Tech Talk – On-Demand Streaming – Challenges, Opportunities and its Future

In todays episode of Tech-Talk, we are live with Mr. Kailash Malav, Cloud Computing & On-demand Streaming Expert at Octal IT Solution. He will be discussing On-Demand Streaming. Let’s discuss what On-Demand streaming has to offer in the future, the opportunities, challenges, and possibilities.

What exactly is On-demand Streaming?

On-demand streaming provides the facility to the user that does not make them wait for downloading the videos to play. Client-side (web or GUI) in a continuous form communicates with a server for streaming the content. So one can say that it is a functionality that allows the user to execute the media files directly without entering into the waiting zone, as it will serve the content in real-time to stream.

So is it just for entertainment purposes, or do we have any business aspect as well

Video streaming nowadays has a very large market, in the education sector, health, and medical sector, for delivering online lectures, or on-demand topics video to the users anytime. In the context of health and medicinal purposes, it allows the users to view all the associated surgeries that are taking place in real-time.

The technology has given a rise to the advancements in the LMS (learning management system) and the health industry and it will soon hit the other market virtues as well.

So, according to you, on-demand streaming is the next big animal in the zoo of IoT, VR/AR, and AI

The concept of On-demand video streaming is quite different from the Internet of Things, VR/AR, and others as they are actually targeting the one basic concept  how to make the execution faster, automated and smarter. On the other hand, streaming-only focuses on delivering the right content at the right time and in the right manner. It just allows you to lighten down your mood and adds on to your entertainment, awareness, and learning and there are still plenty of spheres that can be discovered and implemented.

What technology stacks do you use to implement on-demand streaming?

There are a few technologies and key points that must be considered while developing a quality video-on-demand system.

Storage

VOD system needs unlimited storage. You will have to use cloud storage services like that Amazon S3 that provides unlimited storage and access or you can go for storing the files on your own server, but it is quite crucial to make sure that the server allocated must cater very high speed and quality.

Video Encoding

If you want to make the system supportable to all major browsers and devices, it becomes quite imperative to convert the files in the format that is being supported by both the mobile and the web. Either you have to use the Amazon Elastic transcoder or FFMPEG open source technologies for making the necessary code conversions.

Streaming solution

You can use CDN to stream the files either in the HTTP or RTMP framework. Also, you can use the Amazon Cloud Front services for securing your streaming solution.

Video player customization and color scheme

It allows you to change the video player skin according to site theme color. In addition to the above, with its all the customized features, it allows you to implement social sharing, captions, multi-bitrate streaming, etc.

Security/DRM

It allows you to ensure the security of the videos to prevent their “hot-linking?. While AWS provides such kind of security, there are some of the points that can aid you to ensure the maximal security:

1. Use a secure storage server
2. Encrypt video URL or content transmission
3. Apply security on the server to access to only a particular domain
4. Watermark on video

Analytics and usage reports

It lets you check the viewer’s report and platforms, plus also lists down the countries where your videos were accessed.

What challenges do you face during on-demand streaming development?

On-demand streaming is certainly a toil task and demands a huge brainstorming. So here, I have figured out the most important challenges that occur during the development process

Uploading larger files

Suppose a user has a 10GB HD file and wants to upload to the server. In this case, we need to manage the upload process that will take place from the client to the server. For less than 300 MB, we can use the simple upload process. But for bigger files, it is mandatory to adopt the chunking upload process (in 5-10 MB till complete video uploaded).

Security of the media

Maintaining a throughout security is an important part of the media platform. So, users can only stream the video on a particular domain or IP without downloading it. In order to accomplish the aforementioned tasks, it is mandatory to link storage server and streaming server configuration.

Streaming

This is the biggest challenge is delivering accurate streaming without any delay.

Compatibility

Making your streaming solution compatible with major browsers and devices is certainly an adroit task. As it is a known fact that media platform is a very big issue as all of them come with the different and unique encryption and coding standards. What is the scope of this technology in the future

It is not wrong to say that the future of on demand streaming is quite dominating and will continue to maintain its pace.

There can be absolutely no alternative for On-demand streaming as you can show any of your creativity in the form of video and because it had already acquired a large user base, probability related to that your streaming solution failure vanishes off. Just because it comes with a limited number of features, it can be considered as one of the finest and cost-effective mediums for making money. Who are the major players in the market of on-demand streaming

There are ample of big faces that are hitting the market with On-demand streaming solutions, but the one thing that remains quite common is, all of them come with the search and click option. They are very fast with secure IT infrastructure. Whether they broadcast a short film, a creative channel for dresses or anything, the video starts, the moment you play them. The major identified and notable competitors in the domain are:

1. Netflix
2. Amazon Prime
3. Hulu
4. Twitch
5. DailyMotion
6. UStream

What is your WOW factor for on-demand technology?

Enjoy Streaming without waiting for your media files to download. Any message for developers It’s absolutely the right time for converting your innovative idea into the form of an On-demand streaming solution for delivering something that has no substitute.