HTTPS Live Stream

An Emerging Standard in Adaptive Bitrate Video

HLS streaming (HTTPS Live Streaming) has emerged as the standard in adaptive bitrate video. Adaptive bitrate video delivery is a combination of server and client software that detects a client’s bandwidth capacity and adjusts the quality of the video stream between multiple bitrates and/or resolutions. The adaptive bitrate video experience is superior to delivering a static video file at a single bitrate, because the video stream can be switched midstream to be as good or bad as the client’s available network speed (as opposed to the buffering or interruption in playback that can happen when client’s network speed can’t support the quality of video). With HLS streaming format as a standard and major players like Apple’s iOS & Google’s Android OS leading the way, HLS content has rapidly become the standard for adaptive bitrate technology for mobile/tablets, OTT, and desktop.

The principal motivation for HTTPS is authentication of the accessed website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data while in transit. It protects against man-in-the-middle attacks. The bidirectional encryption of communications between a client and server protects against eavesdropping and tampering of the communication. In practice, this provides a reasonable assurance that one is communicating without interference by attackers with the website that one intended to communicate with, as opposed to an impostor.