The user s client computer contacts the server and the file is streamed back to the client computer. In other words, while it is possible to skip ahead or back in a pre-recorded piece of media, with live content the user takes the program as it s being fed to them. Though using streaming and the Internet to broadcast is an emerging new outlet to serve media worldwide, it is still currently limited by the bandwidth available at the transmission site. This area of multimedia networking includes Internet Telephony and video conferencing. Greater user interaction is allowed beyond just changing the time frame or an alternate source.
Users have true two-way communication with all other participants.
Due to the additional demands involved with Multimedia Networking alluding to earlier, some considerations take on added significance. Reliability becomes very important. With on-demand delivery, the server must be able to respond in a reasonable amount of time. When streaming is involved, the number of simultaneous users the server accepts must be limited so that the stream output can be maintained. The server must also be fault-tolerant.