EdgeTube: A groundbreaking solution for crowded events streaming

EdgeTube is a smart solution for intelligent video analysis and processing that optimizes the communications and connectivity in events with a high flow of attendees. It comes to respond to the challenges brought by the high number of devices streaming in HD, in events like music festivals and concerts, constantly resulting in congestion of the network.

Thus, EdgeTube will relieve excessive traffic within the network, through a platform that filters duplicated streams, transmitting the one with the best quality while eliminating the low-quality ones. Users are able to capture and share videos rapidly, efficiently and with low latency through their smartphones, providing an extremely high-quality experience for remote viewers.

It may sound too good to be true, but it’s real. All of this is possible through a great synergy between Ubiwhere’s qualified developers and FLAME’s framework. FLAME integrates Edge Computing functionalities into this solution. Edge Computing is an extension of the could’s centralized architecture all the way to the edge of the network, that shortens the distance between the data sources (smartphones) and the media processing, enabling the precise filtration of the streams in almost real-time.

This solution not only serves end-users but also service providers. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), for instance, may also deploy their media services on these events with higher efficiency and lower costs due to its Edge capabilities.

Our pilot in Bristol only came to corroborate what we already knew: this bold idea is no longer just an idea, but a groundbreaking solution that will ease the deployment of streaming of events and improve people’s interaction with connected and personalized media. The tests carried out in the city confirmed the feasibility of this technology while validating the quality of the user experience.

External experiment participants captured videos through their smartphones from the same angle in different levels of quality. Afterwards, in an Edgetube platform disclosed for the purpose, people would be presented only with the streaming of the video with higher quality.

The pilot held in Bristol came to open new doors to future business possibilities within this sector, such as the commercial exploitation of our Smart Lamppost Solution.

Smart Lamppost (SLP) gathers a wide set of features that would optimize the streaming service when integrated with EdgeTube, making it such a great fit for the upgrade of this platform.

Its flexible and cost-effective 5G network enabler infrastructure along with its Edge features would provide wider and faster network coverage. Its neutral hosting abilities would allow MNOs to rent the SLP infrastructure and not only deploy streaming services connecting them to their own mobile solution but also reward the streaming producers with income from the advertising content displayed to the video consumers. 

This project has received funding from the EU´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731677