Inauguration Video Streams Failed to Live Up to Expectations January 21, 2009
Posted by atharkhan in : Personal, Tech , add a commentIf there was ever a day that the Internet would face a stress-test, the Obama inauguration would have been it. Countless individuals logged on websites such as CNN, MSNBC, and Hulu to watch the live video streams. Unfortunately, every single one of these feeds was unable to keep up with the demand. What I can’t understand is this: Why didn’t networks use P2P technologies to distribute the video? As far as I know, it is possible to do this with a live feed in a manner similar to how Bittorrent operates. Why did media companies believe that it would be more cost effective or preferable to do a one-to-many broadcast? Wouldn’t this have worked better via a P2P-enabled stream? Am I missing something here?
