Advantages of Using a Stream Hosting Company - Part 4
This is our final part in the series, Advantages of Using a Streaming Hosting Company. Today we will talk about Content Delivery Networks. A Content Delivery Network is one of the key reasons for using a Stream Hosting Company. The advantage is it can reduce the amount of network hops (Internet networks) it takes before viewers can see your streaming content.
If you host your own streaming server on, for example, a Road Runner business class service, it might take anywhere from 20 to 24 hops before viewers can see your videos. Passing through several networks is a bad thing and can also cause packet loss and decrease the overall quality of the streaming experience for viewers. It might also require you to prepare your content at lower bit rates/data rates. Content Delivery Networks (CDN's) solve this problem because instead of streaming videos coming from one location to the viewer, videos are uploaded to a streaming server and copied to "edge servers" for delivery.
Learn about Limelight Networks' Content Delivery Network
An edge server is a streaming server in close proximity to your potential viewer. For example, If you are using a Content Delivery Network and someone is viewing your streaming content from Atlanta, Georgia, then they are viewing streaming videos from an "edge server" closest to Atlanta. Many times if you are using a Content Delivery Network your viewers are only one 1 network hop away from your streaming content. This improves the quality of the streaming experience to your users.
