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Why Did G&L Systemhaus Join the Streaming Video Technology Alliance?
G&L originally joined the DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF) for marketing reasons. Each year at IBC, DASH-IF hosted a well-regarded networking event, and sponsorship opportunities were available exclusively to members. As a company with strong industry ties, we saw this as an excellent opportunity to strengthen relationships and increase visibility. In addition to sponsoring the event, we chartered a boat to transport industry contacts from the IBC trade show venue to the party location, providing a unique setting to engage with potential partners and clients. We did this in 2023 and 2024 and are already planning the boat trip for 2025.
While our primary motivation was marketing, we also closely followed the technical developments within DASH-IF, particularly in live streaming. However, due to the high demand for our services, we were not able to actively contribute to working groups.
With the merger of DASH-IF into the SVTA, we find ourselves in an organization with a much broader scope—one that aligns even more closely with our generalist role as a systems integrator and managed service provider. DASH was only a small part of our technical expertise, but the SVTA covers a much wider array of technologies that we work with on a daily basis.
As a company that integrates solutions from a variety of vendors, we see tremendous value in the SVTA’s research, best practices, and published documents. These resources help us refine our strategies and stay ahead in an industry that is evolving at an incredible pace.
What Do You Believe is the Biggest Technical Challenge Facing the Streaming Video Industry the SVTA Can Help Address?
One of the biggest challenges in today’s streaming landscape is ensuring affordable and reliable peak capacity across all relevant ASNs for the largest live streaming events. Over the past years, several large CDN providers—Highwinds/Stackpath, Lumen (formerly Centurylink/Level 3), and Edgio—have left the market. This has removed a significant amount of available capacity, making it more difficult to handle peak loads, even as new providers try to fill the gap.
At G&L, we address this challenge by working with one of the few profitable CDN providers, Akamai, in various single-CDN and sophisticated multi-CDN configurations. Our expertise lies in applying knowledge from standards bodies like the SVTA to real-world customer projects, ensuring resilient and efficient streaming setups.
Looking ahead, we are convinced that AI will play a significant role in further optimizing bandwidth consumption. Future generations of codecs will likely integrate AI-driven encoding techniques to reduce data transmission needs while maintaining high-quality video delivery. Almost like MIDI, but for video transmission. This could fundamentally change how content is streamed at scale.
How Does an Organization Like the SVTA Bring Value to the Industry?
The SVTA plays a crucial role in bringing together top industry experts to tackle critical technical challenges. Their working groups produce technical recommendations, best practices, and standards that enhance interoperability and benefit the entire industry. Just as importantly, the SVTA serves as an authoritative voice, effectively communicating these advancements to a broader audience.
A great example of the SVTA’s impact is the Common Media Library (CML), a modern JavaScript utility library for media playback. CML provides a library of player functions for JavaScript-based players. Its modular design enables custom players to be built with only the features they need, helping standardize essential playback components and centralizing quality assurance. The industry-wide initiative around CML exemplifies how the SVTA supports standardization, fosters collaboration, and enhances the overall streaming ecosystem.
For G&L, the SVTA is particularly valuable because it functions as a knowledge hub, allowing us to learn from the best in the industry. As a systems integrator and managed service provider, we benefit greatly from the insights and technical guidance that the SVTA offers. It’s like having an extremely experienced mentor at your side, helping to navigate the complexities of modern streaming architectures.
We are especially interested in the Streaming Sports Council and Streaming Video Operations Working Group, as they directly align with our expertise and the needs of our customers. As a company that thrives on integrating complex solutions, we at G&L are excited to be part of this growing and evolving SVTA ecosystem.
Alexander Leschinsky
CEO/Co-Founder
About
G&L enables you to easily deliver audio and video content live and on-demand. With our technical powerhouse trusted by Germany’s largest broadcasters, leading events and government entities for the last two decades, our friendly and international team attentively manage your services with 24/7 support.