Delivering quality video to every campus lecture hall, library, and dorm room sounds great in theory. In reality, streaming that much video can cripple your network.
If you're a multi-campus university, multicast streaming tech is here to save you.
Let's dive into why multicast is the only way to stream video across multiple campuses.
You'll learn:
- Multicast Streaming Explained
- Why Video Streaming is Hard For Universities
- The Important Role of Set Top Box Decoders
- Benefits of Multicast Streaming for Universities
What is Multicast Streaming?
Streaming video over multicast is a method of sending a single stream over a network that only splits to create duplicate streams when necessary to service multiple viewers.
It's analogous to building highways between cities. Rather than paving a road for every car... one road reaches every destination.
The relevance for multicast in universities comes from set top box decoders. These decoders accept the incoming multicast stream and convert it into viewable video that can then be displayed on screens around campus.
Companies like Thor Broadcast specialise in set top box decoders and broadcast encoders that allow multicast streaming tech to work for large scale universities and lecture halls.
You send one stream. That one stream reaches every set top box decoder you've got across campus. You preserve your bandwidth. Provide a high quality video stream. Students everywhere are happy. The network doesn't collapse.
Why is Video Streaming So Hard For Universities?
Video is consuming bandwidth across the internet. It's been estimated that 82.5% of all consumer internet traffic is now video.
College campuses are a hotbed for video streaming. Hundreds or thousands of students all trying to watch videos at the same time. Online courses. Shared lectures. Live streaming events. It all adds up. Houston Community College, which serves 75,000 students across 26 campuses, reported that 65% of wireless traffic at their schools was video-based.
Universities With Multiple Campuses Have An Even Tougher Challenge
Imagine having to stream the same live lecture to every campus at the same time. Video stream for campus A. Video stream for campus B. Video stream for campus C. Streaming video to students at lecture halls across each campus.
The amount of bandwidth necessary to do this with standard streaming technology is astronomical. Not to mention the headache of managing multiple streams and keeping quality high across every location.
Students see laggy video. Lecture streams buffer. It's bad for education.
Multicast streaming technology can solve these issues.
Why do Set Top Box Decoders Matter?
Set top box decoders are physical hardware endpoints that receive a multicast stream and decode it so it can be viewed on monitors around campus.
With a successful multicast streaming setup, the decoder is the last step in the chain.
Make sure to buy high-quality decoders that can:
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Handle the video quality being sent
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Fit the physical space available in lecture halls
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Support the streaming protocol being used
In a perfect world, a centralised encoder sends out the multicast stream. Individual set top box decoders are placed around campus at lecture halls, dorms, and common areas.
Those decoders receive the stream and decode into video that students can watch.
IT teams can update a single central stream rather than configuring hundreds of streams that need to be individually managed.
5 Benefits of Multicast Streaming for Universities
Ready for the good stuff? Multicast streaming benefits universities in 5 ways that solve every problem discussed above.
Bandwidth Savings
When streaming video over multicast, the network is essentially sending one stream rather than however many people are watching.
Let's say there are 5,000 students all logging in to watch the same live lecture streamed across all campuses.
With multicast streaming tech, the server is only utilising the same amount of bandwidth as if one person was viewing the stream.
Compare that to the thousands of individual streams being sent to each student watching the lecture as would happen with non-multicast streaming technology.
All of a sudden the server can handle 10x more viewers. Video streams across campus are crystal clear. There's less strain on the network overall.
Multicast streaming drastically reduces the amount of bandwidth needed to stream video to every student across every campus. Which means less expensive infrastructure and network capacity.
Consistent Quality Across Every Campus
Students in remote campuses often have a much lower quality experience when watching university streams. This includes things like pixilated video, laggy live streams, and buffered video taking forever to load.
Streaming over multicast allows the exact same quality video stream to reach every student on every campus.
Since only one stream is actually traversing the network. Each set top box decoder picks up that one stream and opens it up to every student viewing the content.
That student at campus B watching the live stream in the lecture hall will receive the exact same quality video feed as someone sitting in the front row at Campus A.
Streamlined Content Management
Streaming video to every computer screen on every campus sounds insanely complicated.
At a high level... it sort of is.
But multicast helps streamline content management. Rather than managing hundreds of individual streams of video going to every computer on campus... IT admins can push a single stream out to every set top box decoder deployed across campus networks.
Whether it's an update to the schedule of classes, a live sports event, or school closing due to an emergency. Multicast streaming allows efficient management and distribution of video content everywhere it needs to go.
Easily Scale To Support More Campuses
University content can't just multicast stream to the lecture hall it originates from. Students live on campus. They spend time in the library. Listen to lectures in the gymnasium. Wake up to morning announcements over dorm room TVs.
Multicast streaming to one location is great. But when there are multiple campuses... how does scaling to multiple locations affect the stream?
Answer: it doesn't.
Multicast streaming technology allows scaling up to support more screens. More campuses. Without any additional cost to network bandwidth or server capacity.
Faster Emergency Alerts and Communication
Whether there's a snow storm. A fire in one of the dorms. Or a campus-wide security concern... multicast streaming can help universities better communicate time sensitive information to students.
Set top box decoders located around every campus can serve as a campus wide alert system.
One video stream reaches every screen attached to a set top box decoder on campus. Teachers can instantly push emergency notifications and video feeds to every screen around campus.
Emergency information isn't relayed slowly over wifi to student devices. Every student and faculty member sees the alert at the same time.
Wrapping up
Streaming video to every campus across a university is a daunting task. But with multicast technology, things don't have to be so bad.
Multicast saves tons of bandwidth. Allows video streams to be managed from a central location. Makes video distribution easily scalable and supports campus wide alerts that reach every screen around campus.
Schools around the world are already using multicast streaming technology to reach every student on every campus.
The STB decoder is where it all comes together. Without enough high-quality decoders deployed around every campus... multicast streaming loses its wow factor.
Multicast streaming tech and universities are a match made in heaven. Contact the multicast experts today to see how multicast can revolutionise the way schools stream video.