Video streaming: multi-bitrate and streaming quality

Multi-bitrate or transcoding enables the broadcast of a stream in the best quality possible, depending on your viewers' internet connection. Without this feature, your stream is only broadcast in a single quality and viewers who do not have a good internet connection may not be able to read it.

There are two ways to offer this feature to your users: local transcoding or cloud transcoding.

Local transcoding vs. cloud transcoding: pros ad cons

- Let Infomaniak manage your transcoding

The entire process is automatic: Infomaniak configures ands transcods the different qualities necessary and your viewers are guaranteed to be able to follow your broadcasts under the best possible conditions, regardless of the speed of their internet connection.

• A single, maximum-quality stream will be sent on your part.
• A software encoder is sufficient, although we recommend a hardware encoder for greater reliability and performance.

- Locally manage manual transcoding

The entire process is manual: you must configure the qualities and their number and possess the necessary hardware and network configuration to ensure transcoding and sending data

• An encoder is required for transcoding (Infomaniak sells them, if necesary).
• The encoder (or the server dedicated to this task) must be sufficiently powerful to simultaneously transcode your streams in different qualities. If not, the stream will be interrupted and unstable for your viewers.
• A good internet connection is required to simultaneously send the stream in different qualities.