The Rise of Video Streaming Platforms

Category: Software Developer Career 101, Published: 5/21/2022

Since the inception of the internet and mobile users’ population accelerating, more and more users are being attracted to video streaming services.The continuing rise of the video streaming business seems unstoppable. 

Equipped with the latest streaming tech, newcomers like Apple and Disney decided to launch their own streaming services  in order to cut into Netflix’s monopoly in this business this year. These are not the only companies that have decided to dive into the media broadcasting space. Cable companies such as CBS and NBC have created their own platforms in which viewers can watch shows from many years ago that are no longer syndicated on regular cable television. In order to compete, viewers can only watch their favorite movies or shows on the platform that owns it. 

 

Streaming has also surpassed cable subscriptions. According to MPAA’s Report (Motion Picture Association of America ), the world’s entertainment market grew to a new high in 2018: $96.8 billion, 9% over 2017. The report also indicated that cable subscriptions dropped by 2% to 556 million.

 

Streaming  platforms have increased the number of backend tech jobs that are available for those interested in a career in the tech and media space. 

Tech giants such as Amazon and Google have been actively recruiting talents with streaming experience to grow their streaming video business ( Twitch, Stadia ) for gamers.  There is no time better than now to get a job in a streaming service company and build up your domain knowledge in this industry, preparing yourself to potentially land a job in your dream company!

People might think that video streaming companies are content or entertainment providers, but they are also great global tech companies. The tech knowledge behind the video streaming business is super complicated. It is not just pushing all the TV over the internet. The internet was never built to deliver video in great quality on a large scale.

 

Streaming companies have to ask questions such as; How to deal with millions of concurrent viewers, how to manage high-powered backend data operations, and how to develop complex streaming-video pipelines.

 

Let’s take a look at some interesting opportunities below!

 

  • Streaming Engineer 
      • As a streaming engineer, your job is to develop the core networking and communication software that is robust, high performing, and scales to millions of concurrent users.Usually, Streaming Engineers need to have a strong background in C/C++ to build the lower layer software player, knowledge with advance video coding such as H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, and experience with live streaming protocols such as HLS, RTMP, WebRTC.
  • Frontend Engineer 
      • With tons of content, it is a challenge for video streaming providers to give their users a friendly and easy to navigate user interface.Deciding what kind of content a company should provide to its users can be a challange. AI and machine learning are a big part of recommending great content, but there is more to giving a great user experience. A great front-end engineer will have to know what are the right questions to ask and tailor individual user profiles. Users won’t want to be scrolling through a never-ending list of contents. It is the front-end engineers’ job to make the entire experience smoother.
  • Backend Engineer
      • The backend engineer in the streaming business will deal with all things across from broadcasting to video rendering from the client-side. Usually, they will have a good knowledge of network API design and a good understanding of databases. As streams increase, the backend engineer’s job is to keep these services running smoothly, a process called chaos engineering. Working in the streaming media business gives you a chance to have hands-on experience dealing with large scale and large traffic products.

 

In the long run, we will be seeing more usage of video streaming technology after the mass adoption of 5G technology. And if you are a software engineer who wants to get into this business, there is no time better than now to join a video streaming company and start building up your skills!

 

Are you not sure where to begin? Coding bootcamps such as Sabio are a great way to get your tech career started. 

 

Related Links:

Want to learn more about Sabio? Attend an info session where you will have the opportunity to ask questions Sign up here: bit.ly/sabio-info-session

Ready to start coding? Free coding classes available to get you started: bit.ly/sabio-intro-classes

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