Blue Coat Systems has claimed a world-first in offering the ability to “stream-split” video delivered live with Adobe Flash technology.
The feature forms part of an Optimised Video Delivery service that the vendor is now offering in the Blue Coat ProxySG WAN optimisation product.
The stream-split technology enables a single video stream to serve a large number of viewers, while freeing up bandwidth over a WAN for other critical applications.
In turn, the end result for businesses will be a less cluttered network and quicker operations, with a significantly reduced chance of “video floods,” Blue Coat said.
“Video is growing dramatically. Look at the amount of videos being sent over YouTube and the amount of bandwidth being used,” Nigel Hawthorn, a vice president for EMEA at Blue Coat, said.
“We’re here to ensure [video] doesn’t take down corporate networks.”
He claimed Adobe Flash is “by far” the dominant encoding mechanism for video content across the web, hence the additional capability and the world-first.
“Of all our recent additions, this has been the one customers have been demanding from us,” Hawthorn added.
“It really delivers something that makes a difference to people.”
A recent report from Telegeography showed streaming media now accounts for almost a fifth of global internet traffic and, combined with other video-heavy applications, is responsible for 52 per cent of worldwide web traffic, and businesses increasingly see video as a key communications tool.