BitTorrent new live streaming platform peer-to-peer

BitTorrent is working on a live-streaming technology for years now, but only today has unveiled the first multi-platform dedicated application. Live BitTorrent is essentially a broadcasting platform that will be launched on AppleTV by the end of the week and will arrive on iOS and Android in the month of June. Inside the app there will be some minor channels, but the company has promised that additional content will be coming soon, and also premium paid.

The first channels available on the platform will not be very prestigious, but will try to cover different needs: we will be boxing channel and MMA (Fightbox), of auteur cinema (Filmbox Arthouse), for lovers of nightclubs (Clubbing TV), and also the channel "dedicated to bringing viewers on a journey that explains how to get wealth, use it and enjoy it" (AWE). But the important part of Live BitTorrent is certainly not related to content, as to the technology used.

The live video will indeed be spread in the same way it handles download via the BitTorrent protocol. The technology behind the app it turns every spectator in "broadcasters", allowing him not only to take advantage of the content but also to use their own access to exchange parts of the audio-video stream to other users. The company claims that this approach will solve fully the typical lag of live video, but not only.

An approach of this type adds a great deal of efficiency in the content distribution process: it will be possible to send a live video with a latency of less than 10 seconds to a very wide audience, without at the same time exploit an expensive CDN (Content Delivery Network), or to specific networks that control the distribution of live content to users.

"No one is able to handle 10 million simultaneous streams, and no one comes close. You should rent or buy any CDN in the United States," said Bob Bowman, of MLB.com manager, during an interview with Walt Mossberg. And these words are referenced by the team behind BitTorrent Live to explain their technology: "We have reached two million Maximum share in terms of concurrent users," continues Bowman during the interview.

Technologies such as 5G could help solve the problem, however, to build the infrastructure to support the new connectivity will take years, if BitTorrent offers you even now as a possible solution through its extremely tested protocol. Unlike the direct-based CDN, also, the organizers will not have to worry about the size of the audience, as the BitTorrent networks could only benefit from a large possible number of viewers.

"Current methods for the live online broadcasting of internet climb linearly with the size of the audience - that means you have to pay more if the stream will add more viewers," he said last year the company. "The online streaming in peer-to-peer back to the old traditional TV model, where there are no additional costs in case of an increase in audience size".

The technology is very promising on paper in terms of technology, however, is still unable to find traction in the market. We doubt that the new app will be of particular interest to the public at present, and, unlike using a protocol for downloading files which is known mainly because it used to distribute illegal, we doubt even materials that might attract the attention of broadcasters major television in the States.

Yet, if the BitTorrent technology that was so economical and practical as promised would all it takes to find a place to the base of the live-streaming of the future.