Here are the engineering lessons we learned when live-streaming sports to 32 million people
Live sports involve myriad unknowns, but one thing is certain: the live video feed must play flawlessly, and simultaneously, for The post Here are the engineering lessons we learned when live-streaming sports to 32 million people appeared first on The New Stack .
Engineering teams at JioHotstar (formerly JioCinema) prepared intensively for the Indian Premier League (IPL) final in 2023, drawing a record-breaking 32 million concurrent viewers. The engineering team treated the event with the same level of preparation as the athletes, running training simulations and drills to ensure seamless video delivery for all fans.
The team aimed to build and test for a capacity double of their expected viewership, preparing for 50 million to 75 million concurrent viewers. The focus was on safeguarding the video feed, as any failure would jeopardize the entire platform promise. Identifying all systems and components in the critical video delivery path was the first step.
Even before the final video delivery URL, potential bottlenecks could occur during authentication, SMS sending, and user login. The team preemptively scaled critical systems like authentication and performed rigorous load testing on partners, cutting off any that didn't meet latency SLAs during the event. The team also conducted a 200-point pre-game checklist, covering database versions, timeout configurations, and service dependencies.
Following the checklist, developers identified key points of failure and documented mitigation strategies. Full user-like simulations were conducted to test how user behavior impacted all associated systems, ensuring the video feed remained flawless even under high traffic.
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