The Live Path
Live streaming pushes a continuous feed to viewers in near real time. The pipeline must ingest, transcode, and fan out segments fast while keeping delay low.
Stages
- Capture and contribution send the feed from the source to an ingest server, often over a low latency protocol
- Transcode produces multiple renditions for adaptive playback
- Packaging chops the stream into segments and writes manifests
- Delivery fans segments out through CDN edges to viewers
Latency Versus Scale
There is tension between low latency and massive scale.
- Larger segments cache well and scale to millions but add delay
- Smaller segments and chunked transfer cut delay but stress the CDN
- Low latency variants stream partial segments as they encode
Reliability
- Redundant ingest so a dropped contribution does not end the show
- DVR windows let viewers rewind by keeping recent segments
- Failover encoders avoid a single point of failure
Key idea
Live streaming ingests a feed, transcodes to renditions, packages segments, and fans out through CDN edges; segment size trades latency against scale, while redundant ingest and failover encoders keep the show running.