CenturyLink, a US-based Fortune 500 company that specialises in communications, network services, security and cloud solutions, has acquired the Paris-based startup Streamroot Inc. The startup will help CenturyLink to improve video and static content delivery within bandwidth constrained areas, and strengthen its position as a leader in content delivery network (CDN) and edge computing services.
Steamroot’s founders started out as a group of students in 2013 with a vision of making streaming more accessible for billions of internet users worldwide. Today, with a global team of more than 30 video delivery professionals in its US and European offices, the startup powers over 20 million video sessions a day in every country of the world.
Streamroot’s content delivery models enable connected consumer devices such as smart phones, tablets, computers, set-top consoles and smart TVs to participate in the serving of premium content through a secure and private mesh delivery. By incorporating consumer devices into this edge-based delivery architecture, CenturyLink believes its customers will be able to achieve performance otherwise not feasible with conventional CDN delivery methods. This hybrid delivery approach for over-the-top (OTT) video streaming is anticipated to allow content consumers to enjoy a higher quality user experience.
“Streamroot brings a data-driven approach to improving the user experience, particularly during peak internet traffic hours,” said Bill Wohnoutka, vice president, global internet and content delivery services, CenturyLink. “Streamroot’s customers have chosen peer-assisted and multi-CDN approaches to gain an advantage over their competition when serving popular, high quality content to large audiences globally. This technology and the team that invented it are crucial to helping us enable high-quality viewing experiences, especially within hard to serve markets.”
“Streamroot and CenturyLink share a vision to improve the user experience with rich media content by utilising edge computing and data science,” said Pierre-Louis Theron, CEO of Streamroot. “We believe joining forces with CenturyLink will accelerate our ability to innovate for the benefit of our customers, internet users and network operators across the globe.”
