User Relayed Broadcasting (URB) software creates a media file segmentation and
distribution system for affordable broadband live media broadcasting over the Internet
to vast audiences. It solves the bandwidth problem for live broadcast servers,
eliminating the need to choose between quantity and quality when broadcasting live
media over the Internet. URB receives a data stream from a conventionally-encoded
media source, segments it into small files, uploads the files to users who re-upload
them repeatedly in a chain-letter style multiplier network, and then plays the
files back continuously through a conventional media player half a minute later.
In effect it only simulates live broadcasting—it isn't live and it isn't
broadcasting. It is file-sharing, or rather file-distributing, of media files using
a very brief create-distribute-redistribute-play cycle and a time-synchronization
protocol. Put simply, URB combines features of (1) live web-based media, such as
Shoutcast or Icecast; (2) a file-sharing system similar to Gnutella or Napster;
and (3) a cyberspace time-synchronization protocol.