Interview with Oliver Lietz - Founder/CEO of nanocosmos GmbH
Can you tell me a bit about nanocosmos?
nanocosmos was founded 20 years ago with the aim of developing innovative solutions for the audio/video industry in a wide range of sectors, broadcasters, webcasters, mobile media enterprises for social media, entertainment platforms or auction, betting and iGaming companies.
We have always been and still are asked challenging questions about audio/video technology. We then always approach a user-based point of view which takes a look at the whole use case and customer target goals. It is usually about codec, formats, tools, and other technical questions but in the end it is the quality of experience at the end user which impacts the solution. Customers expect technologies to work properly in their business environments. We see that the right approach is understanding and controlling the whole use case and workflow.
If the technology to fulfil such use cases is not available, we create the solution based on our own R&D.
Perfect example is our nanoStream H5Live Player. In the post-Flash era, there was nothing available for browser-based, cross-platform low latency live streaming on all devices. Solving the needs to end-to-end delivery worldwide, we integrated H5Live into nanoStream Cloud, a scalable service with worldwide footprint. With this solution you can go live around the world in 1 second on any device.
How does this differ from other streaming services?
nanoStream Cloud is a unique combination of software and services It consists of a low-latency CDN with a scalable worldwide server infrastructure, and the H5Live client/server software. “With H5Live, we embrace existing HTML5 technologies like HLS and DASH and have added something unique to them to produce a genuine ULL delivery and playback on all browsers. We’ve not reinvented the wheel with a new standard, we’ve enhanced existing ones. We also often add support services to really help the customers’ use cases be accomplished with the best possible user experience.” Other streaming services usually use chunk-based HLS and DASH which create long latency values of 6 seconds or more. With our unique solution we can achieve ultra-low latency on any HTML5 browser of around one second on any device, including Safari on iOS. H5Live is designed to be lightweight, easy to use on any platform and cost-efficient for scalable audiences with a high quality of service.
Why is low latency so important?
Interactive live streaming is all about engaging the audience.
Any interactive use case with communication channels between the users requires ultra-low latency around 1 second to achieve real engagement, glass-to-glass from the camera to the viewer. Take online auctions as an example, any second counts to have a fair user experience.
Can you tell us which use cases could benefit from ultra-low-latency live streaming with nanoStream Cloud with the integrated H5Live Player?
Any business that looks for more engaging live streams can benefit from ultra-low latency. Webcasting with user interaction for Q&A sessions like in Enterprise or Education environments, iGaming, Trivia TV Shows, Online Auctions, Betting, Security and Monitoring are some great examples where latency plays an important role.
For HTML5 browser based end-to-end live streaming platform, what do you need?
For Browser-based Live encoding directly in the HTML5 browser, we use WebRTC, just as YouTube does for going live. There is a lot confusion about how to use WebRTC in a streaming workflow. We decided not to use it for delivery but for ingest on the first mile. For delivery and playback on the last mile, our H5Live solution is much more efficient and scalable.
This plugin-free HTML5 setup connected to nanoStream Cloud is and has been in full production for several years serving interactive live streaming use cases.
What is the future of interactive, ultra-low latency live streaming use cases?
We see very promising initiatives, developments and deployments in Trivia Quiz style use cases, fan engagement, combined with 360/VR with global engagement leading to new ways multi-directional interaction. Interest groups. Interactivity, technology, globalization, bandwidth growth, ease of use, delivering ultra-low-latency live streams economically are all trends that create innovate new interactive use cases. We are very happy and confident that our nanoStream Cloud - nanoStream H5Live products and services will accelerate these trends translating them in exciting and engaging use case for businesses and content creators.
NANOCOSMOS GMBH | AM BORSIGTURM 40 | BERLIN 13507 | GERMANY | +49 30 4303 2411 | SALES@NANOCOSMOS.DE | WWW.NANOCOSMOS.DE
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