Hi guys, in this post, we will discuss about the HLS approach that we took to enhance the delivery of videos in Teamie. Well, first things first! HLS is an acronym for HTTP Live Streaming.
Why HLS?
We have implemented the HLS approach in one of our recent updates, Teamie Khaki (1.34). One of the advantages of using this approach is that users cannot download videos that are uploaded on Teamie by looking for the URL of the video file in web browser’s details. This will help in keeping your videos safe and restrict any unwanted downloads. So, you can be rest assured that your important / copyrighted videos will not get downloaded until you say so. The other advantage is that it allows you to access videos over various available data rates so that you can watch a video in different resolutions as per the available bandwidth.Let’s elaborate a little (PS: Getting a bit technical here).
HLS was first implemented and released by Apple in 2007. In this approach, the overall video stream is split into multiple smaller chunks of HTTP-based file downloads. A master playlist file (m3u8) is created containing the metadata of these smaller chunks. So, only the m3u8 format file will be sent as the web service response for the video file.
The video player will play the file by using the smaller chunks. This also allows different alternate streams for the same chunk to be encoded at a variety of data rates which basically means that the video can be streamed as per the available bandwidth in a secure manner. Hence users who are accessing videos through a not so good internet connection, will still be able to view the video, in a lower resolution though. Since the streaming makes use of HTTP transactions, hence content can be delivered over widely available HTTP-based content delivery network (CDNs).
Multiple playback speed options
We have also introduced a new video player to handle HLS efficiently. It has an added advantage of multiple playback speed options to choose from 🙂 Have a look:
So now you can see why we decided to go with the HLS approach. We hope this will help you share content on Teamie without any second thoughts and will let your learners access it equally easily 🙂 You can share your feedback with us at support@theteamie.com.