The Challenge:
Proposed by Champions: BT Media & Broadcast, Comcast
This project builds on the foundation of the previous Scalable Ultra-Low Latency Streaming for Premium Sports accelerator, focusing on the development of a truly scalable architecture for delivering live TV over the internet. With the impending shutdown of digital terrestrial and satellite television, there is a critical need to match the latency, stability, and channel change performance of traditional broadcasting while reaching millions of consumers via public IP networks. This project aims to demonstrate that ultra-low latency streaming can be successfully deployed at scale using standard HTTP streaming technologies (DASH and HLS) and existing content delivery infrastructure.
The project will explore key technical components, including CDN and multicast ABR (mABR) integration, personalized ad insertion, and the use of CMCD v2 for Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring and ad beaconing. The objective is to achieve ultra-low latency glass-to-glass delivery, near-instant playback start, and tight synchronization across multiple viewers on consumer devices.
A central focus will be designing, testing, and demonstrating an open, non-proprietary architecture capable of supporting ultra-low latency streaming for millions of users. By leveraging currently deployed infrastructure, this approach will provide media organizations and service providers with a scalable solution to transition from traditional broadcasting to internet-based TV delivery without compromising performance.