HTTP Live Streaming Introduced to iPhones

When Apple introduced the QuickTime Streaming Server that used the RSTP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) it was expected to achieve a traction that would satisfy the viewers, but because the RTSP traffic was blocked by many firewalls, the delivery of the streams proved to be unreliable. The plan to get RTSP to function on iPhone could be made through HTTP Live Streaming, a technology that has emerged since May, when Apple presented it to the Internet Engineering Task Force in order to become an RFC – Request For Comments (a memorandum that Internet Society is using to define the way technologies work to promote cooperation and compatibility between the sellers applying them).

The HTTP Live Streaming has similarities with a method belonging to Microsoft called Smooth Streaming, only that Apple’s HTTP LS is capable of using any encoder and broadcast server, functioning at the same time with anyone who software designated to receive the stream. Apple’s plan is to obtain a standard availble to everyone, without being afraid that it might be at any other vendor’s whim. This story has already happened before with multimedia playback turning the concept of streaming into another episode in the saga of QuickTime.

Internet media streaming has appeared in 1995 through the Progressive Networks, having a streaming format of RealAudio. Later the company being renamed as RealNetwork has established a partnership with Netscape to create what was known to be RTSP standard for streaming. As Microsoft owned 10% of the Real Company they incorporated Real’s streaming format in an attempt to turn the Internet streaming into their ActiveX Streaming Format – ASF.

Microsoft’s ambition was to become the master in control over Real and Apple promoting the concept of streaming ASF via MMS (Microsoft Media Server), while ActiveX Authoring Format – AAF - was seen to be the QuickTime killer. ISO rejected AAF and established QuickTime as a basis for the new MPEG-4 media container format. Later in 2003 MMS as its own hosting system for streaming media, had been played down by Microsoft to promote its new RTSP server known as Windows Media Player 9. Meanwhile Microsoft has been compelled to drop its ASF and adjust its streaming to that of MPEG-4 container’s Smooth Streaming.

All this time, Apple promoted QuickTime 3 that supported a fake streaming called HTTP Progressive Download which allowed the users to download a file and watch it from the portion that was available. Next QuickTme 4 followed that enabled unlimited streaming use and at the same time releasing the software Darwin Streaming Server as open source. With the introduction of iPhone users demanded to take streamed content on their devices; thus among the first apps to be used was AOL Radio, that was followed by TV.com, BBC and others. Then the solution of HTTP Live Streaming emerged as an alternative to maintain versions of the clips in various formats allowing the iPhone users who have WiFi connection to experience a high quality version of videos available on the current bandwidth.