Streaming data

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Streaming data is data that is continuously generated by different sources. Such data should be processed incrementally using stream processing techniques without having access to all of the data. In addition, it should be considered that concept drift may happen in the data which means that the properties of the stream may change over time.

Contents

It is usually used in the context of big data in which it is generated by many different sources at high speed. [1]

Data streaming can also be explained as a technology used to deliver content to devices over the internet, and it allows users to access the content immediately, rather than having to wait for it to be downloaded. [2] Big data is forcing many organizations to focus on storage costs, which brings interest to data lakes and data streams. [3] A data lake refers to the storage of a large amount of unstructured and semi data, and is useful due to the increase of big data as it can be stored in such a way that firms can dive into the data lake and pull out what they need at the moment they need it, [3] whereas a data stream can perform real-time analysis on streaming data, and it differs from data lakes in speed and continuous nature of analysis, without having to store the data first. [3]

Characteristics and consequences

In digital innovation management theories, five characteristics of digital innovative technologies are mentioned; homogenization and decoupling, modularity, connectivity, digital traces and programmability. Before these characteristics are explained and further elaborated with different examples of data streaming, it is important to understand the difference between digitalization and digitizing. The latter describes encoding from analog information to a digital format, such as light that enters the lens of a camera and transforms to a digital format/image (Yoo et al. 2012). [4] Where digitalization refers to a more socio-technical process, where digitized techniques are applied to broader social and institutional contexts, meaning the process of converting information into a digital format, readable by some sort of computer. [5] Within the context of data streaming this means that media for example, (information) has been digitized since the early 1990s, however the digitalization of ‘information/media’ has started to pick up since the beginning of this century. [6]

Now, firstly homogenization and decoupling. “Because all digital information assumes the same form, it can, at least in principle, be processed by the same technologies. Consequently, digitizing has the potential to remove the tight couplings between information types and their storage, transmission, and processing technologies”. [7] Within the context of data streaming, this means in theory that one can stream data now from any digital device. It also reduces the demand and use of music and films on CDs for example. One of the consequences of homogenization & decoupling is the decline of marginal costs. [8] The marginal cost of data streaming is because it solely uses digital information, which can be transmitted, stored, and computed in fast and low-cost ways. [8] An example of an industry that has low marginal costs due to data streaming is the music industry. Producers can now digitize songs and upload them on Spotify, instead of paying for the creation of the physical albums and distributing them. Another consequence is convergent user experience, meaning that previously separated experiences are now brought together in one product. [8]

Data streaming is also modular, because systems components may be separated and recombined mainly for flexibility and variety. Data streaming works in different application versions and systems such as IOS. It is also possible to change the speed of data streaming. [9] A consequence of modularity is the creation of platforms. Data streaming platforms bring together analysis of information, but more importantly, they are able to integrate data between different sources (Myers, 2016). IBM streams for example is an analytics platform that enables the applications developed by users to gather, analyze and correlate information that comes to them from a variety of sources (IBM).

The third characteristic, connectivity, describes that a digital technology not only connects applications, devices and users but also connects customers and firms. Streaming services for example connects a vast collection of music and films of ‘producers’ with their consumers, so how music on Spotify can easily reach a vast group of consumers. Another example would be data of transport vehicles that can also be connected to firms with streaming applications, via vehicle-to-roadside communications. [10] UPS does this for example to ‘calculate’ the optimal delivery routes by streaming real time big data and thereby reducing time to deliver packages.

Interoperability, which is the ability of a product or system to work with other products or systems, [8] is a consequence of connectivity. For instance, the music industry is interoperable, because some music platforms have integrated social media platforms. [11] Another of connectivity is network externality. This means that the value of a good to a user increases with the number of other users (installed base) of the same or similar good. [8] Data streaming technology can utilize network externalities, because it brings together supply and demand of large networks of creators and consumers. This is very much the case at popcorn time, a service where people can stream latest movies on demand. These streams work better when people have used their content.

