The defining aspect of streaming is its on-demand nature. Consider the global reach of a Joe Rogan podcast episode or the live coverage of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launch - both examples demonstrate how streaming connects millions of viewers to real-time and on-demand content worldwide.
When it comes to video content - whether it's a live stream or a prerecorded video - there are two major challenges to address. First, video data is massive in size, making it time-consuming to transmit from the source to devices such as TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones.
Second, streaming must be adaptive to accommodate differences in users' devices and internet capabilities. For instance, viewers with lower-resolution screens or slower internet speeds should still be able to watch a given video, albeit in lower quality, while those with higher-resolution displays and faster connections enjoy the best possible quality.
To tackle these challenges, video providers implement a series of optimisations. The first step involves fragmenting videos into smaller pieces, commonly referred to as "chunks". These chunks then undergo a process called "encoding and compression", which optimises the video for different resolutions and bitrates to suit various devices and network conditions.
One major issue is geographic latency, where a user's location relative to the data centre affects the delay they experience. For instance, if a data centre is located in Cape Town, a user in Johannesburg would experience minimal delay, while a user in Australia would face much longer delays due to the increased distance and the need for the data to traverse multiple interconnected networks. This added travel time slows down content delivery.