User guide

Streaming

Lecture Recorder x2 User Guide

9.2 Using a Content Distribution Network

A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of computers or servers that ingest an

incoming stream source and rapidly provides this content to numerous users by

duplicating the content on multiple servers and directing the content to users.

CDN distributes a heavy load of traffic to multiple locations in order to avoid

congestion on a network that could impact a user’s Internet experience. A CDN is

highly scalable and can make financial sense to website owners as you will not need

to pay for additional server hardware or routing should your website traffic start to

increase or even decrease. The use of CDN technology has obvious advantages to

those users whose broadcasts have large audiences from locations all over the

world. If dozens or hundreds of viewers happen to select the same Web page or

content simultaneously, the CDN sends the content to each of them without delay

or time-out.

To stream to multiple users, the System can be configured as a client to CDN. Please

click http://epiphan.tv/cdn-partners.php to view the list of CDN providers preferred

by Epiphan. By connecting to a CDN server, the broadcast from the System can be

streamed to multiple viewers. By using a CDN, the maximum number of concurrent

clients is increased, while at the same time reducing the load on the uplink internet

connection.

CDN streaming is a very effective approach when you are broadcasting streams from

the Epiphan solutions and want to add scalability to your broadcast. The System

features the Publish Stream functionality that enables you to stream the broadcast

either via Epiphan’s portal or CDN providers to multiple viewers. You must use the

H.264 codec for CDN streaming.

Using CDN it is possible to set a user name and a password for the broadcast. Each

viewer will have to request it from you before viewing the broadcast. This function

allows you to manage access to your content ensuring visibility only to the

appropriate and authorized viewers.