The development of live streaming solutions has altered the way that people consume media. Currently, video makes up more than 79% of all consumer online traffic, largely from HTML5. Today, live video streaming is present in almost all forms of entertainment and media, including professional sports, news outlets, video games, and social networking platforms.
However, like with any data carried over wires, every content creator must understand the technical aspects of content delivery. Working with a video CDN can assist in resolving problems like lags, stream interruptions, buffering, and other hiccups that might otherwise undermine a great video production. Here we look at the fundamental principles that underlie CDNs, how they work, and what they could add to your live streaming business. Take a look.
What Is Live Streaming?
Live streaming is the practice of transmitting content in high-quality audio, video, and other media formats in real-time to viewers over the internet. Instead of downloading a lengthy video clip, live streaming lets users view content as it's being broadcast from wherever they are on the internet. This is possible using internet devices, websites, or apps that support content broadcasting.
Video live streaming can be used to deliver content to public or private users with the help of video conferencing solutions such as Teams or Zoom.
How Does Live Stream Work
The following five steps are involved in live video streaming.
Capturing the video
The first step for a content developer is to use a camera to capture the visual information. In the device, the information is represented in 0s and 1s.
Segmentation
To enable bit-by-bit streaming, the video file is divided into segments that are a few seconds long.
Compression and encoding
By eliminating unnecessary visual information, the video segments are compressed without altering the video. Redundant information includes things like background. Compression aids in rendering only the moving frames of the video. The video segments are then encoded in HEVC, AV1, VP9, or other standards appropriate for the range of end-user devices.
Content Sharing and Caching
The content is now ready for distribution via a server. To get these files, the end user only needs to utilize their device to connect to the origin server. Streaming might be easy or difficult, depending on the user's location. The closer they are to the server, the better. In fact, if you only have a few subscribers that are also not scattered, a single server may be enough. No additional components would be needed.
However, when subscribers are distributed throughout a broader geographical area, and on some occasions, across multiple countries, content delivery may take longer, thus leading to latency or delays. This leads to a subpar user experience that is uneven across all subscribers. Content delivery networks (CDNs) can help with that.
A CDN is essentially just a network of computers that are strategically positioned all over the world to act as data centers, enabling people all over the world to receive high-quality content streams with little delay. CDN servers serve as Points of Presence (PoPs) to bring content closer to subscribers. With CDN Video streaming, content is delivered to a specific end user via the CDN server that is nearest to them.
Processing and playback
As soon as the end-users receive the content, their computers or phones decode and unpack it, breaking it down into raw data so it can be played.
Why Is Video CDN Important?
By caching content on a global network of servers that are located closer to the end user, CDNs are advantageous in several ways:
They guarantee enough bandwidth at times of high traffic.
If requests surpass the origin servers' allowed bandwidth, CDNs prevent overloading by distributing requests over several servers. In that way, "choke points," and server downtimes are avoided.
They shorten the round-trip and latency times.
CDN streaming eliminates the requirement for live video requests to travel directly to the origin server and retrieve content because it'll be cached on servers closer to the subscribers. In particular, CND video streaming reduces round-trip time, buffering, and latency to maintain a real-time broadcast.
They support live broadcasting to a large audience worldwide.
CDNs offer scalability in live video, allowing content to reach a worldwide audience since it's carried out through caching servers strategically stationed worldwide. Furthermore, the watching experience remains the same regardless of where the end-users are.
They lessen the burden on the original servers.
CDNs are used to relieve the origin servers of some of their workload. Essentially, CDNs shield the servers from being hit by multiple requests and thus maintain their availability. As a result, overheating is prevented, which would otherwise result in soon worn-out servers. The servers are also protected from DDoS attacks.
Conclusion
CDN streaming will be of enormous value to businesses that provide high-quality content to widely dispersed subscribers in real time. Consider collaborating with CDN service providers who offer live and VOD streaming capabilities as well as cutting-edge transcoding techniques to enable dynamic bitrates. Some CDN providers even provide APIs so content creators can develop their own add-ons and features. Choose a CDN provider that serves your needs.