Summary:
In recent years, digital processing and communication technology have grown tremendously. With a proper mindset and a well-established plan, we can develop a high-quality streaming app for various platforms.
Media and entertainment software development platforms demand a large amount of data transfer and processing but with limited bandwidth for communication channels.
Fortunately, advancements have led to the use of wired and wireless communication channels, which provide a platform for various streaming applications. This has also led to file compression, making it more user-friendly.
Developers can build a good streaming platform with all the advancements in the video streaming technology stack. However, this streaming architecture might face some challenges.
One of the most prevalent challenges for developers is making their programs scalable. Scalability is an app’s capacity to handle a large number of users. It also addresses the creators’ future and existing ability to maintain the software over time.
If you are wondering how to scale your app to exponential growth, you have reached the right place. Scalability can be achieved by adding a few features to the app. These features enable you to keep your app running smoothly with a flexible coding environment.
How do the Scalable Applications Work?
On the user’s system, once they click on any video, it loads for some time and then starts playing. Let us understand how this works in the backstage.
Once the user requests a particular video, the app transcodes it. This method converts the file from one format to another, ensuring that the video is adapted to the best format for that particular device. Transcoding is a mechanism that helps users view videos and media from various platforms across many devices.
A lot happens behind the scenes before the user can view a video. Once the most prominent streaming services receive the video source, they send the video to their content operation team.
The most common process involves the following three steps given below:
- Parallel Encoding
Most of the video files available are multiple terabytes in size. Handling such extensive data becomes tricky. Therefore, the video is broken down into various small fragments and then encoded in parallel.
The server has to process all these parts simultaneously. Once the parts have been encoded, they are validated to ensure no errors. After this process, they are merged into a single file and verified.
- Validation
Transcoding can cause issues such as color changes or missing frames. The software analyzes these videos to check for digital errors. If any errors are detected, the video is rejected.
- Encoding Profile
Every device has a particular format that looks best on that device only. The video streaming app architecture creates many files during encoding to support every internet-connected device. All the various formats of a video are known as the encoding profile.
This is optimized to handle various network speeds. The faster the network, the higher the quality of your video will be. The audio and subtitles are also encoded at various quality levels and in multiple languages.
Technology Stacks Used by Streaming Services
Wondering how to build a video streaming app? You can employ various strategies available to build one. Given below are some of the strategies used by successful streaming services like Netflix:
- Content Distribution Network(CDN):
A CDN (Content Distribution Network) aims to keep users as close as possible to the content. When the user requests a video, the app tries to find the nearest server with it. The app then streams the video to the device.
Some of the most significant benefits provided by the CDN include speed and reliability. Improving the quality and making the video as close to the users as possible will make the viewing experience much faster and more reliable.
CDN and optimizing the page content and libraries ensure application loads faster. The content is loaded from the user’s nearest location. Using AWS Cloudfront can significantly improve loading speed and support the caching strategy.
- Third-Party CDNs:
Some streaming services might start CDNs, but this can only be achieved if their video catalog is small enough. If the video is smaller, one location can store all the content. Building a CDN isn’t a successful strategy for scaling companies.
Introducing third-party CDNs with the help of a Full-Stack Development Company can help them reach a bigger market with existing services. Services can work profoundly on their higher-priority projects with distribution networks outsourcing them. Developers can utilize this time to create algorithms to adapt to changing network conditions.
- Open Connect:
Netflix created its own CDN in 2012 to increase efficiency. This purpose-built CDN has proven beneficial for Netflix. Third-party distributions are typically more costly than open connections, which allows Netflix to connect to the entire video route.
They now have total control over the CDNs, clients, and transcoding. The increased scalability aligns nicely with Netflix’s global delivery objective and helps them identify their users.
Let’s Change the Way You Operate!
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