Overcoming Scalability and Performance Hurdles in Video Streaming Platforms

Since video streaming solutions have become an integral part of our lives. In a world full of digitalized operations. Imagine a world where there is no streaming platform like Netflix, YouTube, and Disney+. What you will be doing, none other than that of getting bored at a certain point in time. This is because the online video streaming landscape is at a boom through its higher demand and content popularity amongst individuals. This surge in the demand for online streaming solutions also brings some of the significant challenges for such platforms, through the need for constant innovations to overcome scalability and performance hurdles. As you must have experienced frustrating interruptions and buffering while watching your favorite content on such applications. So the question is what are the factors that are responsible for the slow down or interruptions in video streaming experience? The answer is its performance and scalability.?

Since these streaming solutions are in higher demand but not scalable, as a result with an increasing user base and higher traffic. These solutions, due to limited scalability start to function improperly, which impacts your video streaming experience and can also result in increased user churn. That’s the reason why you need to consider enhancing the performance and scalability of your online streaming platform, during the initial development phase. This can only be possible through constant upgradation and enhancements of features and functionalities, making the application capable of handling a larger user base.?

In this newsletter, we will be highlighting the highly occurring scalability and performance hurdles in video streaming platforms. Not only highlighted but, this newsletter also offered you the mechanisms to overcome all such scalability and performance issues in online streaming platforms. So that you can offer your users with a best-in-class user experience.?

Here’s Some Video Streaming Statistics

A top-notch global media company that is “Forbes” surveyed collecting general usage information about the highly used online video streaming platforms. According to this survey, Netflix also leads in terms of user satisfaction and enjoyment. That is rated by almost 36% of the significant users. These users have rated Netflix based on its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, delivering the best user experience to its users. This has made one of its competitors that is Amazon, the 2nd position in terms of usage and popularity. And was voted by almost 14% of all the surveyors. This survey also states clearly that the reason behind Netflix’s popularity is not only its content but also its delivery of engaging and user-friendly experiences to its users without any sort of interruptions or buffering in their content.

Major Performance & Scalability Bottlenecks of Video Streaming Solutions

Addressing some of the key performance and scalability bottlenecks leads to spreading awareness amongst individuals. For the avoidance of such issues within the time of development of an online streaming app. Here are a set of such issues that can affect both the performance and scalability of your online streaming solutions:

• Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Video streaming mobile applications have to face a wide range of challenges in effectively delivering the content to their users. If the content is of high definition, this will lead to higher data consumption. Because of this, the users might be facing some of the issues like buffering, and poor quality content which might interrupt them while watching their favourite videos over the applications.?

• Encoding & Transcoding: Converting the videos into various formats and making them viewable on various devices can lead to a quality compromise sometimes. You all are aware that no one likes watching low-quality content at any point in time. Which results in higher user churn from your streaming platform and also reduces the user’s trust in your app.? These video conversions demand powerful and scalable encoding infrastructure.?

• User Management: Managing millions of users and their accounts is a completely challenging task for streaming apps. It requires a robust infrastructure and advanced tech stack, databases, and efficient user authentication systems. However, to implementation of inefficient user management systems or databases can also make your screaming app face a lot of scalability and performance issues. Also, it sometimes leads to app crashes.

• Device Fragmentation: Video streaming solutions have to deal with a wide range of devices on which the users prefer to watch their favorite videos. This is why they need to work on a wide range of devices like smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, streaming sticks, and also set-top boxes. You must have heard of different devices like Amazon’s Fire Stick. Since multiple-device support can be a challenging task it may lead to performance-related issues for the streaming platforms.?

• Playback issues: Sudden, interruptions and playback failures are also considered as the biggest bottleneck of video streaming services. The reason behind this failure can be an inefficient network or it can be the internet connectivity for the users. For the same you need high-performance servers or network infrastructure, to offer your users with seamless playback experience.?

• UI/UX Design: Imagine trying to find your favorite show on a streaming app, but the app feels inefficient and unusable. Buttons take ages to respond, menus are confusing, and searching is like a treasure hunt. That's why a smooth and easy-to-use interface matters so much. It's like having a clear map instead of getting lost in a maze. If the app is frustrating, people might just give up and switch to a platform that is not good for them. That’s the reason why the UI/UX design should be simple and easy to use.?

Common Aspects to Overcoming Such Performance & Scalability Hurdles

• Implementing the cloud-based Architecture: Utilizing the cloud platforms to craft a video streaming app allows you to make your app highly adaptive, scalable, and efficient. Offering the users with on-demand resource allocation based on their real-time app usage patterns. It also helps you in adding a vast variety of content without facing any sort of failures or interrupted watching.?

• Implementing Microservice Architecture: Breaking down a particular video streaming mobile application into smaller components, improves the agility and facilitates the individual scaling of specific functionalities. Also, this microservice architecture prevents your streaming application from the vast impacts of cybersecurity threats or attacks. Maintaining and managing the performance of such solutions.?

• Machine Learning & AI Implementations: Deploying AI-powered algorithms in your online streaming solutions ensures its seamless functioning and helps you perform a wide range of tasks such as content-encoding, traffic prediction, and personalized recommendations for optimizing the resource allocation methodology and enhancing the user experience.

• Implementing Multi-Layered CDN: We have already derived that the CDNs play an important role in limiting the latency rates, and are the biggest cure for the issue of larger video loading times. For the same, you should choose reliable and multi-layered CDNs and should monitor their functioning performance regularly to ensure optimal video delivery.?

• Implementing Data Compression Mechanism: Strategically caching content closer to the users according to their preferences and implementing advanced data compression techniques can reduce the latency rates and also limit bandwidth usage. Resulting in the delivery of uninterrupted content to the users.?

Wrapping Up

The task of delivering an optimal and uninterrupted video streaming experience to all binge-watchers will be a never-ending journey. Especially for those platforms that are working on traditional platforms and don't implement any sort of advanced tech stack for maintaining and managing the data on their respective online video streaming platforms. When implementing the latest and advanced tech stacks in the respective video streaming platforms, leads them to the effective mitigation of some of the most common scalability and performance hurdles, offering the users an efficient and uninterrupted binge-watching experience.?

So if you are also looking to craft an online video streaming platform and putting continuous efforts in searching for a reliable mobile app development company. Well, your search ends at Amplework, which is one of the trusted mobile app development company in India. Our team of expert professionals with extensive experience delivers you solutions that align completely with your business’s requirements and that too at competitive prices. Just feel free to share your idea with our experts today.?

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