Akamai announces that TV 2 is utilizing the Akamai HD Network to deliver live HD online video streaming for its Sumo subscription Internet TV portal, including delivery of content to mobile devices such as the iPhone. Sumo, a premium live and on-demand content service for sporting events and global television shows, was launched in 2000 and designed by TV 2 to reach a new generation of viewers watching television and video online. In June 2009, TV 2 Sumo was the first TV station in Norway to launch live HD web TV, and it needed to ensure that it could support this higher bandwidth service with the same open standards and delivery its existing Internet video services offered, as well as adding the ability to deliver content to mobile devices. To address this issue, TV 2 implemented the Akamai HD Network for Microsoft Silverlight technology, which is designed to deliver an uninterrupted, high-quality live streaming experience to online audiences. A key feature of Akamai HD for Microsoft Silverlight is adaptive bitrate streaming, which is architected to enable uninterrupted video playback at HD bitrates that seamlessly adjust to fluctuations in available bandwidth to provide the best quality viewing experience possible for each user.
Akamai's HD Network was developed with the goal of delivering the highest quality experience at broadcast audience scale across the industry's most popular devices, platforms and runtimes, and enabling large-scale broadcasters and film distributors to increase audience engagement and expand revenues through higher quality video playback and interactivity. Akamai's HD Network was further designed to allow content owners and publishers to deliver live and on-demand content while leveraging an infrastructure of tens of thousands of HTTP servers deployed globally in ISP servers.