SMW '18:主流的Mike Smith谈论超级节点技术

Learn more about content delivery at 流媒体's next event.

Read the complete transcript of this interview:

蒂姆Siglin: 欢迎回到流媒体西部2018的第二天. 我是蒂姆·西格林, contributing editor with 流媒体杂志 and the founding executive director of the not-for-profit Help! 我流.

蒂姆Siglin: 今天我接受了来自主流媒体的迈克·史密斯的第一次采访. Mike, you're a VP of engineering, is that correct?

迈克·史密斯: 是的，是的.

蒂姆Siglin: What is Mainstreaming?

迈克·史密斯: Mainstreaming is a brand new content delivery network, one of the newest ones in the industry. 我们不像许多其他已经站稳脚跟一段时间的cdn. We're very video focused, very video-centric.

蒂姆Siglin: 有趣的. And is that live video, on-demand video, or both?

迈克·史密斯: Live and on-demand video, yes. 还有音频.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧. 从直播视频的角度来看，你们的独特卖点是什么? You 说 you're video-focused, 是什么让和你一起生活比, 说, the live with Akamai or Limelight or somebody else?

迈克·史密斯: That's probably the most common question that we get, 你和阿卡迈和世界聚光灯有什么不同, that have been at it for a while? As I mentioned, we're very video focused. 但我们的网络架构是为了提供非常不同的内容, 元素, 图片, 不管是什么. 多年来, they've been able to adapt that technology and stream video fairly efficiently and fairly effectively. Where we came at this is, 最终, a little later in the game than some of the other CDNs; 然而, we focused entirely on video.

迈克·史密斯: So we built what we call our hypernode technology. 用营销或销售术语来说，这是一种特殊的酱料.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧.

迈克·史密斯: 从本质上讲，我们的超级节点技术是一个协调器. It's an algorithm that can make intelligent decisions, can dynamically route and change pathing on the fly to create a very smooth and very high-quality experience.

蒂姆Siglin: 从负载平衡的角度来看，这是否也有效?

迈克·史密斯: 绝对. And where we've leveraged our network differently than some of the other competitors is, rather than ... 多年来，CDN一直是一个数字游戏. How many POPs, how many servers do you have? For many, many years that was a very relevant question. 当我们今天处理公共互联网的地形时，它是非常不同的. So what we have focused on really, 与不同的互连网络和互联网服务提供商的付费对等安排.

蒂姆Siglin: 好, in fact I was gonna ask about that, given the fact that we went through the whole federated model for a while and that didn't really pan out. Peering arrangements seem to be a key element.

迈克·史密斯: 他们真的是. That's actually given us a lot of ability. 实际上，今天我们运营着世界上第六大互联网络.

蒂姆Siglin: 哦哇!

迈克·史密斯: 是的,令人惊讶的是. So we've been able to, to make up ... That's really been from a foundational level, any CDN is only as good as its foundation. So we've determined at a foundational level, 这就是我们必须投入有限注意力的地方, 是这样吗?.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧, that makes sense.

迈克·史密斯: 因此，全球有2500多个互联网络，因此我们能够以更少的百家乐软件做更多的事情.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧.

迈克·史密斯: 作为一个CDN，我们的最终目标是创造我们所谓的一跳体验. Only one hop traversing on the public internet. And that really allows us a lot of economies of scale. 当然，这让我们的运作比其他公司更精简.

蒂姆Siglin: 这一跳包括最后一英里到消费者?

迈克·史密斯: 是的，是的.

蒂姆Siglin: 哇!

迈克·史密斯: 我们的目标是从我们的网络边缘到最终用户, the end user's demarc if we can, 一跳.

蒂姆Siglin: 好的，非常好. Now, obviously, from a latency standpoint, if you can achieve that goal that's pretty significant. So it sets you up nicely for live. 按需虽然, 拥有2,500 that you described, does that mean you have to have a plethora of storage and caches and all those edge locations?

迈克·史密斯: No, it's a very good question. 我们能够利用几个主要的分发点来进行存储. 最终, we've been able to cross-connect and interconnect our network in such a way that we're able to operate very efficiently with the interconnections the way they are today.

蒂姆Siglin: 嗯哼.

迈克·史密斯: On-demand, we support a number of different models. So, today with our dynamic ingest abilities, our hypernode technology, 我应该说, 不仅仅局限于边缘交付给客户. We also use it internally. So from our ingest to the origin of the customer, allowing for a dynamic mesh if you will of ingest.

迈克·史密斯: So, that allows us to operate very efficiently as well. So in the sense of and with a lot of mid and large size broadcasters and a lot of our current customer base today, 我们有相当多的客户希望我们依靠他们作为原产地, versus our smaller to mid size customers that want to essentially upload or use our APIs to put items into our storage.

