Example:
Let's say I want to do a 2 hour video lesson on adding/subtracting
fractions on the web.  I would like to record a lot of it on windows media
player.
Then I would have say 75 students sign up after paying a dollar each - they
would use their email address plus password that I give them.  If they give
their email address/password to a friend then just the first one to sign in
gets in.  Then they can all watch my video - they can ask questions.  I can
pause the video, pull up a quickly made jpeg or gif to answer their question
or maybe type realtime on the screen? and talk
through it, changing to other gifs/jpegs then when the questions are done,
go back to the prerecorded video and have them watch until the next question
comes up.  If it takes longer than 2 hours - so what.

Is this possible to do on a website?  I don't mind paying a programmer to do
it, but
I don't want to pay them if it is not possible.  Is there certain technology
that the
web hosting provider has to offer before it can be done?

Any help you can provide me would be most appreciated or if I am asking in
the wrong
newsgroup my appologies.

Thanks again in advance,

Markis

In <a6V_b.2955$hl6.2695@bignews1.bellsouth.net> Markis Landis Gardner 
wrote:
> Example:
> Let's say I want to do a 2 hour video lesson on adding/subtracting
> fractions on the web.  I would like to record a lot of it on windows 
> media player. Then I would have say 75 students sign up after paying a 
> dollar each - they would use their email address plus password that I 
> give them.  

I know this could be done when streaming MPEG4 media, I'm not sure about 
Windows Media formats. I'm myself currently developing a similar 
application (aimed at streaming payed content to cellular phones via 
GPRS or UMTS).

> If they give their email address/password to a friend then 
> just the first one to sign in gets in.  

Yep. This is possible.

> Then they can all watch my 
> video - they can ask questions.  I can pause the video, pull up a 
> quickly made jpeg or gif to answer their question or maybe type 
> realtime on the screen? and talk through it, changing to other gifs/
> jpegs then when the questions are done, go back to the prerecorded 
> video and have them watch until the next question comes up.  If it 
> takes longer than 2 hours - so what.

I'm not sure if it's possible to pause the stream on the server side in 
a graceful way. Of course it can be stalled on the server side, but then 
the viewers might get some error message or the stream could be even 
closed by the client software. 
But what's wrong (assuming that there is also a parallel chat going on) 
with just asking the students to pause their players?
Alternatively (with the help with some additional server-side software) 
you could setup a 'digital studio' where you can mix live recording with 
the prerecorded presentation. In fact you are then doing live streaming, 
partially based on prerecorded footage. This is of course a more 
expensive solution.

It's indeed possible to have a chat in parallel. Certainly a textual 
chat is no big deal (with textual I mean by typing). Via this chat you 
can also hand them additional images for illustration of your point.

>
> Is this possible to do on a website?  

I guess you mean: can this be handled through a web browser? Yes it can, 
if you're willing to live with some shortcomings inherent to web browser 
based applications.

>I don't mind paying a programmer 
> to do it, but I don't want to pay them if it is not possible.  Is 
> there certain technology that the web hosting provider has to offer 
> before it can be done?

I see two approaches to this challenge:
a) a cheap, chat-based solution
b) an expensive live streaming (studio-based) solution

Solution b) is in effect a live webcast. It requires some 'studio' 
software and perhaps even a crew. Also you'll need a direct high-
bandwidth internet connection at your studio.
Solution a) is much simpler. All it takes is a streaming server and a 
chat system (and of course it needs some more cooperation from your 
audience). If I were you I'd start with solution a).

>
> Any help you can provide me would be most appreciated or if I am 
> asking in the wrong newsgroup my appologies.

If you get to the point of hiring people to make such a system, then 
please contact me. As I said, I'm currently working on a system that 
does many of the things you'll need. Reusing this system would make 
things cheaper for you and for me.

Rudi Angela

Email: rudi at angela family dot com