nanoStream Cloud from nanocosmos has become a well known B2B live streaming solution for platform providers across the iGaming industry, especially since mobile use and games “on the go” have become increasingly important. 

Offering an ultra-low latency live streaming solution that works well on mobile devices and with iOS was the starting point for nanocosmos to enter the iGaming market in 2015 with a seat in the front row.

Writing exclusively for SBC News, nanocosmos CEO Oliver Lietz explains how the company has learned that interactive live streaming is no longer a niche concept, as well as why it’s flagship solution now features improved adaptive bitrate control and has become more robust to ‘bad network’ situations.

The nanoStreamCloud solution merges two decades of experience in the audio/video industry with numerous innovations that show interactive live streaming has now become a vital solution for engagement across so many industries – not just, for this audience, for the likes of sports betting, online casino and esports, but even for areas outside of gambling such as education, cultural events and business communication.

The genuine ‘seeing is believing’ approach has led nanocosmos to stay grounded and focus only on solutions that make sense. This means keeping the entire complex workflow to make interactive live streaming a success under complete control, from end-to-end. 

Hence the solution is dedicated to covering everything to make interactive live streaming possible for B2B partners, such as easy integration of a live player running on all devices and browsers, global delivery network (CDN), integrated analytics, live transcoding, flexible live encoding. Clients can even take over the part of making sure the camera is set up with a good angle.

Why? Because it is all about latency. Latency is the time delay between the live dealer’s action and the time the viewer sees it. This is rarely possible with traditional live streaming that delivers the stream with a latency often way beyond the five second mark. 

In fact, latency of around one second (max) is required or the user experience gets compromised – for instance, if bets come in too late. The key to delivering for sports betting and online casinos without compromising the experience is ultra-low latency streaming. 

Another significant requirement in this regard is that a B2B interactive live streaming solution requires a CDN solution that ensures a tight integration with all components to it. This minimises the latency which is not possible if you mix and match providers and products. 

The layer of complexity that is added to live streaming, besides that, can increase the latency and time it takes to present content from the camera to the viewer. Operators need full control over their workflow from ingest to player and everything in between to ensure latency does not become an issue. 

Many markets including Germany are still among those that are challenging when it comes to the internet. If your phone needs to connect to different bandwidths depending on where you are located in the country, the player experience might be compromised. 

Online casino providers and operators should instead look out for a solution that delivers the best user experience to be able to compete. With a global approach and to deliver streams to everywhere in the world, the live streaming workflow must suit a powerful and reliable content delivery network (CDN). 

Put simply, to monetise content in the most effective manner, operators need to ensure their live game is available to the audience in near real time, regardless of bandwidth available. 

A typical challenge operators and providers face is ensuring that players receive the best possible user experience on both, desktop and mobile, at all times without any plugins and accessible from any browser. This requires a robust live streaming platform and powerful technology and a player that will automatically adapt to the available bandwidth and choose the best resolution and bitrate. 

With the increased demands for a solution that works well on mobile devices we noticed an increased demand for our solution. Especially our customers from the iGaming and betting industry value the fact that our solution works great on any device and is browser-based. 

It is also crucial to note that the unique and patented H5Live nanoStream Player has been updated to be more robust with certain bad network situations and improved adaptive bitrate control, for all platforms including Safari on iOS.

Currently live sports, betting and gambling are being transformed not only due to the increased remote consumption, but also in terms of how engagement with fans takes place. It is not only about the game, it is about the experience. 

If you combine this change to how products are consumed with the influence of new regulations across the world, you can understand the increased demand for a solution that allows seamless interaction. Horse races, betting and esports need to continuously engage the audience – especially remotely and based on the latest technology to stay competitive.

For this reason, over the last 24 months we have been focusing on innovation to ensure our clients stay competitive. We see analytics as a number one tool to monitor and improve customer experience and quality of service, and subsequently grow business. In addition we think that we are on the right path with a solution that lets operators focus on their job and make the technical part easy to use.

The fact that our solution was awarded best corporate video platform at the 2021 Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Awards is confirmation that these changes are heading in the direction the industry demands.