If you’ve ever browsed Twitter while watching a live-streamed sporting event like the Super Bowl, you’ve probably noticed that what’s happening on your screen lags far behind cable television. In some cases, that delay can be longer than one minute, giving your friends plenty of time to spoil big plays before you ever see them for yourself.
That delay is caused by bottlenecks in the live video streaming technologies that broadcasters use to reach large audiences. PhenixP2P, a Chicago-based startup, has built a platform that cuts it down to less than half a second.
“It’s really a significant change in how video can be distributed,” said Chief Operating Officer Tripp Welge. “We really think it’s going to completely turn the streaming industry upside down.”
Welge said the current video streaming landscape divides into two camps: technology built to reach large audiences, and technology built to deliver the video in real time.
PhenixP2P wants to make that tradeoff a thing of the past. To that end, its engineering team has created a number of proprietary algorithms to make the process of encoding, distributing and decoding video content more efficient.
The team has also created a cloud infrastructure that is distributed all over the world, to reduce data loss and delays in transporting video from the server to the user’s device, and can leverage advanced peer-to-peer distribution technologies to help broadcasters keep their costs down.
Spoilers are far from the only problem with video broadcast latency. Lagging live video can also prevent broadcasters from creating more interactive content.
For a student watching an online lecture, for instance, a 30-second delay makes it hard to ask follow-up questions. If that lecture were streamed in real time, remote students could prompt teachers to revisit the last slide in more detail. Other potential use cases, said Welge, include live news reporting, video seminars, teleconferencing, social media and virtual reality content.
Last December, PhenixP2P made a big splash pitching at the TechCrunch Disrupt London Startup Battleground, where the Chicago startup made it to the final round of pitches. Since then, the team has seen a lot of inbound interest from technology and media companies around the country.
Welge said PhenixP2P’s TechCrunch presentation and algorithm-driven video technology has attracted a lot of comparisons to Pied Piper — the fictional startup from HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” And although the technology is different, he can definitely can see where the comparison is coming from.
Welge said the company is actively looking to expand its team.
“We’re definitely looking for talented engineers, particularly those with backgrounds in executing C++ code, but who are also open to working on a variety of platforms,” he said. “In a few more months, we’ll also be looking at making a few more additions to the business team.”
Images via PhenixP2P.
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