Case Study: High Quality Meets High Efficiency

The third-largest broadcasting company in South Korea, SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System), has become very successful generating traffic for online simulcasts of its television and radio channels. So successful, in fact, that it started to see problems with its bandwidth efficiencies that were driving costs higher. It began to explore the option of utilizing other streaming solutions to help cut down expenses while keeping broadcast quality up.

SBS started exploring peer-to-peer technology as one alternative. Its search led to several peer-to-peer technologies and helpled refine its requirements. Those requirements specified that the system needed to be usable by at least 80% of the audience and needed to be at least 85% efficient for that audience. Unfortunately the technologies it tested did not meet this standard. The company was not convinced by the trials it ran, and so it kept the search open for a solution that would fit its needs.

Meeting Demanding Performance Requirements
FutureStream Networks entered the pictured and offered SBS a peer-to-peer solution using the Abacast Hybrid P2P streaming technology. After running trials to convince the Korean company of the capabilities of Abacast technology, the stats showed more than 80% audience penetration and more than 95% reduction bandwidth, beating out the competition.

By using Abacast hybrid P2P technology, the traffic of one of the SBS 500Kbps daily broadcast to about 10,000 concurrent users consumes only 244Mbps at peak efficiency versus the 4.9Gbps that would normally be consumed by a standard stream. Across all the SBS audio and video channels, FutureStream Networks is serving a peak of 5.8Gbps (more than 35,000 concurrent users) while only supporting 266Mbps of actual transfer.

"The Abacast Hybrid P2P solution enables FutureStream Networks to meet their growing audience demands, while achieving much greater cost efficiencies over traditional unicast streaming," says Sun Jin Lee, CEO of FutureStream Networks. "Revenue growth in the South Korean streaming media market is forecasted to increase 20% annually in 2008 and 2009, and employing the Abacast solution will allow us to profitably reach the largest possible audience."

Efficiency and Quality
FutureStream was looking for a combination of efficiency and quality. "We chose content from SBS, South Korea’s third largest media company, to utilize with the Abacast solution and our streams are demonstrating outstanding quality and network efficiency," says Lee. "Abacast is the only solution we have looked at that provides a cost-effective yet high-quality experience. The best stream comes from our interest in consistently developing and utilizing the best technology and we believe Abacast’s technology fits that definition."

A Ripple Effect
FutureStream Networks, with the help of Abacast technology, is now delivering high-quality video and audio for the third-largest South Korean broadcasting company. Currently it is delivering 500Kbps live video and 32Kbps live audio streaming while supporting more than 130,000 daily visitors and more than 35,000 concurrent users (see Figure 1).

Aside from the bandwidth savings, FutureSteam Networks is also saving 60% on its infrastructure. Utilizing Abacast’s Hybrid P2P technology, FutureStream Networks reduced the number of servers, cabinet space, power consumption, and switching equipment needed for SBS content delivery. Less equipment to maintain and operate has led to a reduction in human resources and management expenses, as well.