Start-Up Promises Smoother Streaming Video

Consumers and corporations with at least a 1 Mbps Internet connection can now enjoy high-quality streaming video without interference from Internet failures or congestion, according to a content hosting company that introduced its services on Wednesday.

The company, EdgeStream, uses a combination of fault-tolerant server technology and a small, downloadable client plug-in to ensure a video stream continues amid any failure or congestion beyond the "last mile" to the end user's system, says EdgeStream President and Chief Executive Officer Vinod Sodhi.

Cheaper Streamers

Unlike companies such as Akamai Technologies, which replicate content to many facilities around the world in order to bring it physically closer to end users, EdgeStream has just three hosting sites and helps the client work around bottlenecks. The result is higher quality and lower cost, according to Sodhi.

With current systems, "all the pieces of intelligence are in the server, and we believe that's wrong," he says. "There's a big difference between what the server delivers and what the client receives. With our technology, the client is in charge."

EdgeStream has hosting sites in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Philadelphia and leases network capacity from Internet service providers to link those facilities. If any part of that infrastructure fails, another part will take over or a route will be found around a failed network link, Sodhi says. Users connect to that network via the open Internet.

Plug-In Required

Users who want to watch streaming video hosted on EdgeStream's service need to download a free plug-in, which Sodhi says is less than 200KB in size. That proprietary software, which includes EdgeStream's Continuous Route Optimization Software and Real Time Performance Monitoring Software, can calculate the best route across the Internet to EdgeStream's network.

It can detect a failure or congestion in any link and find a clearer path within seconds, Sodhi says. For example, if a user in Hong Kong were connected to EdgeStream's network via one trans-Pacific cable and that cable were broken, the client software would shift the connection to another trans-Pacific link.

Most PCs with at least a 500-MHz processor can run the route-optimization software and play a high-quality streaming video at the same time, according to Sodhi. The software works on Windows 98 and later operating systems.

If a consumer broadband service or a corporation's Internet connection delivers 1 Mbps or more to the end user's desktop, the user can enjoy a video with near DVD quality, according to the company. Even if the connection falls short of that speed, compression technologies used by content providers could help to deliver high-quality video, Sodhi says.

The system can deliver video to be played on Windows Media Player and Real Networks' RealOne Player. All media formats supported by those players are supported on EdgeStream's system. EdgeStream plans to add support for the Apple Computer's QuickTime Player in the next few months, the company says.

The low cost of EdgeStream's system opens the door to smaller content providers and corporations that want to host streaming video worldwide, Sodhi says.