Akamai Announces HD Network

During his keynote at Streaming Media East 2009 in May, Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai Technologies, 谈到了在互联网上向观众提供高清内容所需的可扩展性，这将与电视的数量相媲美.

昨天，作为Akamai HD网络推出的一部分，Sagan指出了他的公司的解决方案.

萨根说:“很多人说互联网不具备高清传输的能力. "We disagree, 我们正在推出一种解决方案，它能够超越迄今为止所做的任何高清交付."

"We're at television numbers," Sagan continued, “就像我们看到的一个事件——总统就职典礼——它的播放量达到了1000万, but to maintain and grow that scalability, we need to go to HTTP delivery."

Akamai's co-founder and chief scientist, Tom Leighton, 他还在今天的电话会议的问答环节中补充了自己的观点.

"Today there are 50 million gaming devices in the home, 以及4000万部能够观看高清内容的iphone，”Leighton说，他也是Akamai的首席科学家. “我们在北美最终用户的最后一英里平均传输速度是5Mbps, not just a stated rate, and last-mile delivery bandwidth is growing rapidly."

Leighton没有详细说明iPhone的高清内容功能, 该公司还没有回应我们关于这项新功能的后续问题, he did detail additional issues facing HD delivery. [Editor's note: The iPhone's screen is 480x360, and HD is at minimum 720p wide, Akamai现在表示，他们将为iPhone提供“高清”画质. 蒂姆·西格林(Tim Siglin)在他的博客上详细介绍了该公司对“高清质量”的定义， Workflowed.com].

“中间一英里(一级供应商和其他供应商之间的互连)造成了另一个扩展障碍, as does delivering video from just a few large data centers," said Leighton. “这两种情况都造成了传输大量高清流的瓶颈."

"We have over 50,000 servers located in 1,000 last-mile networks in over 750 cities around the world, in multiple locations in each city," said Leighton. “升级到Akamai HD网络不需要额外的服务器硬件成本, as the only upgrades requires are server software. 事实上，随着我们提供高清内容，我们的持续交付成本将会下降."

萨根指出，在线视频经常因为启动时间过长而让终端用户感到沮丧, poor picture quality, and frequent interruptions for buffering. Akamai的一份新闻稿指出，Jupiter Research发现，如果观看体验不佳，60%的常规在线视频用户不太可能再次访问视频内容.

"The ramifications are huge," said Sagan. “消除高清内容的障碍意味着更高质量的内容, delivered either as live streams or on-demand content, 将互联网视频传输带入了高质量电视体验的领域. 普通观众将体验到亚秒级的响应时间，因为我们的架构允许我们更严格地控制流切换的频率[通过自适应比特率流]。."

"Akamai HD channel switching will be nearly instant, a second or two seconds, at worst," added Leighton.

可用于Flash, Silverlight和iPhone，并提供演示 here, Sagan noted the new Akamai HD Network will include an HD DVR, new media analytics, and a unified solution for multiple playback environments.

Akamai is also making available its HD Player, 一个基于开源标准的视频播放器，作为开放视频播放器框架的一部分. But end viewers need not upgrade to the Akamai HD player.

Leighton说:“我们的高清传输利用了所有现有的播放器，使用HTTP. “不需要额外的玩家来观看高清内容."

会议中出现的一个主要技术相关问题是关于Flash的高清HTTP传输. When asked what this means for the relationship with Adobe, now that Akamai is doing HD Flash over HTTP, Leighton试图向听众保证Adobe的关系是完整的.

"We're delivering HD now on HTTP in addition to RTMP," said Leighton, 萨根补充说，即将与Adobe发布一系列声明.

When asked about the HTTP delivery of HD, Adobe公司的一位发言人发表了以下声明:

“Adobe一直在探索如何更好地为我们的客户提供最高质量的视频体验," the spokesperson said. “Adobe与Akamai有着长期的合作伙伴关系，作为这些努力的一部分, Akamai和Adobe正在探索将Flash Media交付技术集成到Akamai网络中的新方法. Akamai针对Adobe Flash平台的HD是Adobe Flash平台可扩展性的一个很好的例子. It further enhances content delivery methodologies."

最后一个问题是，当电信公司和有线网络建立自己的系统时，为什么内容所有者应该利用Akamai HD(一些电信解决方案将于10月底在芝加哥的SUPERCOMM上展示)。.

"Content users want to reach everyone," said Sagan, echoing his Streaming Media East keynote, 而不仅仅是那些需要多个许可协议的特定围墙花园, one per walled garden. 这就是Akamai高清解决方案的关键之处."

I also asked Dave Stubenvoll, CEO of Wowza, 关于他对转向HTTP传输和自适应比特率流的看法.

“更好或更便宜的解决方案总是需要的，”斯图本沃尔说. “正如Wowza的立场一样，我们寻求以最终用户想要的每一种方式来消费视频. HTTP is one of many protocols, 但是HTTP作为传输的“标准”有一些有趣的事情. Flash、Silverlight和iPhone都可以接受HTTP，但方式各不相同."

Stubenvoll继续说道:“Silverlight Smooth Stream不能在iPhone上运行，但它仍然是HTTP. 每个客户端都需要单独的基础设施，至少部分需要. Akamai可以承担基础设施成本，但那些没有Akamai规模的企业却无法承担. 在单一基础设施中具有快速响应和安全性的自适应比特率流无处不在是每个人都想要的, so we're in violent agreement."

Stubenvoll总结道:“你可能会说《百家乐软件》是一台装在盒子里的Akamai HD.

An on-demand version of the press conference is also available here, although I've not yet been able to play it on my iPhone.