play VDOLive video files, as well as the VDOLive server, which allows us to present VDOLive videos to net.savvy folks like yourself. Pretty cool, huh? Wish we'd thought of it. And wish we knew how to write such fine software. But hey, now we don't have to!

The folks at VDOnet are working on improving the software, in the meantime, lots of cool sites are now presenting live video content over the Web. We didn't want to be left out; we didn't want you to be left out. If you haven't tried VDOLive yet, give it a try on our site, then go out into the wide world of the Web, equipped with the latest and greatest helper application: VDOLive.

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