OTT infrastructure transformation powers next-gen streaming

With digital entertainment now being consumed on devices, in time zones, and across geographical regions, over-the-top (OTT) services have evolved from mere video-streaming solutions to sophisticated technology platforms. The core architecture of OTT infrastructure is being reimagined end-to-end in reaction to increasing viewer expectations and demands during live events or global releases.

Three key pillars fueling this change are: integrated content lifecycle management, elastic cloud infrastructure on a microservices foundation, and cognitive content delivery networks (CDNs) optimising Quality of Experience (QoE).

From Monoliths to Microservices in OTT

The legacy monolithic architectures, once a standard in OTT, are now falling short when it comes to concurrency and performance expectations of today. In a monolithic architecture, the components of an application are strongly coupled together, making them hard to scale selectively. Any increase in user activity—whether log-in, playback, or payments—compels the whole system to scale, which leads to resource inefficiencies and higher costs in infrastructure.

Microservices-based designs address this challenge by compartmentalising OTT applications into separate services—such as login, content display, recommendations, advertising, and subscription flows. Each can scale independently as needed. A sample is a login service that would need to scale rapidly during a popular live event, while content recommendation services would require less frequent scaling.

This design pattern is being merged with ease by modern-day cloud platforms, where microservices run in lightweight containers or pods. These can be automatically scaled based on real-time usage patterns, ensuring resources are utilised to their optimum. OTT players like Netflix and JioHotstar have successfully implemented this pattern.

Managing Content Lifecycle with AI

The success of OTT is largely dependent on content, but it is the agility of content that sets leaders apart. Ingesting, processing, curating, tagging, and publishing media of different kinds geographically and across platforms—while ensuring compliance and localisation—is a gargantuan task without an integrated system.

A central, Artificial Intelligence or AI-powered content lifecycle management platform helps OTT players streamline this complex process. Whether it is auto-creating multilingual subtitles, moderating content appropriateness in sensitive geos, or tagging metadata to facilitate discovery and recommendation—automation is the operative word.

For instance, when delivering European content to Indian or Middle Eastern markets, it could be AI-dubbed, subtitled, or even content-moderated based on local laws. Instead of processing all these steps manually, modern-day platforms have adopted a one-touch model in which adding a piece of content with regional publishing rules automatically triggers respective processing pipelines.

They also use integrated content platforms that enable them to oversee rights handling, geo-fencing, parent ratings, and optimising publishing workflows across franchises from one point of control. Not only does it lower operational costs, but it also reduces time-to-market and guarantees consistent quality across markets.

Smart CDNs for Quality of Experience

As OTT consumption extends across devices from smartphones to smart TVs, providing a consistent and high-quality viewing experience is crucial. Quality of Experience (QoE) is now as valuable as the content itself. OTT players are increasingly using smart CDNs and AI-driven technologies to optimise streaming. Content-aware encoding makes it possible to encode bandwidth efficiently without visually degrading.

For example, AI can decode high-definition video from standard-definition content on edge devices to provide better playback quality on devices that use less data.

Real-time monitoring tools track critical performance metrics, including content start time, buffering, and API response time. These statistics enable platforms to change CDNs dynamically during times of high usage, a strategy used by providers like Amazon Prime and Hulu. YouTube responds to network and device conditions using adaptive bitrate streaming at the edge for continuous playback.

With the optimisation of CDN routes and dynamic content delivery optimisation based on user location, device capability, and network speeds, platforms can offer rich experiences of watching even in times of heavy traffic.

Redefining OTT Platforms for the Future

OTT platform transformation goes beyond backend optimisation. It is an intrinsic redefinition of entertainment production, management, and consumption in a world of hyper-connectivity. By replacing monolithic microservices architecture, consolidating content operations, and using AI for QoE optimisation, leading OTT players are creating digital platforms that are intelligent, scalable, and future-proof.

In a universe where user attention is the most valuable currency, the ability to deliver seamless, personalised, and world-class streaming experiences will be the winners of the next OTT era. It is not about getting content delivered—it is about designing delight, at scale.

The author is the OTT Practice Head at Tata Elxsi.