Meaning – The term RealAudio system, refers to a client/server-based media delivery system developed by Progressive Networks. The RealAudio system supports live and on-demand audio over the Internet and can be used by news, entertainment, sports, and business organizations to create and deliver multimedia over the Internet.
RealAudio was developed by RealNetworks and supports FM-stereo-quality sound. To hear a Web page that includes a RealAudio sound file, you need a RealAudio player or plug-in, a program that is freely available from a number of places.
The official player for RealMedia content is RealNetworks’ RealPlayer SP, currently at version 16, and is available for various platforms in binary form. Several features of this program have proven controversial, and many alternative players have been developed.
Example of usage – “When RealAudio was introduced, RealNetworks disclosed no technical details about the audio format or how it was encoded, but it was soon noticed that some of the audio codecs used in RealAudio were identical to those used in cellular telephones and digital television.”
