Video Streaming Platform

Project Overview

The Video Streaming Platform provides a scalable infrastructure for delivering video content to millions of concurrent users. The platform employs industry-standard streaming technologies and optimization techniques.

Key Features

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) for iOS and Safari
DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) for other platforms
Automatic quality selection based on bandwidth
Smooth transitions between quality levels

Content Management

Video upload and processing pipeline
Automatic transcoding to multiple formats
Metadata management
Content organization and categorization

Recommendation Engine

Collaborative filtering for personalized recommendations
Content-based recommendations
Trending content algorithms
User preference learning

User Experience

Seamless playback across devices
Watch history and resume functionality
Custom playlists
Social sharing features

Technical Architecture

Streaming Infrastructure

CloudFront CDN for global content delivery
Elemental MediaConvert for video transcoding
S3 for storage with intelligent tiering
CloudWatch for monitoring

Backend Services

Node.js microservices architecture
PostgreSQL for metadata
Redis for caching and session management
Kafka for event streaming

Frontend

React with TypeScript
Video.js for player implementation
Server-side rendering for performance
Progressive enhancement for offline support

Performance Metrics

Startup Time: < 2 seconds
Quality Switch Time: < 500ms
Concurrent Users: 100k+
Monthly Streams: 500M+
Availability: 99.99%

Streaming Protocol Deep Dive

HLS Implementation

HLS segments video into small chunks (typically 10 seconds) and uses playlists to manage playback.

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXTINF:10.0,
segment-1.ts
#EXTINF:10.0,
segment-2.ts
#EXT-X-ENDLIST

DASH Implementation

DASH uses Media Presentation Description (MPD) XML format for manifest and supports more adaptive strategies.

Scaling Challenges & Solutions

Concurrent User Load

Implemented horizontal scaling with load balancers and auto-scaling groups to handle traffic spikes.

Content Delivery Latency

Multi-region CDN with edge locations ensures users receive content from nearby servers.

Storage Optimization

Intelligent tiering moves infrequently accessed content to cheaper storage while keeping popular content readily available.

Results & Impact

The platform successfully streams over 500M videos monthly, supporting millions of concurrent users globally with minimal latency and high availability.