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Here we look in a little more depth at the technologies used within SwiftServe:
At SwiftServe we have a strong preference for the HTTP protocol as our core delivery transport. We are able to reach the widest range of devices, offer great scalability and interact with our network partners in the most efficient manner using HTTP. We offer the following range of services over HTTP:
We also support a wide range of “legacy” streaming protocols e.g. RTMP and RTSP for those applications that still require them.
To simplify the process of delivering content to mobile devices we have architected a multi-format streaming solution. Our platform will accept a single input format and automatically convert that to multiple output formats to enable us to support a wide range of devices.
Of course all of these outputs from SwiftServe fully support dynamic streaming, so if the input stream has multiple bitrates encoded we can deliver a dynamic adaptive streaming experience to Android, iPhone, iPad and many other smart devices simultaneously.
The right codec choice is an important decision for any video service. One of the challenges historically when delivering content online has been the inability to target an entire audience with a single format, requiring a more complex, time-consuming and expensive content production workflow.
With many content producers standardizing on H.264 for their production workflows and many consumer devices with native H.264 decoding support we believe that H.264 is the best choice to deliver a great quality video experience that can reach the widest audience - specifically for video we recommend H.264 (Baseline Profile Level 3.0) and for audio AAC (High Efficiency, HE-AAC).
For those customers that require “legacy” codecs we support a wide range e.g. VP6 and VC-1.
SwiftServe provides two key access control mechanisms. The first service is GeoBlocking, which restricts access to content based on end user location. This is especially important to allow content owners to comply with rights restrictions that may only license the content owner to distribute the content within a specific geographic region.
Secondly, SwiftServe offers a Token Authentication service. This is the most flexible solution to allow customers to control access to content according to their own business logic. When the service is enabled content can only be accessed with a valid “token” which is generated by the customer. Each token is a cryptographically secure SHA-1 hash, which specifies a time period during which the token is valid and also an IP address that the token is associated with (attempted access from any other IP address with the same token is rejected).
The customer is responsible for generating the tokens, which allows them to have full control over how access is granted. For example they can integrate into their own subscriber management and payment systems to determine which users can access specific content, without needing to open that access up to a 3rd party.