Providers of livestreamed video services face a paradox: they must move toward new multidirectional streaming platforms while still relying on content delivery networks (CDNs) to keep on-demand content available. The central question is how to do this without making an untenable tradeoff between performance and cost efficiency.
The video streaming market can no longer depend exclusively on HTTP-based streaming over CDNs. These one-way infrastructures carry multi-second latencies and out-of-sync reception, which fail to meet the demands of real-time video interactivity. Rethink Research reports that livestreamed video traffic volume is on track to surpass on-demand traffic in the months ahead, driven by demand for interactive experiences in sports, esports, concerts, online gaming, livestream shopping, online gambling, and hybrid auctions.
Community engagement with user-generated content on platforms such as Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and TikTok further ties live streaming to interactivity. This mirrors a broader shift toward hybrid engagement in work, education, trade shows, and health care as society moves beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
Attempts to append interactive video communications to CDNs through ancillary video conferencing-style platforms introduce operational complexity, limit quality and scaling, and prevent the real-time simultaneity that satisfying user experiences require. Watch-party products from Sling, Yahoo Sports, and sports video chat apps, for example, restrict participation to just a few users. The industry needs infrastructure that supports real-time interaction at scale while still delivering on-demand availability.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing