CBS Interactive streams some of the largest video streaming events on the planet, including SuperBowl in 2019. This talk will focus on all the work that goes in ahead of time to prepare and plan for game day. From architecture design to capacity reservations to operational visibility and building playbooks we will explore how we build, test and prepare for these large events. We will also explore how some of Fastly's unique features such as MediaShield and VCL are becoming critical to these workflows.

1. Preparing for Video Streaming Events at
Scale
and the Journey to Multi-CDN
Zac Shenker
Director of Engineering, Video Experience & Optimization
CBS Interactive
zac.shenker@cbsinteractive.com

2. CBSi & Central Video Technology
● 30+ Media Brands
● Lots of Video (AVOD, SVOD, Live, etc…)
● Central Video Technology team provides products,
services and guidance across Video Workflow
● Focus today on Live Streaming / Events

3. Live Video Streaming
● HLS
● Reduce End to End Latency / Time Behind Live
● Small Player/Client Side Buffers

4. Where We Started
● Single CDN
● Storage & Streaming Ingestion from CDN Provider

5. Where We Started

6. Goals
● Improve Streaming Reliability
● Improve Streaming Performance (QoE)
● Migrate to Cloud Storage
● Increase Operational Visibility & Insights

7. Goals
● Flexible Enough to Apply to Multiple Projects / Brands
● Scale to Support Largest Video Streaming Events
● Flexibility with Vendor Relationships and Pricing

8. Multi-CDN Workflow Diagram

9. Fastly Media Shield
Diagram from https://docs.fastly.com/guides/detailed-product-descriptions/about-fastlys-media-shield

10. Fastly Media Shield
● Reduces Load on Origin
○ Origin Shielding
● Shared Cache for Multiple CDNs to Leverage as Origin
● Significantly Reduces Cost of Expensive Cloud Egress
● Mitigates Intermittent Performance of Origin
● Flexible Layer In-Front of Origin

11. Multi-CDN Measurement
● Cedexis Radar
Diagrams from Cedexis Radar

12. Multi-CDN Decisioning
● Cedexis OpenMix + Fusion
● Uses Radar Data
● Pulls in Custom Data via Fusion
● Decisions via DNS or HTTP
● Customized Decisions for Each User

13. ● Real-Time Logging
○ Encoders
○ Origins
○ CDNs
○ Multi-CDN Decisioning
○ Monitoring Tools
● Monitoring Tools
○ Client Side QoE, i.e. Mux, Conviva, NPAW
○ Synthetic Monitoring (i.e. TouchStream, Cedexis Sonar)
Operational Visibility

14. Planning for Failure
● Identifying Possible Points of Failure
● Selecting Possible Failover
● Root-Cause Analysis
● Playbooks / Runbooks

15. Questions?
Zac Shenker
Director of Engineering, Video Experience & Optimization
CBS Interactive
zac.shenker@cbsinteractive.com