The latter has to do with the fact that if one streams content he/she automatically also down/uploads content. While a streaming service is being used it leaves Digital Traces, which simply describes the fact that all digital technologies leave a digital trace from the user. [8] In the past, when media was sold, the seller/provider only had information about the transaction itself. With data streaming it has become possible to actually track the behaviour of the users because it occurs in real time, directly from the distributor/providers. Morris and Powers [12] describe this as opening the 'black box' of consumption. Providers of streaming services, for example, are now able to track detailed consuming behavior of the user, which in turn, they use to influence the user's decision-making process by creating algorithms to further develop a service. This kind of streaming has changed the way people consume media, which in time offered new possibilities for new ideas. [12] These are also referred to as wakes of innovation [8] and occur in places one would not initially expect. For instance, data streaming has enabled the development of sensors, for example that are used in a lot of sectors for different purposes. In the manufacturing sector data streaming is used for real-time analysis to improve operations. In healthcare sector sensors are being used for connected medical devices to create hubs of patients and healthcare providers, that can trigger alerts when a patient has a medical emergency. [13]

Finally, programmability, a characteristic that describes that an innovative digital technology can be reprogrammed, improved and/or updated. [8] Consequences of programmability are emerging functionalities. The most applicable functionality is incompleteness, which means that products and services are never finished, [8] which is the case for data streaming because suppliers will keep refreshing their models . [14] However, a more influential consequence of the programmability, and also of connectivity is the servitization of digital media content. Data streaming has caused a shift towards pay for use instead of pay for ownership;. [8] [12] This is happening in the video and music streaming industry, think of Netflix or Spotify. You have to pay to use the service, instead of owning a product. This was the case with buying an album or DVD, whereas now it is possible to access thousands of songs or movies.

Implications

Data streaming is becoming more useful and necessary in today's world and is being applied in a broad range of industries, some of which that have been already mentioned in examples such as the medical or transportation industry. Other examples of industries or markets, where data streaming is applicable, are:

Finance: where it allows to track changes in the stock market in real time, computes value-at-risk, and automatically rebalances portfolios based on stock price movements. [15]

Real-estate: Websites can track a subset of data from consumers’ mobile devices and makes real-time property recommendations of properties to visit based on their geo-location (Amazon).

Gaming: An online gaming company can collect streaming data about player-game interactions, and feeds the data into its gaming platform (Amazon).

E-commerce/Marketing: Data streaming can provide all clickstream records from its online properties and aggregate and enrich the data with demographic information about users, and optimizes content placement on its site, delivering relevancy and better experience to customers (Amazon).

Besides these examples, there are probably many more applications for data streaming. However, data streaming has had the biggest implications for the audio, video and telecom industry because of the creation of streaming services. Streaming services have majorly influenced how people consume their media nowadays. [16] Since the streaming services have had the most significant impact using the data streaming technology, this will be the main focus further on this page.

Impacted industries

The process of technological convergence, which appears because different industries increasingly rely on the same set of technological skills in their production processes, [17] leads to closer relations between markets that was previously not highly related. For example, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are providing live-streaming services, which allows global news publishers to connect directly with the right audiences as well as a far wider range of audiences than they otherwise would have reached. [18] This has led to a change in which how and where news publishers are interacting with their audiences, and how they use social media services to deliver their service.

