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Urbancolo is the US Reseller for Clipstream.
July, 2001
Shockwave is an application delivery mechanism produced by Macromedia, designed specifically for multimedia presentation over the Internet. As an offshoot of their Director authoring environment, Shockwave has quickly become a focus of their development efforts.
While being able to deliver a very rich and interactive experience to the end user, Shockwave suffers from the typical plugin based problems - the need to download and have the correct version of their particular player, and the relative size of this download. If an end user does not have the appropriate player, they will have to download and install the new player, which can be anywhere from a few minutes wait on broadband, to up to 20 minutes on a modem, with the possibility that they may need to shutdown their browser or computer prior to the player working. Clipstream, on the other hand, is an ultra small Java applet that downloads on demand (once per session, and then cached), so the end user always has the appropriate version for your content, in a matter of seconds.
In addition, due to its ability to deliver a rich and interactive media environment, the authoring tools require specialized skills to even put up the most basic streaming audio. Clipstream has a very simple drag and drop authoring system that doesn't require specialized skills, equipment, or server configuration.
Since Shockwave is not limited by Java Audio (8bit 8kHz mono) and they have the benefit of an installed player, it is natural that they are able to support a higher quality of audio.
| Company |
|
Macromedia |
|
Clipstream |
 |
| Site |
|
www.macromedia.com |
|
www.clipstream.com |
|
| Product |
|
Shockwave |
|
Clipstream Audio
Clipstream Video |
|
| Version |
|
8.5 |
|
Audio 2.0 / Pro
Video 1.0 / 2.0 |
|
| Related Products/Tools |
|
Director Shockwave Studio
Flash
Shockwave Player
|
|
Radio Destiny Broadcaster
Clipstream Audio Compressor
Clipstream Video Encoder
Clipstream Video Encoder Plugin
for Adobe Premiere
|
|
| Streaming Audio |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Streaming Video |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Web Page Delivery |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Email Delivery |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Banner Ad Delivery |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Tool Cost |
|
$1,199US (can be higher
if using QT and Real)
|
|
Free |
|
| Streaming License Cost |
|
Free |
|
Starting from $500US |
|
| Server Cost |
|
Free / Variable
(for QT and Real) |
|
Not Applicable |
|
| Playback Platforms |
|
Mac, PC |
|
Any Java Compliant
Viewer/Device |
|
| Authoring Platforms |
|
Mac, PC |
|
Mac, PC, Unix, Linux |
|
| Serving Platforms |
|
Any HTTP Server |
|
Any HTTP Server |
|
| Installed Player/Plugin |
|
Yes |
|
No |
|
| Player/Plugin Cost |
|
Free |
|
Free |
|
| Time to Download Player |
|
10-15 minutes |
|
Seconds |
|
| Player Size |
|
Large (3,400k) |
|
Extremely Small
(6k - 39k) |
|
| Bandwidth Supported |
|
14.4 up |
|
28.8 up |
|
| Audio Quality |
|
up to 44.1 Stereo |
|
8 bit 8kHz mono |
|
| Java Based |
|
No (can be exported
with 3rd party plugin,
no streaming A/V)
|
|
Yes |
|
| Audience Reach |
|
Over 200 million installed
(all versions combined)
|
|
90-95% of internet users |
|
| Authoring Complexity |
|
Complex |
|
Simple |
|
| JavaScript Compatible |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Customizable UI |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
| Special Programming Skills |
|
Yes |
|
No |
|
| Special Server Configuration |
|
Yes/No (Yes for QT, Real) |
|
No |
|
| Input Formats |
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SWA, WAV, MP3, QT, AVI |
|
WAV, MP3, CD Audio,
MPG, AVI, QT, AIFF
|
|
| Streaming Formats |
|
SWA, MP3
(High bandwidth only),
QT, Real A/V
|
|
Clipstream Proprietary
.22, .44 .VCS |
|
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