nir-vana innovation network

Live video streaming has grown considerably in the past years mainly because it establishes a real-time connection and facilitates a conversation between the streamer and the audience. Currently, it accounts for 70% of all internet traffic, with a tendency to reach 82% by 2022. Nowadays, most social media and video platforms allow streaming live video and the growing number of users watching live events are pushing the servers’ limits. They are exceeding the bandwidth capacity resulting in poor video service.

A Macedonian software company has developed a video conferencing solution that enables the use of peer-to-peer video streaming technology by connecting end-viewer devices to a torrent-like network to share video streams from servers. Using WebRTC (web real-time communication) technology, each connected device helps deliver video to another user without consuming the additional Content Delivery Network (CDN) bandwidth, increasing the capacity by 10 times. Instead of connecting each device to the servers, the solution allows only one out of every ten devices to download data directly from the server and to share the content with two other user devices who also share the stream with the other two, and so on. The deployment of the solution also leads to a better picture and helps to deliver video to remote geographic areas with poor server network coverage of end-viewer devices as a server replacement. Moreover, by using WebRTC the solution allows video to move from browser to browser without the installation of additional plugins or applications.

The monitoring of the solution’s performance is done via an online dashboard tool that provides instant insights in the CDN's availability and performance, detailed reports about central processing unit (CPU) monitoring, RAM usage, server load and concurrent users. Any signs of unusual activities trigger notifications in order for an immediate action to be taken.

The streaming software is hosted on a media server solution able to deliver high quality viewing experience. The server solution provides fast video response time and has record of handling more than 30.000 video requests per second without compromising the video quality. With built-in autoscaling feature for enhancing the capacity, the server can deliver live video to end users with low video latency of just below 300 milliseconds. The media server software starts with real-time video encoding, deployment and video delivery of HTTP live streaming (HLS) format for any desktop or mobile device. Moreover, the company uses its own content delivery network (CDN), a geographically distributed group of servers to provide fast delivery of the media files. By using more than 80 servers, the solution removes the bottleneck of traffic that could result from delivering streams with a single server and can handle more than 30.000 videos requests per second.

Due to the small domestic market, the company is willing to offer its solution to international markets. Potential partners are websites and social platforms that provide video services. The SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution can be implemented by adding just one code in the web-page where the video is delivered. The pricing model is based on how much traffic is going through the peer-to-peer model, i.e. website owners only pay a fraction of their hosting bills resulting in great savings. The partners will benefit from introducing new, affordable and efficient video streaming solution. Preferred type of cooperation is commercial agreement with technical assistance under which the Macedonian company will offer the solution for acquisition and will provide technical assistance for installation and continuous use. The cooperation is expected to result in increased market access, improved customer satisfaction and financial gains for both parties.

Advantages & innovations

• The solution has fast video response time and has record of handling more than 30,000 video requests per second without compromising video quality. • The WebRTC data channel used to transfer data between users is secured with SCTP protocol (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption. Communication with the backend of the product is done via secure WebSocket, which also uses TLS encryption. • The solution has a built-in auto scaling feature for enhancing its capacity that allows for low video p2p latency of just below 300 milliseconds. • Savings of up to 70% of the hosting costs with only one out of every 10 devices downloading data directly from the server and sharing it to other two users. • Instant insights of the CDN's availability and performance, detailed reports about CPU monitoring, RAM usage, server load and concurrent users.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

Type of partner sought: Cloud-based video platforms, cloud service providers and social media platforms. Role of the partner sought: Interested partners are expected to include the offered video streaming solution as their service under the terms of commercial agreement with technical assistance. Tasks to be performed: The potential partners should be interested in building their own Content Delivery Network for live video equipped with streaming media server software. The partners should acquire the proposed solution and integrate it as their video streaming service. The Macedonian company will provide the necessary technical support for installation and for continuous implementation.