Can IPTV Take the Strain?
IPTV is being launched this year, with Panasonic, Sony and Phillips (amongst others) launching their new ranges of TV’s & DVD players which enable video streaming of web based content from the internet. Rather than users having carte blanche access to the internet via this new generation of television sets, a walled garden of websites will be available, meaning users will have only limited access to the web.
This is the 2nd time the major consumer electronics manufacturers have tried to bring the internet into our living rooms, without the need for a home computer, with Bush’s first internet TV launched in 2001. This product failed to capture the public’s imagination for a variety of reasons, although one of the main reasons was the technology required a much faster internet connection than was available in the majority of homes at the time.
Although internet connections are much faster these days, and are getting faster all the time, one potential problem with Web TV remains… Can supply keep up with demand? It’s not so much a case of “is my internet connection fast enough to stream high quality video content”, it’s more a case of, “Can the streaming provider deliver high quality live video streaming to tens of thousands users simultaneously?”
Well, the honest answer to this question is, “It depends on the streaming provider.” Quality of service varies from company to company, as does experience. It’s one thing setting up a live video stream of an event, but if the number of users tapping into the video stream is far higher than expected, often supply cannot keep up with demand. In scenarios such as this, one needs not only extensive knowledge of the hardware & software which is being used, but also the experience to ensure everything runs smoothly in spite of a massive surge of users logging on.
Streaming Tank have the worlds largest video streaming infrastructure at their disposal, capable of delivering both on demand video streaming and live video streaming to all corners of the Earth. Some 37,000 servers on 1,200 networks in over 72 countries make up their extremely robust ‘fault tolerant’ video streaming network. For more details, Contact Streaming Tank at http://www.streamingtank.com
