One copy on the backbone. Whatever the audience.

SmartCast is Viewcast’s delivery layer built on Smart PTMP: origin to global masters to regional masters to endnodes to viewers. One stream crosses the long-distance network however large the audience gets, and fans out only where the audience is.

Calculate your saving How it works

The path, in order

SmartCast delivers a live stream in four steps: the origin sends one copy to global masters, global masters feed regional masters, regional masters feed endnodes, and endnodes fan out to viewers.

Schematic. Node positions illustrate the hierarchy; they are not an inventory.

  1. Origin.

    One stream in.

  2. Global and regional masters.

    The one copy crosses the long-distance network; adding viewers adds no traffic here.

  3. Endnodes.

    The local point near the audience; roughly 1,000 viewers per endnode at 5 Mbps.

  4. Viewers.

    The last mile is unchanged; every viewer still receives their own copy of the picture.

What the viewer notices

Because the endnode already carries the stream, tuning in is not a cold fetch from a distant edge: channel switching is immediate, with no buffering on start.

Notes

  1. The feel of linear television, which is difficult to reproduce on a network that opens a new session for every tune-in.
  2. Standards-based delivery to ordinary players: HLS, SRT and MPEG-TS output; no special client software is required.

What it costs you, and what it does not

Customers typically save 30% or more on what they currently pay their delivery network, and the saving grows as the audience grows.

Notes

  1. We price against what the equivalent unicast delivery would cost you, so the bigger your peaks, the wider the gap.
  2. It works over the ordinary internet, with no cooperation needed from telecoms companies.
Per-viewer delivery (unicast) SmartCast Audience Delivery cost

Schematic. Not a quotation; your saving depends on your peaks.

Take just the delivery layer: what changes, and what stays

You can take SmartCast on its own: it plugs in as a transparent carve-out behind your existing playout and DRM, typically live in four to six weeks.

It is the delivery leg that changes, not your stack. Your playout and your DRM stay where they are; SmartCast plugs in behind them as a transparent carve-out.

What reaches the viewer is standards-based delivery to ordinary players: HLS, SRT and MPEG-TS output, and no special client software is required.

It works over the ordinary internet, with no cooperation needed from telecoms companies, and it is cloud-agnostic: AWS, Azure, GCP or bare metal.

How the switch runs on your own chain is easiest to go through against the live system. The fastest useful conversation is a walkthrough of the live production environment, with the monitoring open and your own numbers held against it.

See the platform

Notes

  1. If it does not perform, you flip the traffic back. That is the entire risk of trying it.
  2. It is the delivery leg that changes, not your stack. Cloud-agnostic: the fabric runs on AWS, Azure, GCP or bare metal.
  3. Or run the whole chain in one portal with SmartPlay: playout from your schedule, delivery, ads chosen per viewer and measurement.

Questions about switching the delivery layer

What changes in our stack when we switch the delivery layer?
It is the delivery leg that changes, not your stack. SmartCast plugs in as a transparent carve-out behind your existing playout and DRM, and it is cloud-agnostic: AWS, Azure, GCP or bare metal.
Do viewers need special software?
No. Delivery is standards-based, to ordinary players: HLS, SRT and MPEG-TS output; no special client software is required.
Do telecoms companies need to cooperate?
No. It works over the ordinary internet, with no cooperation needed from telecoms companies.
How long does it take, and what if it does not perform?
We plug in as a transparent carve-out behind your existing playout and DRM, typically live in four to six weeks. If it does not perform, you flip the traffic back. That is the entire risk of trying it.

Measured, not assumed

Every endnode reports join and leave events over a TLS backchannel, so viewer counts, session durations and geography come from the infrastructure itself, not from browser cookies, tracking pixels or third-party scripts.

Notes

  1. We describe it as a measurement architecture and nothing more: IP addresses are personal data, and what that means for your consent obligations is a question for your counsel, not a marketing line.
  2. A 24/7 network operations centre watches every stream, every endnode and every viewer, with per-channel viewer series and a geographic heatmap.

Where it is proven

SmartCast has carried live production traffic since 2018: DanceTV, an independent company and a customer of eight years, runs nine channels around the clock to more than 140 countries on it, per internal analytics.

FlixSnip, a European FAST operator, runs on SmartPlay under a signed contract.

Chart notes

2024 – present · Comcast / Xfinity. Comcast / Xfinity: signed vendor contract; active integration engagement, 2024 to present.

Years in productionsince 2018
8
Channels, 24/7
9
Countriesper internal analytics
140+
Consecutive production days
2,900+
Uptimeper internal analytics
99.97%

What would you save?

Calculate your saving See what is proven