Creating a Better User Experience—Integrated Support of HTTP Live Streaming
Apple iPhones, iPod Touch, iPad devices—how do you send large amounts of video data to multiple devices over the network and still give the user a great experience? HTTP Live Streaming is one answer.
Why HTTP Live Streaming Matters
Apple’s release of their HTTP Live Streaming adaptive video streaming protocol is a big deal. It provides the advantages of a true video streaming technology but delivered from a standard HTTP server. We followed suit by integrating support for the new technology right into our services.
The great thing about adaptive streaming is that it creates different bandwidth versions and then breaks the content into segments that can be mixed using dynamic stream switching. This lets the user skip forward to any point in the video quickly without having to wait for the entire video to load.
Ready to Get Started?
If you’re using our Remote Media Processor (RMP) versions 2.3.0 or later, HTTP Live Streaming is seamlessly integrated into our hosted transcoding services. We also support it for customers running their own RMP servers with the latest version of Rhozet’s Carbon Coder (version 3.16 or later).
With minimal configuration, you set up an encoding profile using the HTTP Live Streaming presets in our Transcoding Service. You then set up a Publish Profile in mpx that uses that encoding profile.
When you publish to the Publish Profile, the operation creates an HTTP Live Streaming package, generating a full set of segments for each bitrate requested. It also generates the index files (identified by the m3u8 extension) that tell the player what segments and bitrates are available and the files’ locations. During playback, the player decides at the start of each segment which bitrate to deliver based on network conditions.
Keep in mind that if you’re streaming content to these Apple devices, you’ll need to use an HTML5 player, which our Player Dev Kit supports. HTML 5 players built with the Player Dev Kit will automatically choose the best available format for the end user’s browser.
thePlatform is constantly working to address the support of adaptive streaming technologies as they arise. We’ll keep you up-to-date as we roll them out.
To learn more, contact your Account Manager. For the latest on RMP 2.3.2, read the release notes. If you’re running your own instance of the RMP, download the new release from our Technical Resource Center.
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