Blog posts authored by Chandra Shekhar Rai at TO THE NEW Blog

Building a Scalable OTT Player for Apple TV: Architecture and Best Practices

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 05:43:58 +0000

Introduction As streaming services continue to evolve, users expect a seamless and feature-rich viewing experience across all devices, including Apple TV. While AVPlayerViewController offers a robust playback solution out of the box, modern OTT platforms often require greater flexibility to support custom branding, advanced playback controls, personalised content recommendations, analytics, advertisements, and DRM. Building a […]

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Building a Custom AVPlayer on tvOS: Tips and Best Practices

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 04:55:17 +0000

Introduction Apple’s AVPlayer is the core of media playback on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. On Apple TV, most developers start with AVPlayerViewController for its built-in controls, subtitles, and “Up Next.” But when you need custom branding, interactive overlays, or advanced analytics, its limitations quickly appear. That’s when building a custom AVPlayer experience becomes essential along […]

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Introduction to SRT (Secure Reliable Transport)

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 07:24:28 +0000

Introduction SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) is an open-source video transport protocol developed by Haivision Systems Inc. in 2013. It’s designed to optimize video streaming performance across unpredictable networks, ensuring secure and reliable delivery of high-quality, low-latency streams. SRT was born to solve the “Live over Internet Protocol” problem. Making it possible to stream high-quality, low-latency […]

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Live Streaming Latency: How OTT Platforms Handle Real-Time Broadcasts

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:19:43 +0000

Live streaming is at the heart of modern digital entertainment, whether it’s cricket matches, presidential debates, esports, or live concerts. But for all its innovation, one critical challenge remains: latency. Streaming latency is the delay between a live event happening in real-time and the moment it’s rendered on your device for viewing. It may be […]

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Understanding Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR): How OTT Platforms Ensure Seamless Playback

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 09:14:48 +0000

Introduction In today’s era of binge-watching and mobile-first viewing, few things annoy users more than constant buffering or pixelated video playback. To tackle this challenge, OTT (Over-the-Top) platforms leverage a powerful technology known as Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR). But what is ABR, and how does it seamlessly adjust to varying network conditions to deliver smooth, […]

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Cracking the code: Apple’s DRM Technology (Part-2)

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 10:32:50 +0000

How to Implement FairPlay DRM with “AVAssetResourceLoader” Delegate 1. Prepare DRM-protected HLS Content: The HLS media needs to be encoded and encrypted using FairPlay DRM. This process takes place on the license server, where media files are encrypted and content keys are securely stored. Content keys are generated and securely stored on the license server, […]

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Advantages of HLS Over Other Streaming Protocols

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 22:55:01 +0000

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, a significant change was taking shape. As the internet flourished, so did the appetite for immersive multimedia experiences. People everywhere craved the ability to watch videos, listen to music, and dive into captivating stories, all accessible at their fingertips. However, this enthusiasm brought a challenge: Delivering smooth content across […]

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Cracking the code: Apple’s DRM Technology (Part-1)

Chandra Shekhar Rai — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 06:25:26 +0000

Introduction to Fairplay DRM “Fairplay DRM” is basically Apple’s Digital rights management technology. Fairplay is also known as Fairplay Streaming (FPS), whose main role is securely delivering the encrypted contents through HTTP Live Streaming Protocol. It prevents video download as well as ensures screen recording protection when protected content is streaming. In other words, Fairplay […]

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