Event streaming to stress-test new datacenter

Not much of a surprise, but nice to have some details: Cult of Mac cites a source close to Apple saying that the live stream of today's iPod event will be used to put some real-time load on Apple's new North Carolina data center. The facility isn't all the way operational quite yet, but it's apparently ready enough to play a major role in today's festivities.

The NC datacenter is five times the size of Apple's similar facility on the West Coast and is officially intended to support the iTunes music and app stores. Obviously there's a lot more horsepower needed for streaming content, so here's where you'll find it.

As noted last night, today's live stream is intended for Intel Mac OS X 10.6 users in Safari, iPhone/iPod touch users running iOS 3.1 or higher, and iPad users. Support for the HTTP Live Streaming methodology is included in the current version of the ffmpeg open source library, so in theory apps like Mplayer should be able to handle the stream; VLC may also work.

View Tags

Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-is-live-streaming-sept-1-even…

Categories

Odds and ends Apple

Not much of a surprise, but nice to have some details: Cult of Mac cites a source close to Apple saying that the live stream of today's...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

11 Comments

Filter by:

bobm

I know that this must just be me but what's interesting is if I try to stream the Sept 1 event from my Leopard mini I get the 2009 wwdc video (with a 2009 copyright), moving over to my imac with Snow Leopard I get the correct video.

And this isn't the live feed but the next day..

September 02 2010 at 4:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tod

"The NC datacenter is five times the size of Apple's similar facility..."

Don't you mean that the data center's form factor is much larger than the West Coast facility? :-)

Finally an breath of fresh air when someone doesn't insert the seemingly obligatory phrase "form factor" into a posting.

Thank you from all my heart!

September 01 2010 at 3:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bobm

I guess that the streaming was a failure.

Sad since I was wondering why they weren't doing this awhile ago.

However, having lived through the issues with just live blogging I can see that there are some hurtles to get over.

I can't imagine what the net is going to be like when everyone is watching tv and movies on it.

September 01 2010 at 3:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to bobm's comment

wplate

Streaming was a failure? What makes you say that? My experience was awesome. Watched most of it in the office and it looked fantastic. I watchted the last few minutes over 3G on my iPhone and I couldn't believe how well that performed.

For me it was a huge success.

September 01 2010 at 6:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bobm

I kept getting timeouts and a try again message. So sadly I wasn't able to view the event live.

So that's why I consider it failed.

Glad some folks were luckier than me.

September 02 2010 at 12:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MagicFeather

Holy Smokes! I just downloaded itunes from the website and was getting 2 megs a second. I don't think I've ever downloaded anything that fast consistently.

September 01 2010 at 2:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to MagicFeather's comment

MagicFeather

And it said I was downloading iTunes 10, but it really download 9.21.

September 01 2010 at 2:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

CHRiS

Apple has had a partnership with Akamai since early 2000s - they threw $12M to them to help develop the quicktime streaming we use today, maybe it is time for them to move-on from that investment.

September 01 2010 at 12:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Justin

Pretty sure building a data center doesn't mean you automatically have edge servers to be able to stream a broadcast.

It's most likely going to be the standard Akamai setup that Apple usually hosts their events on:
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/

Also, Akamai has been showing off their HTTP streaming for ages:
http://iphone.akamai.com

September 01 2010 at 11:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Justin's comment

MRCUR

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wants to pull all of their streaming in house. We all know Apple, and Steve, likes as much as possible to be done in house...

September 01 2010 at 12:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jorn

MCUR, did you read the post JR wrote? You know, the one to which you are replying?

September 01 2010 at 12:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply