HLS
Streaming media technology has changed dramatically in the last 10 years; the diminishing role of Flash, the challenge of mobile devices, the growth of HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), and the demand for cost-effective security for streaming video and audio.
HLS streaming enjoys widespread device support. It was originally conceived by Apple for Quicktime, iOS and the Safari browser, it has become an industry standard -- implemented in virtually every browser. Another benefit of HLS, the client can choose the bitrate (Adaptive Bitrates (ABR) allows for clients to choose from a variety of quality streams depending on the available bandwidth). Finally, HLS supports powerful features such as Slow Motion, Captions, file aliasing and encryption.
HLS streaming protocol is an HTTP protocol that enables publishers to deliver the highest quality video is served to every device. It provides an optimal viewing experience regardless of device, screen size, or available bandwidth. It has replaced Flash audio and video in many sites and is the fastest growing technology among streaming media Web sites.
MediaGration is your one-stop resource for HLS-related streaming. Our MMCart software integrates HLS media servers with HLS-compatible players and billing. Our Product Creator transcodes any uploaded media file into HLS-compliant m3u8 playlists - no matter what format the file is. It is capable of applying ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) technology to video and audio -- so that multiple renditions are created to service different types of devices. Adaptive bitrate video delivery is a combination of server and client software that detects a client’s bandwidth capacity and adjusts the quality of the video stream between multiple bitrates and/or resolutions.
The MMCart software also allows publishers to enable ABR HLS, HLS-aliasing, HLSe encryption, and advanced features such as captions, slow motion and more. MMCart can be integrated with Wowza Media Server, WMS Panel, Evostream Media Server, JW Player, Bit Movin' Player, Video JS, and most CDNs, and transcoding services.
ABR HLS
ABR HLS is an implementation of HLS that uses Adaptive bitrate streaming over HLS; it is a technique used in streaming multimedia over computer networks. While in the past most video streaming technologies utilized streaming protocols such as RTP with RTSP, today's adaptive streaming technologies are almost exclusively based on HTTP and designed to work efficiently over large distributed HTTP networks such as the Internet.
ABR detects the user's device type and bandwidth and CPU capacity, then adjusting the quality of a video stream accordingly. It requires the use of an encoder which can encode a single source video at multiple bit rates. The player client switches between streaming the different encodings depending on available resources. "The result: very minimal buffering, fast start time and a good experience for both high-end and low-end connections." The below chart provides a graphic view of the ABR process.
HLSe
HTTP Live Streaming Encryption (HLSe)sends encrypted video over HTTP for playback on desktop and mobile devices. It utilizes the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and other technologies to seamlessly protect content from non-authorized streaming, piracy, and redistribution by others, with no detectable difference in video playback.
Encryption for HLS renditions is added during the streaming ingestion process, and a separate key is applied to each segment of an m3u8 playlist. A playlist can contain thousands of segments for a single video, making real-time decryption of intercepted streams quite difficult and expensive.
MMCart and ABR HLSe
MMCart is equipped to integrate with media servers that support ABR HLSe, and when used in conjunction with the product creator, will deliver HLSe for Wowza, Evostream, and WMSPanel. It implements ABR HLSe when using Apache HLSe plugin. Furthermore, MMCart is fully integrated with JW Player, Bit Movin' Player, and video.JS Player, all of which support ABR HLSe.