An industry that is impacted by data streaming is the Video Streaming industry. Consumers are now demanding videos to be available at immediate request, meaning that it is no longer only the quality resolution of image that acts as important performance metrics in the media industry, but also how quickly video starts to play. [19]

The video industry underwent some of the same changes as the music industry. The video industry gained revenue by selling DVDs to customers and selling rights to cinemas and television channels. In 1997, the first online distributors began, but this was still small over a decade later mainly due to lower quality compared to hardcopy films. The third wave of streaming services such as Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Amazon and Blockbuster have changed the film market. [20] Netflix started in 1997, but only started to disrupt the market more than a decade later

The digitization, digitalization and underlying technologies of streaming have created these streaming services which essentially caused this disruption. With the rise of streaming firms in the film industry, the sales of physical DVDs vanished completely. An important difference between the music and film industry is that within the film industry, streaming services such as iTunes and Netflix are ‘destroying’ revenue (Sullivan, 2009). Because of this less films are produced and consequently there are less jobs in this industry. On contrary, cinemas are still important in the film industry, but the share of movies and series that are streamed by customers is rising very fast. It replaced the DVD, changed the performance metrics of the incumbents and can thus be seen as disruptive.

Another impacted industry is the Music Streaming industry. In 2017, streaming accounted for 43% of revenues in the music industry, and this was the third year of consecutive growth. [21] New music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music challenges the traditional label companies, which are now risking to be outcompeted by new business models. [22] Before the rapid adaption of streaming, in 2000 the music industry was experiencing what turned out to be a 15-year-long continued stagnation in revenue, which was due to the high CD prices needed to cover the costs of record labels. [23] In 2015, the streaming technology overtook the market by allowing revenues to increase by saving costs on labels, and artists to have a more steady income by making money on streams, rather than being reliant on a full album or CD to do well after being published. [24]

Furthermore, data streaming also has an impact on the Game Streaming industry. Game streaming is caused by the considerable growth of cloud computing, which allow gamers to access a greater variety of games without having to own expensive hardware. [25] Cloud computing operates as an enabler to the development of game streaming, where hardware and content is accessed from the cloud, leading to a change in offering greater flexibility in content distribution. [26] Game streaming allowed by cloud technology will drive changes in the gaming industry, where it is the hardware configuration of machines in the cloud that will be the developers, cost and time will be reduced to develop a greater ability of user reach around the world. [27]

Related Research Articles

Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as writing, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings, which feature little to no interaction between users. Popular examples of multimedia include video podcasts, audio slideshows, and animated videos. Multimedia also contains the principles and application of effective interactive communication, such as the building blocks of software, hardware, and other technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streaming media</span> Multimedia delivery method

Streaming media refers to multimedia for playback using an offline or online media player that is delivered through a network. Media is transferred in a "stream" of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains an entire media file before consuming the content. Streaming is presently most prevalent in video-on-demand, streaming television, and music streaming services over the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital media</span> Any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats

In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic device, including digital data storage media and digital broadcasting. Digital is defined as any data represented by a series of digits, and media refers to methods of broadcasting or communicating this information. Together, digital media refers to mediums of digitized information broadcast through a screen and/or a speaker. This also includes text, audio, video, and graphics that are transmitted over the internet for viewing or listening to on the internet.

A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displaying information ; often, the user can configure which ones to display. Variants of portals include mashups and intranet dashboards for executives and managers. The extent to which content is displayed in a "uniform way" may depend on the intended user and the intended purpose, as well as the diversity of the content. Very often design emphasis is on a certain "metaphor" for configuring and customizing the presentation of the content and the chosen implementation framework or code libraries. In addition, the role of the user in an organization may determine which content can be added to the portal or deleted from the portal configuration.

Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting schedule, which was popular under traditional broadcast programming, instead involving newer modes of content consumption that have risen as Internet and IPTV technologies have become prominent, and culminated in the arrival of VOD and over-the-top (OTT) media services on televisions and personal computers.

An application program is a computer program designed to carry out a specific task other than one relating to the operation of the computer itself, typically to be used by end-users. Word processors, media players, and accounting software are examples. The collective noun "application software" refers to all applications collectively. The other principal classifications of software are system software, relating to the operation of the computer, and utility software ("utilities").

Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other software.

