In professional online video broadcasting, it is important to create a positive viewer experience. Businesses need to provide an enjoyable viewing experience in order for their investment in video to be effective.
When people watch poor quality streams, they can even become unconsciously disturbed. Investing in professional cameras, microphones, lighting equipment and encoders are some ways to address this issue, but they require some additional support.
How does a CDN work?
The process of accessing content cached at the edge of a CDN network is almost always transparent to the user. the CDN management software dynamically calculates which server is located closest to the requesting user and delivers content based on those calculations. the CDN edge server communicates with the source server of the content to deliver cached content and new content that has not been cached to the user.
Edge servers reduce the distance and the number of packet hops over which content is delivered. The result is less packet loss, optimized bandwidth and faster performance. This minimizes timeouts, latency and jitter, and improves the user experience. In the event of an Internet attack or outage, content hosted on the CDN server remains available to certain users.
What is a video CDN?
A video CDN is a system with geographically dispersed servers that deliver media files by caching them. These networks typically cache content and store it in multiple locations. The video is then streamed from the nearest server to the user.
For example, if you stream video from the United States to your viewers in Thailand, it will be cached and stored in servers in Thailand. When your Thai viewers watch your video, it will be streamed from the server in Thailand instead of the source server in the US.
As a result, the CDN provides a high quality and seamless video experience. Many websites and video streaming platforms use CDNs to speed up content delivery by avoiding slow loading speeds and buffering delays.
Benefits of CDN Video Streaming
By connecting servers worldwide, video CDNs reduce the time it takes to deliver video content from the source to the end user.The benefits of CDN video streaming include
Reduces latency by minimizing distance
The principle is the same as described in the previous paragraph. The closer the server is to the end user, the faster the video loads and plays.
Load balancing
A group of servers can handle streaming video for hundreds of viewers better than a single server, rather than overwhelming the original server.
Content doesn’t exceed bandwidth
Just as limiting cars to one lane can increase traffic; similarly, a network can pass data within its bandwidth. If streams are delivered from multiple CDN servers, the network is less likely to be stuffed with traffic.
How CDNs are evolving for next-generation streaming
Increasing data volumes, improved connectivity and technological advances collide to make streaming a part of everyday life. End users expect high-quality content delivered lightning fast, and CDNs play a critical role in meeting these demands.
Another development in the streaming industry is the emergence of low-latency technologies such as real-time communications (TRTC), low-latency HLS, and low-latency CMAF for DASH. many CDNs are adding support for these formats, which will enable faster video delivery than ever before. For interactive experiences such as live online events, on-demand and sports broadcasts, the ability to stream live video at scale will support these behaviors
