Bitmovin Taps into Power of Edge Computing and CDN

Since its founding in 2012, Bitmovin has been at the forefront of the 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, its best-in-class video development solutions enable customers, including the BBC, fuboTV, and Hulu, to create memorable digital experiences worldwide. An Akamai partner, Bitmovin recently expanded the partnership by deploying its Live Encoder on Akamai Connected Cloud, the world’s most distributed platform for cloud computing, security, and content delivery.

Bitmovin’s strategy is to be part of most leading technology ecosystems, infrastructure, and use cases. As Stefan Lederer, CEO and Co-Founder of Bitmovin, explains, “For example, we want to combine edge capabilities with our products for manifest, ingest, and more.”

With that in mind, Bitmovin chose to deploy its Live Encoder on Akamai Connected Cloud. And it was able to do so in just two weeks. “Implementation was a great experience — very straightforward with hands-on support from Akamai on the best approach for us,” Lederer continues.

Bitmovin runs Live Encoder on Akamai CDN using the ingest protocols that Akamai provides. “That gives us really smooth performance. In fact, we immediately saw reduced latency across our end-to-end Live Encoder process with standard HTTP Live Streaming and Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, on par with most of broadcast signals,” says Lederer. 

Going forward, Lederer anticipates an even greater latency reduction: “We can achieve a lot more on the Akamai infrastructure with standard HLS and DASH. Another magnitude order is possible with low-latency HLS and low-latency DASH, which we will deploy next. I’m curious to see what more we can do with Akamai.”

By running Live Encoder on Akamai Connected Cloud, Bitmovin enables its live-streaming customers to deliver higher-quality viewer experiences while reducing and better controlling costs. Placing and executing Live Encoder’s critical compute functions closer to end users on the Akamai edge can result in lower-latency streaming. This, in turn, reduces data transfer out (DTO) fees in many cases, with some organizations reducing their operational costs by as much as 90%. The origin source of inputs to Bitmovin Live Encoder can come from anywhere. “However, we recommend placing our Live Encoder as close to the ingest origin as possible, which is what we enable being on Akamai Connected Cloud,” says Lederer.

Moreover, being on Akamai Connected Cloud means Bitmovin can deliver more value to its customers over time. “As Akamai continues expanding its global data center footprint, we can add support for more regions to reduce the distance between our ingest points and single-bitrate contribution devices sending us signals using SRT/RTMP or Zixi,” concludes Lederer.

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 London, Berlin, and Denver. The company has over 400 customers across the globe, including ClassPass, BBC, fuboTV, Hulu, and Discovery. For more information, visit bitmovin.com.