If you have difficulty accessing the streaming media files on this site it may be because of your system's firewall. If that is the case, use the alternative link on the right of each section to see and hear the media files.
Anyone accessing this site from within Stoke Newington School will also need to access the media files using the non-streaming links.
 

Problems viewing streaming media? Read on.

Streaming media uses a protocol called RTSP to control the playback of media files. Unlike the normal HTTP web protocol in which your web browser issues requests to a server and the server then sends a response back to you, under RTSP both your media player and the server can issue requests to each other. These requests control the playback of the requested media file, which is delivered to you using a second communication channel.

The most common cause of playback problems is due to firewall software blocking either the incoming control requests from our server to your player, or the actual incoming media stream.

The control messages are communicated over network port 554. To be able to communicate with your media player, your firewall must be configured to allow TCP traffic on port 554 through.

Once communication has been established on port 554, the client and server negotiate a connection port to send the actual media stream through. The protocol used for this stream is UDP, and our server can use any port in the range 6970-6999.

Your firewall must, therefore, also be configured to allow at least one port in this range open for incoming traffic using the UDP protocol.

Failure to have the necessary ports open on your firewall will result in your media player displaying error code 502 or 504, or the message 'request timed out' (or similar).

Windows XP has a built in firewall that can cause these problems. If you are using Windows XP, you can temporarily turn the firewall off in order to see if you are then able to view media on our server. Also, if you have a local area network that uses a router (such as a home wireless system), you will also need to ensure that you have configured this to allow the required network ports appropriate access.

And finally, why do we use streaming media instead of other delivery methods? We use streaming media because many of the videos on our server have playback durations of several hours. If we were to use progressive download, you would have a lengthy wait while a large part of the file is downloaded before playback could begin, whereas streaming media begins playback almost instantly.