The Technology Revolution in Live Video Streaming: Solving Latency
NETINT Technologies
AV1, HEVC, H.264 ASIC-based video encoders for metaverse, cloud gaming & real-time streaming data center workloads.
by Mark Donnigan at NETINT Technologies Inc.
As streaming platforms expand into live sports and interactive content, achieving ultra-low latency has become a critical business imperative. I talked with Keith Chow from Nokia about their innovative approach to delivering broadcast-quality streaming at scale.
The Business Case for Low Latency
The streaming industry faces mounting pressure to minimize the delay between real-world events and viewer reception. This latency challenge has taken on newfound urgency as major platforms like Netflix enter the live sports market and interactive applications such as sports betting gain prominence. Traditional approaches to video streaming, which prioritize stability over speed, are proving inadequate for these new use cases.
The Multicast Advantage: A Misunderstood Solution
Despite common misconceptions about its complexity, multicast technology offers a compelling solution for large-scale content distribution. By eliminating redundant network traffic, multicast provides significant efficiency gains. The technology sends a single video stream from the content origin to internet service providers’ networks, with replication occurring only when necessary.
Nokia’s experience demonstrates that while multicast adoption requires coordination with ISPs, the benefits justify the effort. In one notable case, a content provider successfully negotiated multicast deployment with seven ISPs for continuous live event streaming, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved performance.
Technical Innovation at Multiple Layers
Nokia’s approach to achieving broadcast-grade latency involves innovations across several technical domains:
Protocol Optimization
The shift from TCP to UDP-based protocols represents a fundamental advancement in streaming technology. While TCP’s reliability comes at the cost of increased latency, UDP-based alternatives offer superior speed. Nokia has developed a hybrid approach using RTP over UDP, incorporating sophisticated packet marking and retransmission capabilities to maintain reliability without sacrificing performance.
Transport Stream Enhancement
Nokia has refined the MPEG transport stream implementation by optimizing encoder buffer sizes and implementing fast channel change capabilities. This technical optimization enables decoding to begin within 90 milliseconds, significantly improving the viewer experience during channel transitions.
Hardware Integration
To improve performance cost-effectively, the solution leverages specialized video processing units like NETINT’s VPU to ensure precise synchronization between video and audio streams. This hardware-level optimization prevents the misalignment issues that can undermine latency reduction efforts.
Real-World Implementation and Results
Nokia’s technology has demonstrated impressive results in high-stakes environments. During a recent England versus Italy football match, the company achieved streaming delivery two seconds faster than traditional terrestrial broadcasts. Real-world performance metrics show channel change times ranging from 350 to 500 milliseconds, with laboratory conditions achieving speeds as low as 19 milliseconds.
Future Technology Considerations
While emerging technologies like Media over QUIC (MOQ) show promise, they lack the maturity needed for enterprise-scale deployments. MOQ’s limitations in multicast support and reliance on relay infrastructure make it less suitable for immediate implementation. Industry leaders continue to rely on proven RTP-based solutions for mission-critical streaming applications.
Strategic Implications
Delivering low-latency streaming at scale represents a significant competitive advantage in the evolving media landscape. Organizations seeking to implement similar capabilities should:
Evaluate UDP-based protocols for their streaming infrastructure
Consider multicast implementation while maintaining unicast capabilities
Invest in specialized hardware and optimization techniques
Develop comprehensive testing protocols for real-world conditions
As streaming continues to evolve, organizations that master these technical challenges will be better positioned to capitalize on new opportunities in live content delivery and interactive media experiences.
Keith Chow’s insights and Nokia’s implementations demonstrate that achieving broadcast-grade latency in streaming is technically feasible and commercially viable. As the industry continues to evolve, these advances in streaming technology will likely play an increasingly crucial role in shaping competitive advantage in the digital media landscape.
Schedule a meeting to learn how NETINT VPUs can enhance live streaming with energy-efficient, scalable solutions.
Mark Donnigan
is a veteran of the video ecosystem, working with disruptive innovation companies like NETINT to increase video codec standards and streaming video technology adoption. In addition to working at the forefront of building one of the world's first T-VOD services and driving early HEVC and AV1 adoption, Mark contributed actively to the development and growth of the digital locker initiative, Ultraviolet, breaking device-based content walled gardens, allowing consumers to enjoy video on any device, any time, and in any location. As a technologist and ecosystem developer, Mark's work building cloud-deployed and hyper-scale WebRTC, live, metaverse, and cloud gaming applications gives him a unique view of the OTT and video streaming landscape.