Mobile content is any type of web hypertext and information content and electronic media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like text, sound, ringtones, graphics, flash, discount offers, mobile games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid-1990s, the usage and significance of the mobile devices in everyday technological life has grown accordingly. Owners of mobile phones can now use their devices to make photo snapshots for upload, twits, mobile calendar appointments, and mostly send and receive text messages, listen to music, watch videos, take mobile pictures and make videos, use websites to redeem coupons for purchases, view and edit office documents, get driving instructions on mobile maps and so on. The use of mobile content in various areas has grown accordingly.

Monetization is, broadly speaking, the process of converting something into money. The term has a broad range of uses. In banking, the term refers to the process of converting or establishing something into legal tender. While it usually refers to the coining of currency or the printing of banknotes by central banks, it may also take the form of a promissory currency. The term "monetization" may also be used informally to refer to exchanging possessions for cash or cash equivalents, including selling a security interest, charging fees for something that used to be free, or attempting to make money on goods or services that were previously unprofitable or had been considered to have the potential to earn profits. And data monetization refers to a spectrum of ways information assets can be converted into economic value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital signage</span> Sub-segment of electronic signage

Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage. Digital displays use technologies such as LCD, LED, OLED, projection and e-paper to display digital images, video, web pages, weather data, restaurant menus, or text. They can be found in public spaces, transportation systems, museums, stadiums, retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings etc., to provide wayfinding, exhibitions, marketing and outdoor advertising. They are used as a network of electronic displays that are centrally managed and individually addressable for the display of text, animated or video messages for advertising, information, entertainment and merchandising to targeted audiences.

A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to stream digital copyright restricted songs on-demand from a centralized library provided by the service over the internet. Some services may offer free tiers with limitations, such as advertising and limits on use. They typically incorporate a recommender system to help users discover other songs they may enjoy based on their listening history and other factors, as well as the ability to create and share public playlists with other users. It may also include customized radio or social media platforms.

Discoverability is the degree to which something, especially a piece of content or information, can be found in a search of a file, database, or other information system. Discoverability is a concern in library and information science, many aspects of digital media, software and web development, and in marketing, since products and services cannot be used if people cannot find it or do not understand what it can be used for.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SoundCloud</span> German audio streaming service

SoundCloud is a Swedish-founded German headquartered audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming services in the world and is available in 190 countries and territories. The service has more than 76 million active monthly users and over 200 million audio tracks as of November 2021. SoundCloud offers both free and paid memberships on the platform, available for mobile, desktop and Xbox devices. SoundCloud has evolved from a traditional online streaming platform to an entertainment company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart TV</span> TV set with integrated Internet features

A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features that allow users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a technological convergence of computers, televisions, and digital media players. Besides the traditional functions of television sets provided through traditional broadcasting media, these devices can provide access to over-the-top media services such as streaming television and internet radio, along with home networking access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music piracy</span> Copying and distribution of music without the consent of creators or copyright holders

Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners did not give consent. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which may be either a civil wrong or a crime depending on jurisdiction. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy over the ethics of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing, and the very scope of what ought to be considered piracy – and cases involving the piracy of music were among the most frequently discussed in the debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital content</span> Content that exists in digital data form

Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data. Digital content is stored on digital media or analog storage in specific formats. Forms of digital content include information that is digitally broadcast, streamed, or contained in computer files. Viewed narrowly, digital content includes popular media types, while a broader approach considers any type of digital information as digital content.

An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop application, or other interfaces (API), and typically provides embed codes or links that allow others to view the video content.

Automatic content recognition (ACR) is a technology used to identify content played on a media device or presented within a media file. Devices with ACR can allow for the collection of content consumption information automatically at the screen or speaker level itself, without any user-based input or search efforts. This information may be collected for purposes such as personalized advertising, content recommendations, sale to customer data aggregators and other applications.

