As most audiophiles know, streaming is the method by which large digital video or audio files are broken up into packets and sent to an end-user via the Internet or a network. The user’s computer allocates a buffer in its memory and begins receiving a portion of the total file. When the buffer is filled, the file begins to play while the remaining packets continue to fill the buffer. As long as the rest of the file downloads as fast as the playback speed, the file will play normally. In a perfect network with little or no extra traffic, this method works well. But all too often, improperly configured networks result in low-quality audio, skips, stutters, stalls, and of course, broken connections.

Using hubs instead of switches only increases the chances of poor quality sound.  Because hubs broadcast every network transmission to every device on the network, the potential for mass collisions rises significantly. Think of it as a four-way intersection without any traffic lights or signs. If there is little to no traffic, it’s a smooth ride at full speed. If there is moderate traffic, different packets need to slow down and let other packets go ahead to prevent a collision. But during evening “rush hour,” for example, when Dad is checking stock quotes, Mom is listening to an audio stream, little Suzy is playing Quake online, and uh-oh Bobby is in his room downloading porn, the network is in chaos. There is a 4-way multi-packet collision and everyone is waiting for the tow trucks to arrive while the traffic jam is 5 miles back in all directions! The result: Nothing gets through.

So Dad can't evaluate his portfolio, Mom stream sputters then silences while she’s swooning to Schubert, little Suzy gets fragged ruining her high score, and Bobby scrambles for cover when Mom bursts in to find out why the network is down.

A switch can certainly improve traffic flow by directing packets only to their destination instead of everywhere. It’s similar to two intersecting highways with on and off ramps. Traffic can flow smoothly even if one route is congested. Congestion, however, can still occur and streaming files will inevitably stop streaming.

The fastest and most common network is Ethernet with speeds of 10/100/1000 Mbps, depending on configuration and network cards. Some other networks include the home phone line, power lines, and wireless. These networks top out at around 10 Mbps in a perfect world, but typical throughput is closer to 5.5 Mbps, even under the best conditions. Also, these networks do not have switching ability like Ethernet, so congestion is more likely to occur, making it a bad choice for high-quality audio. 

Indeed, streaming does provide a means of increasing capacity by storing additional media on other devices, but quality is compromised for quantity, even more so over the Internet, when optimal audio is significantly reduced.  So while annoying skips, stalls, stutters and shut downs may be acceptable for low-end consumer applications, do you think someone who just spent $25,000, $50,000, $75,000 or more on a home theater is going to tolerate this deplorable lack of quality? No way!

Netsync™, the technology behind ReQuest Multimedia’s audio storage and playback systems, provides an alternative. Netsync can automatically synchronize a listener’s entire collection over a home network and over the Internet to a hard drive, which means digital music files are transferred one time and one time only. Once the music is available on a hard drive, the network can go down and phone lines can be out but digital music files can still be played at full quality. The skips, stalls and stutters that stroll hand in hand with streaming will have gone the way of the 28K modem.