Both live and on-demand streams are delivered in multiple resolutions using the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, in order to guarantee smooth streaming in the best possible quality on any device at any time. For live streams, the broadcasted stream is transcoded in real time by our streaming servers into a separate stream for each available resolution (e.g. 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, 240p). For Video on-Demand, this is done when you upload a video: Clevercast automatically transcodes it to multiple resolutions and places these our Content Delivery Network (CDN).
All streams are available to Clevercast player, which is able to switch dynamically between the different streams and choose the most suitable one for the playback device (depending on screen size and available bandwidth, memory, available CPU and GPU resources). If the viewer’s device has sufficient bandwidth and GPU/CPU resources, this means playing the best possible resolution for the size of the player. For example, if the embedded size of Clevercast player is 480p, it will start by playing the 480p stream. When the viewer continues to watch fullscreen on a full HD screen, Clevercast player will automatically switch to the 720p or 1080p resolution (depending on the size of the screen).
This way, adaptive streaming allows for Full HD streaming, while also delivering smooth streams to viewers with smaller screens or insufficient bandwidth. As a Clevercast administrator, you can decide which resolutions are being used (both live and on-demand).