Nakolos is a joint project initiated by Austrian Broadcasting Services (ORS) and bitstem GmbH to support Content Providers and Broadcaster with their content delivery over OTT. By utilizing 5G Broadcast, the Nakolos solution significantly lowers their distribution and high, unpredictable CDN costs are a thing of the past. Both, Austrian Broadcasting Services (ORS) and Bitstem, have been active in the 5G Media Action Group since 2019.
The solution is made possible by using the advantages of 5G Broadcast, which allows to directly receive any IP-based stream (DASH, HLS, CMAF, …) from terrestrial high-power-high-tower transmitters over 60 km on end-user devices such as mobiles or tablets. 5G Broadcast can take the load off mobile communication networks during large live broadcasts and offer a high level of reliability.
The 3GPP-based solution consists of a lightweight, single-line integrable software solution for apps on mobile phones and tablets. It handles the logic of combining different distribution channels. A cloud-based control system monitors the current load of content in specific areas, in case of a large amount of concurrent users provisions the 5G Broadcast system and redirects the user devices to an unlimited source of CDN capacity.
First time integration in a commercial OTT App
As part of a showcase at IBC 2022 in Amsterdam the Nakolos solution was integrated in the simpliTV App, which is commercially operated in Austria. The demo showed the seamless switching between CDN and 5GBC on 5GBC enabled smartphones during a football game after a certain threshold of users were watching the same content. In addition to the technology switch the Nakolos dashboard also shows the reduction in the bandwith used and thereafter the reduction of the CDN costs.
The content provider has two options for integrating the Nakolos solution. It can be installed as a standalone App, which means no integration in the Ott App is needed. For professional use it can easily be integrated in the OTT app library.
The Nakolos solution by ORS Group and Bitstem GmbH is supported Insys Video Technologies and based on 3GPP and 5G-MAG Reference Tools.
More information: www.nakolos.com