Broadpeak, a provider of content delivery network (CDN) and video streaming solutions for content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide, has unveiled its S4Streaming tech, which it describes as “a revolutionary technology that gives video service providers more control over streaming quality and bandwidth usage”.

Through a unique combination of server-side technologies, S4Streaming assesses and selects the appropriate quality for video streaming, reducing the latency of live streams, enabling higher bit rates for on-demand content delivery, and decreasing video quality changes when network conditions vary. Broadpeak says that by using S4Streaming, service providers can deliver a superior quality of experience (QoE) for their video streaming service on any device and increase the control over the network.

“Until now, ABR streaming has been exclusively relying on the players to evaluate bandwidth and perform quality selection. The problem with this approach is that it can cause uneven end-user experiences, and bandwidth evaluation may not work in the context of low-latency video streaming, further worsening viewer experiences,” said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. “S4Streaming represents an inflection point in the industry, giving service providers full control over how their resources are used so that they can deliver high-quality video streams with low latency.”

S4Streaming accurately measures the bandwidth available from the server side rather than at the player level. The latter has access to limited information about network congestion compared with the latest generation of streaming servers that rely on modern network transport algorithms. The S4Streaming solution provides centralized control of quality stream selections based on the above server-side assessments or via operator-defined rules, enabling more precise estimations of QoE and dynamic adaptions. Service providers can change video profiles at any time with S4Streaming, which is an unparalleled level of control. The S4Streaming solution is especially efficient for managing low-latency live video streaming.

Through advanced analytics, S4Streaming allows service providers to determine how network investments will translate into an improvement in video QoE, prevent events that can cause QoE degradation, anticipate streaming limits, and manage bandwidth intelligently.

The solution includes an innovative home network orchestration feature that allows service providers to dynamically distribute bandwidth resources among different devices and monitor bandwidth at the home level. For mobile applications, a cell congestion capability enables effective management of backhaul and radio cell congestion during consumption peaks.

The S4Streaming solution is fully compatible with the existing ABR streaming ecosystem, simplifying deployment. S4Streaming has proven to be effective in both unicast and multicast ABR environments.

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