Online video streaming glossary
To help you understand the terminology behind video streaming, below is a list of terms used reguarly at Ant Media.
A
Term
Meaning
Ant Media Server
Ant Media's capable, extensive video/audio streaming platform
Ant Media Community Edition
The freely downloadable version of the Ant Media Server
Ant Media Enterprise Edition
The supported version of Ant Media Server, with several enhancements
AAC
Advanced Audio Coding is a compression format, similar to MP3, that features increased sample frequency and offers a higher quality audio track for your live video.
Adaptive streaming
A methodology to stream multiple resolutions of your live video to accommodate viewers with varying degrees of network bandwidth or internet speed.
B
Term
Meaning
Bitrate
Bitrate is the way we measure the speed of the upload and download transfers. The faster the data transfers, the more overall data gets through
Buffering
Buffering is a delay prompted by the data preloading process.
C
Term
Meaning
Codec
A “codec” is an encoding/decoding standard for reducing the file sizes of video, audio, and other media formats. The most common video codec is H.264, and the most common audio codecs are AAC and MP3.
E
Term
Meaning
Encoder
An encoder is a piece of software (or potentially hardware) that encodes, meaning compresses, the RTMP stream
F
Term
Meaning
Frame rate
Frame rate (expressed in frames per second or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed
H
Term
Meaning
H.264
H.264 is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distribution of video content, used by 91% of video industry developers as of September 2019.
HD
HD video refers to video that is at least 720 horizontal pixels by 480 vertical pixels in resolution. “Full HD” or 1080 HD video is 1920 x 1080 pixels in resolution.
I
Term
Meaning
Ingestion
Data ingestion is the process of importing a stream for storage of immediate use. It requires a database or storage to receive the information.
K
Term
Meaning
Keyframe
In video encoding, a keyframe stores the complete image of the scene.
L
Term
Meaning
Latency
Video latency refers to the degree of delay between the time a transfer of a video stream is requested and the actual time that transfer begins.
Live streaming
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the Internet
Low latency
Video latency that can be described as between 500ms-1 seconds
O
Term
Meaning
OBS
OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a free encoding software, designed to aid video recording and streaming.
R
Term
Meaning
Resolution
Resolution is the total number of pixels in a given video frame. The higher the number of pixels in a given frame, the better the quality of the video. So, when a video is said to have a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels, it essentially means the video has a width of 3840 pixels and a height of 2160 pixels.
RTSP
RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) is a network control protocol created to control streaming media servers.
RTMP
Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a communication protocol for streaming audio, video, and data over the Internet.
S
Term
Meaning
Simulcasting
Simulcasting is a way of broadcasting a single live stream to multiple channels and content delivery platforms.
T
Term
Meaning
Transcoding
Transcoding is a digital-to-digital conversion of one type of encoded data (video or audio) to another
U
Term
Meaning
Ultra low latency
Ultra low latency describes a system that is optimized to process a very high volume of video packets with an extraordinarily low tolerance for delay (usually under 500ms).