Video Streaming: A Simplified Overview

This article is a brief introduction to Video Streaming. While aiming to be technically accurate, some concepts might be oversimplified on purpose to keep the content simple and understandable. Here, we will consider video streaming as being video transmitted over the internet, consumed through a web browser or an application on any usual video consumption device (Smart TV, phones, computers, video game devices, etc.). Cable TV won’t be considered in this article.

Video streaming services must address the challenge of retaining viewer engagement, regardless of their location or device of choice. Statistically, when a video freezes for more than a few seconds, approximately half of the audience tends to abandon it and switch to another video. It is crucial for streaming providers to keep users fully engaged with a satisfying quality of experience no matter if you are at home in front of your TV, in the Subway of a crowded city, or in the middle of cows on a mountain.

In order to start playing any sort of video content from the internet, a device first has to download at least a part of it, store it in its buffer, and decode at least one Group Of picture (GOP). Decoding entails the transformation of numerical data within a video file into a collection of pixels with different colors to reconstruct the image. Encoding each pixel in every frame at a rate…