Visual Cloud is the implementation of visual computing applications that rely on cloud computing architectures, cloud scale processing and storage, and ubiquitous broadband connectivity between connected devices, network edge devices and cloud data centers. It is a model for providing visual computing services to consumers and business users, while allowing service providers to realize the general benefits of cloud computing, such as low cost, elastic scalability, and high availability while providing optimized infrastructure for visual computing application requirements.

In the video game industry, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service. Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called "living games", "live games", or "live service games" since they continually change with these updates.

References

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  2. ↑ Costello, Sam. "Internet Streaming: What It Is and How It Works". Lifewire.
  3. 1 2 3 Rossi, Ben (June 2016). "Data lakes vs data streams: which is better?". Information Age.
  4. ↑ Tilson, David. "Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda" (PDF). Uio.
  5. ↑ Tilson, David. "Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda" (PDF). Uio.
  6. ↑ Leyshon, Andrew (2001). "Time–Space (and Digital) Compression: Software Formats, Musical Networks, and the Reorganisation of the Music Industry". Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 33 (1): 49–77. Bibcode:2001EnPlA..33...49L. doi:10.1068/a3360. S2CID   18985026.
  7. ↑ Tilson, David. "Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda" (PDF). Uio.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Berends, Hans. "Nature of Digital technologies [college slides]". Canvas.
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  10. ↑ Niyato, Dusit (2010). "A Unified Framework for Optimal Wireless Access for Data Streaming Over Vehicle-to-Roadside Communications". IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. 59 (6): 3025–3035. doi:10.1109/TVT.2010.2048769. S2CID   853047.
  11. ↑ Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel. "How Spotify's Business Works". Business insider.
  12. 1 2 3 Morris, Jeremy Wade (2015). "Control, curation and musical experience in streaming music services". Creative Industries Journal. 8 (2): 106–122. doi:10.1080/17510694.2015.1090222. S2CID   155898743.
  13. ↑ Warner, James. "Innovative, unheard of use cases of streaming analytics". Internet of Things agenda.
  14. ↑ Snider, Mike. "The best Internet-TV streaming devices, from $20 to $200". USA Today.
  15. ↑ Triphati, Pankaj (2018-01-12). "How to Use Data Streaming for Big Data". Digital Vidya.
  16. ↑ Wölmert, Nils (June 2016). "On-demand streaming services and music industry revenues - insights from Spotify's market entry". International Journal of Research in Marketing. 33 (2).
  17. ↑ Stieglitz, Nils. "Digital dynamics and types of industry convergence: the evolution of the handheld computers market". The Industrial Dynamics of the New Digital Economy. 2: 179–208.
  18. ↑ Hutchinson, Andrew. "The Evolution of Live-Streaming Could Change the Way You Consume Media – Here's How". Socialmediatoday.
  19. ↑ "The 5 Most Important Metrics to Measure The Performance of Video Streaming". Medium. VideoCoin. 2018-07-18.
  20. ↑ Cunningham, Stuart (2010). "Rates of Change: Online Distribution as Disruptive Technology in the Film Industry" (PDF). Media International Australia. 136 (1): 119–132. doi:10.1177/1329878X1013600114. S2CID   146691195.
  21. ↑ Perez, Sarah (23 April 2018). "43% of music revenues came from streaming last year". Tech Crunch.
  22. ↑ Milton, James. "Where do record labels stand in music´s streaming wars?" . Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25.
  23. ↑ Sweney, Mark. "Slipping discs: music streaming revenues of $6.6bn surpass CD sales". The Guardian.
  24. ↑ Perez, Sarah (23 April 2018). "43% of music revenues came from streaming last year". Tech Crunch.
  25. ↑ De Looper, Christian. "Cloud game streaming could decide the future of Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5". Techradar.
  26. ↑ De Looper, Christian. "Cloud game streaming could decide the future of Xbox Scarlett and Playstation 5". Techradar.
  27. ↑ Boxer, Benjy. "Streaming Games From The Cloud Will Unleash Creativity And New Distribution Models". Forbes.
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