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LIMELIGHT REALTIME STREAMING: SUB-SECOND LATENCY FOR LIVE ONLINE STREAMING VIDEO

Today’s organizations and their audiences are increasingly leveraging the excitement and engagement of live video in multiple ways.
Yet, as organizations seek to adopt live video for time-critical use cases, streaming latency of up to a minute or more has emerged as
a significant challenge. Current video streaming technology is not able to provide the realtime latency required to provide the viewer experience necessary to realize live streaming’s potential impact on the industry. What is needed is new technology that can be deployed
on a global scale to deliver sub-second latency online video to audiences on any device they are using. Limelight Realtime Streaming provides sub-second live streaming latency for use cases demanding the lowest possible latency, and is supported on popular browsers and devices.

ONLINE STREAMING VIDEO ADOPTION GROWS

Online streaming of major sports events is rapidly growing in popularity, with the 2018 Super Bowl drawing a peak of 3.1 million live streams, the third consecutive year of streaming growth, as the number of TV broadcast viewers slipped 7% from the previous year1. The 2018 World Cup also broke live streaming records across platforms2. According to the Limelight “State of Online Video 2018” report, 65% more viewers would stream more sports events if it was not delayed from the broadcast. Besides sports events, other online live video use cases are poised to experience significant popularity if the streaming latency issue could be addressed, including online gambling, eSports, and video gaming.

THE LATENCY CHALLENGE

The delays inherent in a traditional broadcast signal path are consistent and can be easily controlled. However, latency issues are inherent in the majority of streaming video formats for the internet. Traditional HTTP streaming breaks the video in small segments or chunks that can be buffered prior to playback, leading to typical streaming delays of 30 seconds or more. While it’s possible to reduce the size of the chunks to minimize the delay, making them too small increases the chance viewers will experience video rebuffering and other playback issues.

WHEN LATENCY MATTERS

Latency is not a problem for every online live streaming application. A one-minute delay may not matter to viewers who are watching a live pay per view concert. However certain business use cases demand the lowest possible latency, such as: Sports—When fans are watching a live online stream of a sporting
event on their smartphone, the last thing they want is to get a chat message from a friend watching the same event on TV saying, “What a great play!!!” before they’ve seen it on their mobile device. For sports broadcasters, delivering low-latency online streams increases viewer engagement and grows total viewership.

Online gaming—For online casinos, the ability to stream in realtime means all players instantly get to see the turn of the cards at the same time, allowing them to place their bets more quickly and increasing the number of hands that can be played each hour. In addition, when live in-event online sports betting provides realtime streaming, players can place bets up until the last possible second, increasing the number of wagers.

Live online eSports—Sub-second latency allows online play and commentary along with live in-arena audience. Adding live chat, polling and surveys makes the viewer experience more exciting and increases the total audience.

SUB-SECOND LATENCY WITH LIMELIGHT REALTIME STREAMING

Limelight Realtime Streaming, a WebRTC-based realtime streaming solution, is the first globally scalable solution that delivers live broadcast-quality video from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world, with less than one second of latency. Limelight is at the forefront of implementing WebRTC technology for global realtime streaming.

Released in May of 2011, WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication) is an open standard for embedding secure, SSL-protected real-time voice, video and data communication capabilities into a broad range of web browsers and mobile applications. While WebRTC was originally designed for peer-to-peer communication, Limelight has extended the technology and adapted it for global realtime streaming to massive audiences.

HOW LIMELIGHT REALTIME STREAMING MINIMIZES LATENCY

HTTP chunk streaming for HLS/DASH utilizes the TCP/IP protocol. The high latency is due to the buffering of chunks prior to transmission. Limelight Realtime Streaming uses WebRTC technology to stream live video with less than one second of latency through the fast and efficient UDP data transfer protocol. Video streams do not need to be segmented into chunks and buffered before delivery. Adaptive Bitrate streaming delivers the highest possible picture quality to each viewer, even over changing network conditions, ensuring the best possible online experience. Limelight Realtime Streaming leverages Limelight’s global private network which has the capacity, reach, and connectivity to ensure a high-quality, realtime viewing experience for viewers wherever they are.

REACH THE WIDEST AUDIENCE WITH NATIVE BROWSER SUPPORT

Another advantage of Limelight Realtime Streaming is that while some other low latency streaming solutions require custom software development or rely on special client-side plug-ins, Limelight enables playback and delivery on standard web browsers. Native browser support means video playback can happen without the need for plug-ins or special players. Currently supported PC and mobile device browsers include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera (Microsoft Edge coming soon).

* Sub-second latency

* Uses UDP/IP protocol for transport

* Does not require video segmenting and buffering

* Broad browser support – no plugin needed

* Supports adaptive bitrate streaming to adjust to network conditions

* Stream security features include ingest stream authentication and access control