First, many companies are streaming their stock reports like TENFORE.com. This can be a real helpful tool because it provides their customers with financial market and business information, in real-time, 24 hours a day. Distribution and access to the information is obtainable through an assortment of different ways. The use of satellite technology is still the most used because of its reliability. Also, this technology is very capable of broadcasting great volumes of real-time data.

Next is the area of advertising. Many advertisers are starting to use streaming media as means to reach people for their product. Real Networks, as well as 800.com contracted Millward Brown Interactive, a noted on-line brand research company, to conduct an impact study of an 800.com streaming media add. The study was conducted March 29th through March 31, 1999. They found that overall, people responded well to the ads, and watched them all the way through for the most part. This creates a positive brand attitude. One negative statement, however, included the ads promising a deal too good to be true.

The Internet has emerged as the top medium for business communications. With this in mind, it is no wonder that they have begun video conferencing over the Internet. This means that organizations can deliver messages to more than one audience, at different locations, 24 hours a day. Conferencing also lowers cost while driving commerce, thus creating profit. Here are some features of conferencing via streaming media:

+ Capture and broadcast live Web casts directly to desktop browsers.

+ Digitally store meetings and deliver conferences on-demand, 24 hours a day, at TV-quality.

+ Cost-effectively manage and control media delivery to one or thousands of sites.

+ Increase the value of existing intranet and extranet Web sites by transforming them into powerful knowledge and communications portals.

If you want to stay at a hotel that you re not familiar with, usually you hope the hotel s web site has pictures of the rooms. This way you feel more comfortable about your stay. Now, thanks to streaming virtual facilities tours, you can take a virtual tour of the hotel. One such hotel that streams virtual tours is Amerisuites. Through use of their virtual tour, the perspective traveler can obtain a general idea of the different aspects of a typical Amerisuite hotel. This is just one example of a virtual facility tour.

Many online CD stores offer streaming audio clips of songs clips. AMAZON.com is a good example of this. They give you a taste of what is on a particular CD. On the flip side, a good example of streaming video includes television networks that offer a simulcast over the net. This way, people not having the broadcast on their local television or cable can access it over the net. Advertisers get two mediums for the price of one.

Finally, streaming media is being used at Universities for distance learning programs. This isn t so much an impact on business, but it s an impact on education. In fact, Appalachian State University, our own campus, uses this technology. Now, students can watch live footage, or taped, of professors at far away campuses. If a particular school is more specialized in an area of study, students can now receive the in-depth instruction. Also, it has become more interactive. Students can now asks the long distance teachers questions, and the teachers can answer.

• Your Degree Is A Click Away
• Learning Through Computer Interaction

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