If you’ve been researching CDNs, ways to stream to large audiences and tools to minimise latency, you must get acquainted with a novel technology that may be what you’re looking for. Presenting Streamroot, an exclusive CDN service that has made a name for itself in the technology space in recent years.
What is Streamroot?
Founded in France in 2013, Streamroot is a technology company that provides hybrid P2P/HTTP Content Delivery Network (CDN) video streaming solutions for live streaming and Video on Demand (VOD). With its patented suite of products, Streamroot presents a better broadcasting experience to users by minimising buffering and server breakdowns. It also curtails CDN costs, usually fuelled by extreme viewership and spikes in bitrates.
Why is Streamroot’s Technology Special?
Streamroot’s technology rests on a hybrid mesh framework that breaks a video down, and cleverly retrieves each piece from a different source, such as the CDN network itself, or from another viewer streaming the same content.
Load Distribution:
Load distribution ensures that the content load is divided, without pressuring an individual source that could lead to a potential outage. In turn, a broadcaster’s costs drop and the quality of content increases.
Compatibility with Other Frameworks:
Streamroot’s technology stack consists of Apache HTTP Server, MongoDB and WebRTC. Woven together using HTML5 and JavaScript, Streamroot syncs with a myriad of online video players without the need of a plugin or additional installations. This means that even a new video streaming service on the market can anchor itself onto Streamroot’s CDN service. All it needs is a design framework like Streamhash on the front-end, which will seamlessly plug into Streamroot’s CDN service, delivering superior streaming content to users across the world. Add Streamhash’s fabulous themes, admin panel and dual server framework to Streamroot’s cutting-edge CDN machinery, and you’ve got a winning product!
What is a CDN?
A CDN is a tool used to transport content from a broadcaster to a plethora of viewers at lightning-fast speeds and reduced costs. CDNs are device-agnostic, ensuring that content is carried through to a variety of end points, such as mobile devices, set-top boxes, web browsers and gaming consoles. CDNs, in the context of video, can be broadly classified into two categories: On-Demand Video CDNs and Live Video CDNs.
On-Demand Video CDNs
On-Demand Video CDNs employ a solution called HTTP streaming, a technology that is tightly tethered to Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) encoding and delivery. HTTP streaming is powered by HTTP servers and delivers video content in much the same way that it delivers images and text. The route caches content and throttles on-demand video clip delivery, to ensure uniform speeds while streaming concurrent pieces of content for a unique content file. The ABR that HTTP streaming encompasses, translates a single piece of content into many tiny segments, each measuring about 2 to 10 seconds. Then, the ABR creates multiple streams, each a different bitrate, and feeds them into a user’s system at an optimally determined speed. Streamroot’s on-demand framework uses this CDN.
Live Video CDNs
A CDN can’t cache a live video. That’s why the basic CDN framework used for on-demand video must be altered by augmenting the bandwidth in the pipes between a broadcaster and viewers, or transmitting content through low-bandwidth pipes using repeaters and reflectors. Live Video CDNs can be exorbitantly priced, with every incremental user adding to the total cost of the broadcast. Streamroot has successfully managed to introduce live streaming CDNs at a reasonable cost for business owners.
What Makes Streamroot’s CDNs Unique?
Wondering how Streamroot trumps other CDNs out there? Read on:
Delivery Acceleration:
Streamroot enables content broadcasters to deliver content to fluctuating audiences, across the world. We told you earlier about how Streamroot employs mesh networks. These allow Streamroot’s HTML5 video streaming platform to inflate its server capacity as an audience scales. The company’s CDN framework dynamically multi-sources content, promising reduced buffering and increased bitrates. It does this by marrying a structured, centralised CDN network with a robust mesh framework, constantly innovating in the peer-based technology space.
Hybrid CDN:
Streamroot’s hybrid variant uses centralised and decentralised technologies to optimise video delivery, whether live or on-demand. In a single CDN, Streamroot has your live streaming and on-demand streaming needs taken care of.
How Much Does Streamroot Charge?
Streamroot operates on a flat-fee model that offers customers flexibility and reduces costs. Conventional CDN pricing is known to charge users higher rates as bitrates increase. Streamroot’s pricing model is static, charging a single price to users regardless of bitrate variations. This allows broadcasters to grow profitably and to manage margins well.
If you intend on introducing live or on-demand video streaming to an existing or new business, it’s worthwhile investing in a robust CDN to ensure that streams are run seamlessly. Evaluate attributes such as audience size, scalability and worldwide coverage. When you’ve assessed these factors, you’ll be better equipped to identify the perfect CDN model for your platform. It’s all in the finer details, for you and your viewers.