Elisa, Finland’s largest telecoms operator, has partnered with Unified Streaming, a leader in cross-platform video-streaming technologies, to deploy late transmuxing. This on-the-fly conversion of video files directly on cache nodes rather than on centralized servers reduces internal streaming traffic and overall storage needs.

With webserver plug-in Unified Origin integrated into the workflow, Elisa has essentially pushed streaming to the edges of its own network and as close as possible to the viewer. The result is optimized streaming and optimal viewing.

Established in 1882, Elisa today serves 2.3 million corporate and public consumers across Finland. Elisa Viihde is the most popular entertainment service in Finland. Elisa Viihde has everything one need to be entertained – the most extensive range of TV programmes, the greatest films, a wide variety of sports and the largest selection of Finnish films. In addition to original Finnish Elisa Viihde series, the service offers a diverse range of video-on-demand services and TV channel bundles. Over 300,000 households enjoy Elisa Viihde entertainment services. 

Elisa Viihde’s broad reach requires accommodation of multiple streaming formats (DASH, HLS, Smooth) and compatibility with many devices and their unique DRMs (STBs; PC, Mac, Linux browsers; Android phones, tablets, TV; iOS phones, tablets + AirPlay; Chromecast). Hence, the need to create client- and player-specific streaming profiles.

Unified Origin has provided an all-in-one solution for Elisa Viihde.

Thanks to Unified Origin, we are now in a position to easily onboard a new client device or adjust the streaming profile if there is change due to a player or an operating system upgrade with a configuration change. The change takes effect immediately and the next streams are generated with the new settings. On top of this all, we also optimized storage costs, as we’re now saving only one version of the asset,” says Sami Aalto, Vice President of Domestic Entertaining Business from Elisa.

Elisa is a special customer: they are highly innovative and have successfully deployed transmuxing on the edge. We are excited to help them elevate Finland’s multiscreen entertainment experience,” says Unified Streaming’s VP of Global Sales, Simon Westbroek.

About Unified Streaming

Unified Streaming is dedicated to helping companies create and execute smart video streaming technologies. Its products are in operation around the world, with customers ranging from live news broadcasters and major TV networks to service providers and technology partners. The ease of use and reliability of our solutions allow customers to shorten their time-to-market. Our solutions fit into existing frameworks (Apache, IIS, Lighttpd, Nginx), thus allowing for greater return on existing investment and reducing delivery cost significantly.