Xstream’s Tech Team Kitted and Booted for World Cup 2018

Xstream’s OTT platform MediaMaker poised to handle up to 30 times normal traffic for their customers during the global media frenzy

Copenhagen(13 Jun 2018)

Xstream’s operational team is ready to deliver a memorable football World Cup 2018 experience for the millions of subscribers of video streaming providers running their service on Xstream’s MediaMaker platform.

All matches will be broadcast through IP streaming up to full HD quality to millions of viewing devices during the World Cup via the MediaMaker streaming platform.

Based on past experience from video streaming events such as the Olympics, service providers have seen service take up increase up to tenfold in the number of customers viewing an event on the MediaMaker platform.

“Interest in the World Cup 2018 is unprecedented and every OTT streaming service provider must be prepared to carry record-breaking traffic loads during the tournament,” says Michael Rasmussen, Xstream’s CEO.  “Xstream’s MediaMaker system is now capable of handling peaks of up to 30 times normal streaming traffic.”

Ensuring successful streaming of World Cup games, Xstream optimized the MediaMaker platform based on its best-practice experience. The operational team spent the month of May performing draconian load and performance tests to discover and remove possible system bottlenecks.

After eliminating the first set of bottlenecks, the process was repeated to guarantee capacity for even higher streaming traffic. 

Successful clearance of bottlenecks was followed by three hours simulated streaming traffic load testing. It was then established that the MediaMaker system could sustain the anticipated maximum load requirements during the World Cup. The extensive load testing was enabled by use of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.

Based on Xstream’s experience, content caching technologies play a crucial role during events which generate manifold traffic compared to the normal. For this purpose, solutions such as AWS, Cloudfront and Varnish were applied.

During a global event such as the World Cup, ultra-fast scaling of capacity is required to keep costs at bay. Xstream uses Auto Scaling Groups (ASG) and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) load-balancing mechanisms to automatically ramp capacity up and down according to sudden variations in traffic demand at an optimal cost level.

If something goes wrong in streaming during the last minutes of the World Cup final, there is no time for a remedy but the damage to the service provider’s brand is irreparable. Instead of reactive maintenance, Xstream provides its OTT operator customers a so called HYPERCARE service which consists of proactive system monitoring and carrying out corrective actions in advance of problems occurring to prevent system overload situations.

With Xstream’s strong Cloud expertise, the streaming leader can claim unparalleled knowledge in how to build high-efficient, high-available and scalable video solutions.

About Xstream A/S

Xstream is a leading enabler of over-the-top (OTT) TV and video on demand (VOD) services. Today, we work with leading telcos, cable operators, broadcasters, clinics, governments and media companies enabling them to deliver sparkling content to selective anytime-anywhere viewers around the world. Our award-winning Xstream MediaMaker™ cloud platform is recognised in the industry for its rich and customizable monetization capabilities, fast deploy time and by its unique, fully adaptive and automated content ingestion process. The scalable end-to-end MediaMaker cloud provides all solutions required for a profitable OTT TV and Video business: Ingestion, Monetization and User-experience. It contains a suite of unmatched individual services including multi-device video clients, multi-DRM and context-aware multi-CDN. The MediaMaker cloud combines managed service with pay-as-you-grow pricing to optimize customers’ ownership costs. Our current customers include companies such as Altibox, Balaji Telefilms, Canal Digital, Mayo Clinic, Spark New Zealand/Lightbox, Star Media group and Telenor. Xstream is headquartered in Copenhagen. Visit www.xstream.net