Reliable Streaming as Your Audience Explodes

 

The coronavirus has brought about a need for reliable streaming at scale. Universities, enterprises, religious organizations, and more are solving for COVID-19-related disruptions by delivering live content across the internet.

Video streaming is a versatile tool. It has already proven critical for remote learning, work-from-home collaboration, and business continuity during this crisis. But many organizations struggle to deliver a solid viewing experience when broadcasting to rapidly expanding audiences. The reason for this is simple: Without the right infrastructure, traffic spikes can cause buffering and video failure.

Luckily, scaling your live streaming broadcast is simple with Wowza. Even for those content distributors who never anticipated audience growth at such a rapid rate, the Wowza Content Delivery Network (CDN) enables reliable video delivery across the globe. We designed the Wowza CDN to reach audiences of any size — allowing you to focus on your primary business objectives. 

 

How Do CDNs Work?

CDNs are networks of geographically distributed servers used to transport media files. To break it down, let’s use an analogy.

Think of a CDN like a sprinkler system. Instead of funneling water (data) through a single spout (server), sprinklers dispense the water to multiple spigots. As a result, each plant in the garden gets a dedicated source in close proximity.

Likewise, CDNs distribute content using local servers to streamline delivery for audiences of any size. Rather than sending content directly from the origin server each time a user accesses a stream, local edge servers share the load across an entire network. 

In this way, CDNs helps remove the bottleneck of traffic that can result from delivering streams with a single server. The result? No headaches, no management complexities, and the peace of mind needed when delivering content to a growing audience. 

 

CDN Benefits:

• Scalability: CDNs are the fastest, most reliable way to get your content in front of numerous viewers anywhere in the world. These networks can accommodate viral viewership spikes and larger-than-expected live audiences.
• Speed: CDNs deliver content at low latency. Other methods of streaming may use slower “side roads” to deliver content, but CDNs use speedy superhighways to send streams to vast audiences across the globe. 
• Quality: Streaming through a CDN allows you to achieve the highest possible quality. This also ensures the best user experience by minimizing buffering and delays.
• Security: Finally, CDNs provide an extra layer of security. That’s because a redundant CDN with multiple access points enables failover. By comparison, you won’t have any back-up options when streaming from a single server.

 

Deploying the Wowza CDN

Both existing and new customers can use the Wowza CDN in a snap. While the Wowza Streaming Cloud service leverages the Wowza CDN service to scale live streams on demand, it’s also available as an add-on stream target for Wowza Streaming Engine subscriptions.

 

 

• Wowza Streaming Cloud: For anyone just getting started, the Wowza Streaming Cloud service automatically leverages the Wowza CDN to accommodate global audiences of any size. This provides a redundant, dedicated infrastructure  — while ensuring the best possible playback quality. To get started, simply sign up for Wowza Streaming Cloud.
• Wowza Streaming Engine: What’s more, Wowza Streaming Engine deployments can be combined with the Wowza CDN to deliver a highly integrated workflow. This solution is ideal for both existing Wowza Streaming Engine customers and any content distributors with more complex needs. The stream targets functionality provides instant access to our global network, with usage analytics to boot. In the video below, Justin demonstrates how to configure Wowza Streaming Engine for delivery through Wowza CDN.

 

Conclusion

Live video streaming is instrumental for business continuity during unexpected crises. And by leveraging the power of a CDN, content distributors can reliably reach large-scale audiences across the globe. Organizations spanning education, government, entertainment, and more are delivering high-quality content to viewers using the Wowza CDN. 

Are you ready to give it a try? Learn more.