StreamRoot
 | |
Type of site | P2P video streaming |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Website | www.streamroot.io |
| Alexa rank | 484,776 (February 2014)[1] |
| Launched | 2014 |
| Current status | Active |
Streamroot is a peer-to-peer video streaming solution for VOD and live broadcasters. It creates connections between users watching a same video at a same time so that they exchange segments of videos. Hence, it helps video broadcasters reducing their bandwidth usage, improving their QoS, avoiding outages of their servers and managing spikes of traffic.
Streamroot is based on a javascript library added on the video player. It is totally transparent for the end-user since no-plugin installation is required. It uses HTML5, JavaScript, Media Source Extensions and WebRTC. It is compatible with Live and VOD streams and on desktop and mobile environment.
The company behind it was launched in France and is today based in New York. Streamroot took part in the Fall 2014 TechStars Boston startup accelerator program.[2] It raised $2.6M in a Seed Round in December 2015.[3] It is used by major broadcasters such as Eurosport.[4]
History
Streamroot has been founded in France in 2013 by three engineers from École Centrale Paris. Now headquartered in New York (United States), Streamroot is currently expanding its customer base in America and investing in Research and Development to develop its product on different devices.
Partnerships
It signs its first partnerships with major actors of video Streaming in 2015 and 2016. Among those partnerships, we can quote:
- The video player JW Player[5]
- The media server Wowza[6] and Elemental
- The Analytics Provider Nice People at Work.[7]
Fundings and Acquisitions
On December 2, 2015, Streamroot announced its $2.5 million funding round.[8] Among them, the venture capital firm Partech Ventures,[9] Cherrystone Angel Group[10] or the French Public Investment Bank BPI.[11] Among the investors, we can quote Jean-David Blanc a French entrepreneur who founded AlloCiné or Jean-Baptiste Kempf the founder of VLC (VideoLan), one of the most widely used video player in the world.[12]
In January 2016, Streamroot announced the acquisition of BemTV,[13] an open-source project of a Peer-to-Peer video streaming solution.
Startup accelerators
Streamroot participated the Le Camping in June 2014 [14] and TechStars Boston accelerator programs.[2]
Benefits
Peer-to-Peer streaming solution like Streamroot brings various benefits for the broadcaster:[15]
- A massive reduction of the bandwidth usage from the servers
- A limitation of the server outages since each peer becomes a potential server.
- The management of the spikes of traffic which are usually an issue for traditional broadcasters
- No need for an additional infrastructure investment since Streamroot’s solution is directly included in the server
And it brings also benefits to the end-users :[15]
- A transparent solution: unlike the traditional peer-to-peer streaming solution, the end-user does not need to download any plugin thanks to WebRTC.
- A limitation of buffering and of streaming interruption
Technical Overview
Streamroot's solution is built on the latest Internet technologies:
- WebRTC, allows direct and secure real-time communications between users without the problem of NATs and firewalls. It is included natively in browsers as a Javascript API, and is available as an open-source library distributed by Google for easy integration into any type of device.[16]
- Media Source Extensions, another web standard designed for dynamic management of video streams directly in HTML5.
Compatibility
Streamroot is DRM and CDN agnostic and compatible with most of the formats, players and desktops in the market. In addition to this wide compatibility, Streamroot has always a fallback to the CDN which ensures a video delivered to the broadest base of users.
Player compatibility
| Player | Compatibility |
|---|---|
| JW Player | Yes |
| HLS.js | Yes |
| Dash.js | Yes |
| Clappr | Yes |
| Video.js | Yes |
| Brightcove Player | Yes |
| Kaltura | Under Development |
| Ooyala | Under Development |
| THEOPlayer | No |
| Flash Player | No |
| FlowPlayer | No |
Format Compatibility
Streamroot is only compatible with the major Adaptive Bitrate formats. It is not compatible with RTMP or format for Progressive Download.
| Format | Compatibility |
|---|---|
| HLS | Yes |
| MPEG-DASH | Yes |
| Smooth Streaming | Yes |
| Flash Video (FLV) | No |
| RTMP | No |
| MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 | No |
Browser Compatibility
Streamroot is compatible with all the players compatible with the WebRTC protocol.
On Desktop
| Browser | Compatibility |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Edge 21 | Yes (And Above) |
| Google Chrome 23 | Yes (And Above) |
| Mozilla Firefox 22 | Yes (And Above) |
| Opera 18 | Yes (And Above) |
WebRTC and therefore Streamroot are not compatible yet with Safari or Internet Explorer. However, Apple announced in April 2016 that the integration of WebRTC in Safari was on its roadmap.[17]
On Mobile
Streamroot is also compatible on iOS with an SDK. An Android SDK is under development.
Awards
The startup has been recognised with numerous awards including:
- Trophée Startups Numérique.[18]
- Hello Tomorrow Challenge.[19]
- Best Streaming Innovation – Streaming Media European Readers Choice[20]
- Lauréat Concours Tremplin ESSEC[21]
- Concours iLab innovation[22]
References
- ↑ "Streamroot.io Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
- 1 2 Semyon Dukach (August 14, 2014). "TechStars Boston 2014 Class". TechStars.
- ↑ Streamroot. "Press release: Streamroot raises $2.5 million in seed funding to redesign video streaming infrastructure.". www.streamroot.io. Retrieved 2016-07-05.
- ↑ Amiot, Marc (January 2016). "Quote of Marc Amiot, CIO of Eurosport". Streamroot. Streamroot.
- ↑ "Streamroot website".
- ↑ "Wowza Blog". March 31, 2016.
- ↑ Navas, Diana (March 22, 2016). "Nice People At Work website".
- ↑ "Video streaming startup StreamRoot raises $2.5 million". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
- ↑ "Partech Ventures leads the 2.5m seed round for streamroot".
- ↑ "Portfolio of Cherrystone Angel Group".
- ↑ Majewski, Taylor. "Streamroot, the startup disrupting video streaming, scores $2.5M round".
- ↑ "VLC player - Open source media player".
- ↑ Beavers, Erica (2016-03-14). "BemTV Joins Streamroot". Streamroot Blog.
- ↑ "Le Camping Season 5".
- 1 2 Cunningham, Candace (2016-06-16). "Six Benefits of P2P Unicast Streaming".
- ↑ "WebRTC". WebRTC.
- ↑ Tung, Liam (2016-04-14). "Apple quietly slips WebRTC audio, video into Safari's WebKit spec".
- ↑ "StreamRoot, grand gagnant du Trophée Start-Up Numérique 2013". November 12, 2013.
- ↑ Laura Ciriani (April 28, 2014). "Hello Tomorrow Challenge : an amazing event". CRI Paris.
- ↑ Schumacher-Rasmussen, Eric (2015). "2015 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Winners".
- ↑ "Tremplin Entreprises 2016 : Quelles sont les 30 startups les plus innovantes de l'année ?". 2016-06-21.
- ↑ "ACTU I-LAB : 16 STARTUPS ACCÉLÉRÉES PAR SCIENTIPÔLE SONT LAURÉATS "CRÉATION DÉVELOPPEMENT"". 2015-07-01.