How to Optimise Your Streaming Platform?
The video streaming sector has experienced substantial transformations and advancements, particularly as streaming has become engrained into many people’s daily habits. In light of our recent partnership with QUANTEEC, this article explores the streaming industry’s past and current development as well as the groundbreaking impact of QUANTEEC’s innovative solution.
QUANTEEC is fostering a paradigm shift in the ever-evolving landscape of streaming by providing platforms with a stable network, even in times of high demand and volume of viewers. They efficiently balance platform-related cost reduction and limit the environmental impact while maintaining high-quality streams. Before delving into this innovative streaming paradigm, let's begin with the start of the modern streaming industry, how it works and the associated consequences.
From the Early Days to the OTT Revolution
With the growing presence of the internet came the emergence of live video streaming. The early 90s and the integration of the internet paved the way for media players capable of transmitting content in real-time. Live concerts and baseball games were among the first live streams over the Internet, regardless of geographical location.
At the turn of the millennium, the streaming industry experienced a transformative boom, primarily driven by rapid technological advancements and the widespread adoption of high-speed internet connections. This marked the start of a significant transition in how content was consumed and distributed, with popular streaming platforms like YouTube and Netflix emerging as key players helping to change the consumption of media by the everyday person.
The 2000s laid the foundation for the content-delivery landscape as we know it today, setting the stage for further innovations and growth in the industry. The changeover from time-consuming and slow dial-up internet to a high-speed connection allows users to stream live content and videos on demand (VoD) more easily. This opened up new possibilities for entertainment and information consumption, leading to new divisions within the field.
Notably, the rise of over-the-top (OTT) platforms has played a pivotal role in reshaping the streaming landscape, bypassing traditional broadcast and cable networks to deliver content directly to viewers over the Internet. Streaming platforms continue to distinguish themselves as strong competitors against traditional linear TV, as it is projected that video streaming revenue will have an annual growth rate of 8.63% until 2027, while broadcast and cable combined growth rate will be 3.9% until 2030. Linear Tv remains the most dominant yet in many markets, yet the streaming industry persistently hits record highs regarding usage in a competitive landscape and reaching a whole new level. This includes the heavyweights like Disney+, Prime Video, Netflix, and Hulu to owned D2C platforms and smaller regional actors.
How content is Currently Streamed
Modern streaming platforms generally follow this sequence of steps to deliver content. Initially, video footage is captured, transformed into digital data, and then compressed and encoded. The digital data is further segmented, with video frames being divided and combined and sent to viewers through a content delivery network (CDN), also known as a content distribution network. Once the distribution is established, viewers can access the live stream through an Internet browser or streaming app installed on their choice of device.
The CDN is composed of a network of proxy servers and data centres dispersed across various geographic locations. Instead of the viewer's device having to send a network request to the original source server, the request is directed to a CDN server that is closer to the viewer's geographical location. However, our society's reliance on these CDN servers comes with a price.
What are the problems? Failure and dependency
With this current model, streaming platforms must continually invest in infrastructure upgrades, server capacity expansions, and network optimisations to accommodate the skyrocketing demand from the users. As operation costs for CDN servers grow exponentially, that price will consequently affect the viewer with the rising cost to use the platforms, like Netflix’s price increase and implementations of ads. As streaming content and services become further engrained into every day routines and a vital source of entertainment, platforms use more of these expensive servers to meet the surge. The infrastructure required to support and expand the vast network of international servers, data centers, and associated technologies implies substantial investments and has become costly for these platforms.
If platforms do not have the infrastructure necessary to cope with the exponential increase in the number of users willing to access the content or are not designed to handle such a massive surge in usage, the former will be impacted. Viewers may experience buffering, slow loading times, or complete service outages. For example, a pay-per-view fight between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul in 2021 caused the host to refund 20,000 users after they found issues when accessing the match, reporting access problems. As available access is growing limitless to users, delays or outages can cause frustration with the user to choose another platform or service.
These occurrences are a stark reminder of the constraints and susceptibilities inherent to the current content delivery model. Another potential concern within this traditional streaming model is the risk of CDN infrastructure reaching its capacity and affecting other content. Suppose a CDN experiences widespread outages or technical glitches. In that case, it can disrupt the availability of multiple streams reliant on the same infrastructure, leading to further outages and buffering delays for affected users.
Nonetheless, the high cost of streaming platforms and managing users' frustration is not the only “price” to pay with this current model. The current and exponential paramount usage of multiple energy-intensive CDN servers looms over the environment on a global scale. Both power and cooling water-hungry wasteful take a dreadful toll on surrounding ecosystems. With almost endless content now just a click away, people's consuming habits are becoming more even pollutive.
However, there is a solution that tackles these problems, mitigating the over-reliance on these power-hungry and expensive CDN servers while optimising quality. This is where QUANTEEC Comes in.
New ways to stream content: The QUANTEEC (Shift) Revolution
In the ever-evolving streaming landscape, QUANTEEC, a groundbreaking French startup, stands out as a trailblazer. Beyond the crucial cost-saving asset, the QUANTEEC solution stands out as a commitment to delivering superior streaming quality, scalability, and energy efficiency.
QUANTEEC offers a web3-inspired decentralised streaming model, harnessing and linking peering assets of devices used by viewers. This innovative shift away from their technology guarantees viewers optimised streaming quality. In summary, cost savings and scalability for the OTT platforms, improvements in quality and stability for viewers, and significant energy savings for the planet, that is, for everyone.
QUANTEEC recognises the rapid growth of the streaming industry and acknowledges the associated drawbacks, such as high costs and environmental impacts. In response, they have developed an innovative streaming model that combats these challenges while ensuring a seamless streaming experience.
QUANTEEC optimises the performance of any CDN by efficiently offloading the work and power required through its connective technology. This CDN-Agnostic approach sets them apart from other solutions on the market, ensuring that QUANTEEC's technology remains compatible and effective, regardless of the CDN used by streaming platforms. This flexibility makes QUANTEEC an ideal and adaptable choice for enhancing streaming experiences while reducing environmental impacts and costs.
By offering an alternative streaming model, QUANTEEC provides a sustainably-responsible solution that delivers exceptional streaming experiences, relieving the high cost associated with platforms. Their innovative approach balances cost-efficiency and quality, addressing the environmental concerns associated with energy consumption while providing a seamless streaming experience for users.
QUANTEEC is expertly balancing a universal problem many companies face, maintaining sustainability and cutting costs while optimising outputs. The innovative tech company is helping to usher in a new era of innovation in streaming at a critical time. How can QUANTEEC be integrated to optimise your platform?
Reach out to the QUANTEEC team here.