LONDON, UK and LEUVEN, Belgium – THEO Technologies, creator of the High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP) and video playback solutions, and Synamedia, the world's largest independent video software provider, today launched the HESP Alliance. Streaming video vendors and media companies are invited to join the alliance. The goal is to fast-track the roll-out of cost-effective, immersive, broadcast-equivalent streaming experiences by building an ecosystem around the HESP protocol.

Introduced at NAB 2019, HESP leapfrogs current streaming protocols by removing the need for trade-offs between latency, scalability and viewer experience. It delivers sub-second latency, as low as 400ms, at scale, as well as near real-time sub-100ms zapping times. This results in an unparalleled viewing experience over standard HTTP-based Internet infrastructure and CDNs. Notably, HESP also reduces bandwidth costs by as much as 20% compared to current solutions such as the Common Media Application Format (CMAF) combined with chunked transfer encoding (CTE).

The HESP Alliance aims to accelerate standardization and large-scale adoption of HESP. Alliance members can license the technology; integrate it into their video packaging and playback solutions; and develop and share extensions to drive further innovation. A certification program for HESP-compliant solutions will ensure interoperability and provide peace of mind for media companies deploying HESP-based streaming services.

The first HESP solutions will be available in Q4 2020. They will include an independently developed THEO Technologies HESP-enabled video player and a Synamedia HESP-certified packager. These will be followed by more third-party solutions in 2021, giving operators, broadcasters and OTT streaming services a choice of components.

Read the full announcement here.

Synamedia
Theo Technologies