蒂姆Siglin: 好的,有趣的.

迈克·史密斯: 这两个模型都是.

蒂姆Siglin: 在某种程度上，这是传统Akamai的混合体, multiple POPs and storage at the edge, and Limelight which is strictly just a core network.

迈克·史密斯: 绝对.

蒂姆Siglin: 有趣的是你在两全其美. Do you also support legacy streaming formats?

迈克·史密斯: Icecast, Audiosuite, and Shoutcast Audiosuite.

蒂姆Siglin: 当然,确定.

迈克·史密斯: While not as common in the video space, there's still a lot of the radio broadcasters out there that are leveraging that technology and we still fully support that.

蒂姆Siglin: 如果我在2019年5月的流媒体东部和你坐在一起, 从现在到那时，你会看到什么趋势?

迈克·史密斯: That's a good question. 我们看到了OTT的爆炸式发展，这也是我们关注的焦点之一, 我们有很多不同的关注点和行业, 然而, one of them being of course OTT broadcasters, even faith-based ministries.

蒂姆Siglin: 确定.

迈克·史密斯: 我们看到了一个巨大的推动力，不仅是采用这项技术，还有教育人员. 广播空间, for so many years has operated in, in maybe the term in a vacuum is a bit extreme, 但在他们的泡沫中. Iron transmitters or steel transmitters at the top of mountaintops and very traditional broadcast 元素. 因此，OTT领域最初的广播公司并不想把自己的手臂放在这上面. They saw that almost as, 最终 the enemy.

蒂姆Siglin: 非常真实的.

迈克·史密斯: 一开始确实如此. We've seen such a shift in recent years of the traditional broadcaster really wrapping their arms around that and 说ing oh yeah, I need to be an OTT and in fact, 与传统方式相比，我可以通过OTT接触到更多的人.

蒂姆Siglin: And that brings up an interesting question. 昨天我和一位受访者的讨论是围绕整体的, 你知道, 传统的工程师, 一级执照, 而不是IT人员. The IT guy isn't going to go get a Class 1 license to be qualified as a broadcast engineer. 广播工程师可能会对数据包的移动有点犹豫, but 最终 understands that IP delivery is coming and that's where we need to focus. Where do you find the balance of people who understand both, or is that still a dichotomy?

迈克·史密斯: Yeah, it's interesting. 在我职业生涯的最初阶段，我实际上是一名广播工程师. I started off as a radio engineer. Went up to transmitter sites in the tops of mountains and worked on analog gear back in the day. 所以，我想一开始，我喜欢把他们称为老白胡子.

蒂姆Siglin: 是的，当然，当然. I mean, you don't have gray in your beard, but...

迈克·史密斯: Oh stop it, I have a little. No, I mean the old graybeards that are out there, 你知道, initially they were very resistant. And knowing that community very well, being plugged in with the society of broadcast engineers...

蒂姆Siglin: The tests they were having to take to be certified had nothing to do with IP delivery itself.

迈克·史密斯: 没错，它没有. 一点也不. So initially they were very against it. 我想一旦这些人接受了神圣的鲭鱼这个事实, I can do a heck of a lot with IP, 我们在像Tieline这样的广播公司看到了这一点, came out with IP enabled gear allowing you to send broadcast quality stereo audio at CD sample rates over the internet and with very 低延时.

蒂姆Siglin: To replace the zephyrs and ISDN tie-downs.

迈克·史密斯: You got it, the old zephyr ... 昂贵的ISDN, 为西风机和诸如此类的设备绑定isdn，甚至一些旧的POTS设备来传输音频.

蒂姆Siglin: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

迈克·史密斯: 当我们看到一小部分人真正开始接受它时, 我真的觉得其他的事情都安排妥当了.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧.

迈克·史密斯: Because as you look at kind of the modern-day newsroom or the modern-day media organization, 它是由一个非常强大的千禧一代组成的, yes I'm using the magic word to x-ennials, to even the gen-xers and that generation of working, of the working staff in these organizations, they're in social media, they know the value of social media restreaming. They know the value of delivering online. 我认为是有的, I think it's accepted now and it will continue if you ask me the question at East I would 说 this, 我们继续看到在互联网上传递内容的价值. Whether that's IP-based TV like YouTube TV and so being in situations like Mainstreaming and being very video focused on this, 你知道, we see tremendous growth. I mean billions and billions of dollars of growth.

蒂姆Siglin: 确定.

迈克·史密斯: So, we plan to stay the course and continue to build out our network in the US and then continue to expand our US operations.

蒂姆Siglin: 好吧, from an engineering standpoint, 我想说主流媒体很幸运有你这样的背景. 我们马上回来. This has been Mike Smith from Mainstreaming.