Understanding the legacy of HBO Max & its powerful, scalable technical stack
Over The Top or OTT Platforms have changed the rules of video consumption across the world. By 2027, around 4 billion users will be accessing OTT platforms like HBO Max, Youtube, Netflix, Disney, and more, generating billions of dollars in advertisement revenues, and unleashing a new era in video content and consumption.
In this blog, we will try to understand and dissect the top-of-the-class scalability and powerful performance of the HBO Max app and share some interesting information about its legacy.
The Legacy Of HBO Max
49-year-old HBO, which is the oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service in the United States, launched its first on-demand, Internet-based video service called HBO on Broadband in 2008.
Later, in 2010, HBO Go was launched, which was a better and enhanced version of HBO on Broadband, and provided on-demand videos to their paid customers via website, mobile app, TV, and other devices.
This continues to be among the top 10 downloaded apps in the US, and the only video streaming or OTT app in that list.
Understanding The Technical
Stack Of HBO Max
HBO has invested and researched a lot, to make the backend stronger, and a userfriendly, seamless UI to ensure the highest engagement and highersubscribers. We will breakdown the tech stack, and understand the backendoftheHBOMaxapp:
Primary Framework
The framework deployed by HBO Max is created by BAMTech, which was earlier acquired by Disney. Hence, both HBO Max and Disney use the same framework for delivering video content to their users.
In-House User
Interface
As per Ottball, HBO Max uses a lot of in-house software and systems, developed by their team. And this also includes a proprietary trickplay system and an in-house video player.
Streaming Protocols
As with most of the big OTT platforms, HBO Max uses MPEG-DASH and HLS with DRM for streaming.
To achieve multi-key protection, MPEG-DASH splits its video qualities over more than one AdaptationSet, while the audio is delivered across different formats via TTML.
BY HBO
DELIVERY NETWORK
CMS USED
CONTENT
A CMS called Comet is used by HBO Max, which functions as their public CMS. Asobservedintheirapp,apayloadis shared with https://comet.api.hbo.com/content, andaJSONresponseisreceived. As per some experts, HBO Max uses at least two CDNs: Level 3 and Akamai. Level 3 has been in use with HBO since 2011.
VIDEO ANALYTICS PACKA GER
HBO Max is using Conviva v2.151.0.36981forVideoAnalytics. If we observe the code of this app, then the client pings at https://telegraph.api.hbo.com/events/ v1 ,toindicatethechanges.
HBO Max uses Unified Streaming Platform v1.9.5, which produces HLS Manifests. With their latest update for the app in 2021, they are now using an advanced version, because Unified Streaming Platform v1.9.5 has been in usage since 2018.
DRM VIDEO PLAYER HBO Max (earlier version before 2021),usedWidevine,PlayReady,and PlayReady(withmulti-key).Asofnow, (post-2021),HBOMaxhasbeenusing theirownin-housebuiltDRM. For earlier versions, HBO Max used the ever-dependable Shaka Player for web browsers, and Exoplayer for Android, and AV Player for iOS.
here, that HBO has been using Google's open-source player for long, for Android users.
Note
The Scalability Of HBO Max Is The Gamechanger
If we focus on the technical aspects of creating such a powerful OTT app, then scalability is critical. The ability to manage such a massive number of concurrent users, without disrupting their overall experience and behavior, is the recipe to success.
One such strategy is Video Transcoding, wherein the video format is converted into another format, so that:
• All users, across all devices and locations, get a uniform, delightful experience
• Buffering is decreased, which translates to seamless viewing
• Latency is low, thereby ensuring high-quality streaming
• Here is a three-step process for Video Transcoding:
Validation Parallel Encoding Encoding Profile
During the process of converting the video formats, some elements can change or alter such as frames, colors etc. With the Validation process, the system makes sure that the Transcoding process is seamless.
Typically,videosthesedays are multiple terabyte-sized in size and volume, and it doesn’t make sense to process such a huge amount of data. This is the reason that the video is first broken down into smaller fragments, and then they are encoded in parallel.
This is the secret of scalability, as deployed via Video Transcoding. Every device has a video format, that ensures optimal performance, based on different network speeds and connectivity.
Some other processes for enhancing scalability includes:
TrickPlay: When a user scans the content via the sidebar or the main menu, then a thumbnail is generated which gives a small snapshot of the video content. This is Trickplay, which is achieved by HBO Max by requesting images via template-URL and passing the playhead position along. (e.g. https://media.fly.cdn.hbomax.com/videos/PRO42/e1/gov2/turner/feature/613088/v1/images/23.98p/r0/i mages_2_{0:00000000}.jpg ) Although HBO Max could have achieved this via MPEG-DASH, they chose to develop their own system for Trickplay. Similarly, features such as Offline Watching, Continue Watching, etc are deployed, which ensures that all the users are able to get a uniformed, delightful access to video content IfyouwishtoknowmoreaboutHBOMaxandfindouthowyoucandevelopandlaunchasimilar videostreamingandOTTapp,thengetintouchwithourSystemArchitectsandMobileApp Engineers,andexplorethepossibilities.
Contact Us www.techaheadcorp.co m 1-818-3180727
