Akamai also predicted an unprecedented surge in streaming for 2021, with as many as 50m people concurrently streaming a single live event next year.
Akamai Technologies, a platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, has revealed that peak traffic on the company platform exceeded 100 terabits per second every day in Q2 of 2020. It was only in October 2019 that traffic exceeded the 100 Tbps threshold for the first time in company history.
The company attributed the surge to lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Akamai also predicted an unprecedented surge in streaming for 2021, with as many as 50m people concurrently streaming a single live event next year. The figure is roughly double the largest number of viewers during a single event in the past.
In a blog post, Akamai Senior Global Product Marketing Manager of Media and Entertainment Alex Balford said that the company has been preparing new capabilities in the Akamai Platform update that will help customers prepare for this surge in live streaming.
Akamai Developer APIs promise to increase operational efficiency for organisations that need to manage numerous live or linear streams, often simultaneously. These APIs are designed to simplify the process of provisioning Akamai’s Media Services Live and Adaptive Media Delivery. These platforms are components of live workflows which aim to ingest streams with high stability and reach global audiences with as little latency as possible.
To simplify post-production operations, Media Services Live features a live clipping feature to simplify the creation and archiving of highlights. A new feature called Instant TV enables streaming providers to define the beginning of a live programme and allows viewers to utilise Restart TV functionality in the event they want to start an in-progress programme from a start time of their choice that can be chosen dynamically.
Akamai has also supported initiatives like low-latency DASH that reduce end-to-end latency so customers can deliver streaming experiences that are in sync with, not delayed from, traditional broadcast. As part of this platform update, Akamai is announcing support for low-latency HLS (LL-HLS).
Alongside several partners, Akamai has been working to support the adoption of the updated LL-HLS specification. The specification is intended to provide users with an end-to-end latency of three seconds or less and backward compatibility across the Apple video player ecosystem. It will also help drive overall adoption of low latency in live streaming for the most popular streaming format.
