The scale of video streaming is expanding from content on platforms like Netflix, to social content used when playing games with friends, and even used in the professional world such as telemedicine, distance learning, and of course working remotely. Due to its increasing popularity, it is also necessary to conduct API monitoring for video streaming service platforms.
Video combines visuals, audio and text in its production, resulting in content that is easy to understand and interesting compared to various other content. That way, more people will be attracted to it and allow for good customer retention. To better understand the importance of API monitoring in video streaming services, this article will discuss it.
What is Video Streaming?
Video streaming transmits multimedia media content as data to digital devices over an internet connection. Live streaming is a continuous stream of data that platform users can watch live without downloading the content. In general, live streaming is hosted on a remote server or in the cloud, hence accessible over the internet.
The main difference between downloaded content and streaming video is that streaming requires continuous transmission of video documents in real time. Whereas downloaded content cannot be played while it is being downloaded. In other words, streaming video will load and buffer a small amount of video at a time, while the downloaded video document is loaded in its entirety.
What is Video Streaming API?
A video streaming API is a programming interface that takes a single original video document as input, then splits it and encodes it into multiple small chunks as output ready for broadcast. The video streaming API can host those streaming chunks and deliver the video stream to the end user using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), but this is optional.
Why Use an API?
Video streaming APIs allow applications to stream content and other data through a host server. The API technology will extract data from the server and make the content available and accessible to the application and its users. Video streaming APIs allow application users to access video content and also integrate with systems to control and monitor content, track user data, and make certain adjustments. Using APIs on video streaming platforms prevents the development of in-house streaming solutions in each company or individually. APIs also offer customer support, higher security, and better scalability. In addition, UI design and documentation are readily available.
Other than that, there are many reasons to use APIs for video streaming platforms. Below are the top 3 benefits of APIs in video applications that need to be highlighted:
1. Increase Efficiency
APIs are ready-made components that can minimize the bottlenecks that development teams may face. It is common to face bottlenecks when building a video stream from scratch. In addition, APIs can also be used to automate coding tasks so that the team can focus on other things that require more innovation and creativity.
Not only can APIs simplify internal processes, but they can also be customized to be more responsive. This means that users of video streaming apps can enjoy a fast and high-quality streaming experience. This applies to both live streaming and video on demand content.
2. Continuous Innovation
The efficiency of the APIs created by the development team for video streaming apps will allow the company’s engineers to continuously expand the functionalities within the app. This way, the app can stand out from the competition.
API providers should be dedicated to continuously improving solutions to any issues that may arise, enhancing features, improving security, implementing regular maintenance, and keeping documentation and tutorials up to date. This kind of API assistance will help speed up any customizations you want to make internally, by ensuring the most complete solution is ready to be integrated into the system.
3. Seamless Integration
Development teams can easily integrate video APIs with the platform they’re using, by simply adding a bit of code into a pre-built framework, whether it’s a desktop app or a mobile app. It is also easy to integrate with security systems and servers.
The team’s hard work in developing a good infrastructure will never be lost, nor will services need to be interrupted. This is because APIs can be integrated into the system seamlessly. The same is true for those who want to focus on innovation. Seamless API integration can be the perfect opportunity to reimagine the product to reach and serve the user base better than ever before.
Challenges for Streaming Services
Nowadays, videos are the most preferred type of content because they are easier to understand with the presence of visuals, audio, and text at the same time. The experience of watching a video and listening to audio alone is different. Even so, there are still challenges for streaming platforms, especially in processing and delivering a seamless experience to the end-user of the service.
Some of the challenges are as follows:
- Video content size tends to be larger than other types of content
- Videos vary widely in duration, ranging from just a few seconds to minutes.
For example, a 30-second video taken with a modern mobile camera today is about 100 MB in size. It would take 100 seconds for a user to open this video using traditional means. But with the technology presented by APIs, this obstacle no longer needs to be faced.
Web/API Monitoring Solution for Streaming Services
Want to use Web/API monitoring services for video streaming platforms? Make sure to choose a trustworthy platform like Netmonk with its product Netmonk Prime. Why Netmonk? Because the service guarantees real time performance monitoring for 24 hours every day.
Not only that, Netmonk comes with Proactive Maintenance monitoring. One of them is the real-time notification feature via the Telegram application or via email to make it easier for clients to monitor anywhere and anytime. The web/API monitoring module is displayed through a graphical display that is easy to understand. Clients can see the response time with a simple Up or Down status.
With just 1 click, the web/API monitoring module from Netmonk can make it easier to get website and API performance reports automatically. Want to try the Netmonk Prime service for free? Just visit Netmonk right now!
