RealAudio
<tool, communications> A program from {Real Media} for playing
{audio} over the {Internet}, and the {lossy} audio compression
format it uses.
The system is implemented as a {client/server} architecture.
The RealAudio server incorporates an {encoder} which
compresses sound into RealAudio files. The client side is a
{web browser} {plug-in} or {add-on} (a recent version of
{Internet Explorer} apparently has built-in support for
RealAudio) which allows the stream of data sent from the
server to be uncompressed and output using the normal sound
facilities of the computer, such as a {sound card}.
A 14.4 {KBps} or better {modem} is required, and a 28.8 KBps
connection is recommended for music-quality sound.
(http://realaudio.com/).
(2001-12-13)