Bitmovin and OneFootball Run on Akamai Connected Cloud 

Founded in 2012, Bitmovin remains at the forefront of the digital video streaming industry. Since building the world’s first commercial adaptive streaming player and deploying the first software-defined encoding service that runs on any cloud platform, it has established itself as a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure. Today, Bitmovin’s best-in-class video development solutions enable customers, including the BBC, FuboTV, and Hulu, to create memorable digital experiences worldwide.

Akamai’s partner Bitmovin most recently expanded our partnership by choosing to run its Live Encoder on Akamai Connected Cloud, the world’s most distributed platform for cloud computing, security, and content delivery.

Running Live Encoder on Akamai Connected Cloud enables Bitmovin to help its live-streaming customers deliver higher-quality viewer experiences while reducing and better controlling costs. Specifically, organizations can reduce operational costs by as much as 90%. Placing and executing Live Encoder’s critical compute functions closer to end users can result in lower latency streaming, helping lower data transfer out (DTO) fees in many cases.

Featuring an intuitive user interface, Bitmovin’s Live Encoder enables users of all levels to quickly and easily stream content. At the same time, Bitmovin’s robust API gives developers complete control over every aspect of the video-encoding pipeline. To support live-to-VOD and live clipping, Live Encoder is also pre-integrated with Akamai Media Services Live. As part of Akamai Connected Cloud, this solution makes it possible to support secure and efficient streaming at a massive scale across Akamai’s global content delivery network.

According to Stefan Lederer, CEO and Co-Founder of Bitmovin, “Our Live Encoder elevates live streaming by eliminating sub-par image and audio quality. As a result, audiences can enjoy truly immersive live experiences. Running it on Akamai Connected Cloud further improves the streaming experience for our customers.”

An early leader in digital soccer content and one of the first 100 soccer news and scoring apps on the Apple App Store, OneFootball serves 200 million active users globally. By offering a personalized experience that combines soccer content, products, and services — including live-streamed matches — it brings fans closer to the action on the field.

As the company outgrew the video streaming infrastructure underpinning its over-the-top distribution platform, it decided to develop a fit-for-purpose video chain, calling upon preferred partners for each step of the process. To address the encoding stage, it chose the Bitmovin Live Encoder, which provides more efficient encoding workflows and guarantees high-quality streams at speed and scale by optimizing start-up times. Because Bitmovin is an Akamai Qualified Cloud Computing Partner, OneFootball can also leverage the power of Akamai Connected Cloud as it uses Live Encoder.

Says Paul Macklin, Bitmovin Senior Product Manager, “The last thing you want to do is lose a connection. If it happens, it will happen at the most critical point. For OneFootball, the partnership between Akamai and Bitmovin means its global users will be well served on the OneFootball app with a reliable, high-quality, secure stream that doesn’t go down.”

Lederer sums it up like this: “Our partnership with Akamai is where technology meets the user experience. The cool things that Akamai is doing in the cloud, combined with our innovations around live transcoding, enable OneFootball to bring the stadium experience to every user, wherever they are on the planet.”

Bitmovin is the leading provider of video infrastructure for global digital media companies and service providers. The company has been at the forefront of industry innovation and all major developments in the digital video streaming industry. Bitmovin built the world’s first commercial adaptive streaming player and deployed the first software-defined encoding service that runs on any cloud platform. Its cloud-native technology offers the most flexible and scalable media encoding, playback, and analytics solutions available with unparalleled device reach, ease of integration, and world-class customer support. 

Bitmovin customers benefit from optimized operations, reduced time to market, and the best viewer experience possible. Bitmovin is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has major offices in Vienna and Klagenfurt, Austria, as well as in London, Berlin, and Denver. The company has more than 400 customers across the globe, including ClassPass, the BBC, FuboTV, Hulu, and Discovery. For more information, visit bitmovin.com.

OneFootball is a German platform-based football [soccer] media company. The OneFootball app  features live streaming, scores, statistics, and news from 135 clubs, leagues, and federations in 12 different languages covered by a newsroom located in Berlin. OneFootball is committed to pushing the boundaries of live streaming and deployed Bitmovin’s Live Encoder, which runs on Akamai Cloud Computing, to ensure high-speed delivery and streams in stunning visual quality.