Regional News Network Scales to 1M Concurrent Viewers with Ultra-Low Latency
How a regional broadcaster transformed their digital presence from 50K to 1M viewers during breaking news, achieving sub-80ms latency and saving $636K annually
Executive Summary
Regional News Network (RNN), a leading broadcast media company serving 8 states with 15M+ viewers, faced critical infrastructure challenges with their legacy streaming platform. During major weather events and breaking news, their system regularly crashed, losing both viewers and advertising revenue. With audience expectations demanding instant news access and social media setting latency standards, RNN needed a transformational solution.
- • 50K max concurrent viewers
- • 15-second latency
- • Frequent crashes during peaks
- • $85K monthly infrastructure costs
- • 1M+ concurrent viewers
- • 78ms average latency (185x faster)
- • Zero crashes in 18 months
- • $32K monthly costs (62% reduction)
- • $636K annual savings
- • 350% digital ad revenue growth
- • 180% increase in viewing time
- • 6-month ROI achievement
Customer Background
About Regional News Network
Founded in 1995, Regional News Network is a trusted broadcast media company providing 24/7 news, weather, and sports coverage across 8 southeastern states. With 30 years of journalism excellence, RNN operates 12 television stations and employs over 500 journalists, meteorologists, and production staff.
The network's traditional broadcast reach covers 15 million viewers, but like many regional broadcasters, they faced the challenge of transitioning to digital-first consumption patterns. By 2022, over 60% of their audience under 45 years old consumed news primarily through digital streaming rather than traditional TV broadcasts.
Company Profile
Previous Streaming Infrastructure
RNN's existing streaming infrastructure was built in 2015 using a combination of on-premises encoding hardware and a basic CDN partnership. While adequate for early digital audiences, the system revealed critical limitations:
- •HLS-only delivery resulted in 15-30 second latency, making live news feel delayed compared to broadcast TV
- •Manual scaling required 48-hour notice to provision additional capacity for planned events
- •Geographic limitations with only 3 CDN POPs serving the entire 8-state region
- •Single point of failure in on-premises encoding hardware caused complete outages
- •$85,000 monthly costs including hardware maintenance, CDN bandwidth, and dedicated IT staff
The Challenge
Breaking Point: Hurricane Coverage Crisis
The tipping point came during Hurricane Maria's approach in September 2022. As the Category 4 storm threatened the region, RNN's digital viewership spiked from the typical 8,000 concurrent viewers to over 75,000 within 2 hours. The legacy infrastructure couldn't handle the surge:
- 1.Stream crashes at 52K concurrent viewers – The on-premises encoder overloaded, causing a complete service outage for 47 minutes during peak storm coverage
- 2.$180K revenue loss in 3 days – Advertisers refused to pay for pre-roll ads that viewers never saw due to buffering and crashes
- 3.85% viewer drop-off – Analytics showed viewers abandoned RNN streams for competitor social media coverage that remained stable
- 4.Brand reputation damage – Social media filled with complaints about unavailable coverage during a life-threatening emergency
The CTO and executive team recognized this wasn't just a technical failure—it was an existential threat to their mission of serving the community and their commercial viability in a digital-first world.
Technical Challenges
- Latency requirements: Need sub-second latency to compete with broadcast TV and social platforms
- Scalability: Must handle 1M+ concurrent viewers during major breaking news without degradation
- Geographic coverage: Need low-latency delivery across entire 8-state region with consistent quality
- Reliability: 99.9%+ uptime requirement for 24/7 news coverage with no acceptable downtime window
- Multi-device support: Seamless playback on web, mobile apps, smart TVs, and connected devices
Business Constraints
- Budget limitations: CFO mandate to reduce infrastructure spending, not increase it
- Revenue pressure: Advertisers demanding viewership guarantees and makegoods for previous outages
- Rapid deployment: Hurricane season meant another major weather event could occur any time
- Staff limitations: Small IT team (3 engineers) couldn't manage complex infrastructure
- Editorial continuity: Newsroom needed zero disruption to editorial workflows during migration
The Solution: WAVE Platform Implementation
Why RNN Chose WAVE
After evaluating five streaming platforms over 6 weeks, RNN selected WAVE for three critical reasons:
OMT Protocol
WAVE's proprietary One-way Media Transport protocol delivered sub-100ms latency—10x better than competitors' LL-HLS implementations
Auto-Scaling
Proven ability to scale from 100 to 10M viewers automatically during demo stress test—no pre-provisioning required
Cost Efficiency
Usage-based pricing with no minimum commitments meant lower costs for typical viewership, with burst capacity available for breaking news
WAVE Products Deployed
WAVE PIPELINE
Cloud-based ingest and encoding for all 8 camera feeds from master control, with automatic adaptive bitrate ladder generation (240p to 4K)
WAVE CDN (200+ Global POPs)
Global content delivery network with edge caching, optimized routing, and automatic failover. Regional presence in all 8 coverage states
WAVE PULSE (Analytics)
Real-time viewer analytics, quality-of-experience monitoring, and business intelligence dashboards for ad sales team
WAVE DESKTOP
Desktop application for remote correspondents to broadcast directly to main stream from the field via WebRTC with <200ms glass-to-glass latency
Technical Architecture
Signal Flow Architecture
┌──────────────────┐
│ Master Control │
│ (8 NDI Feeds) │
└────────┬─────────┘
│ NDI over dedicated 10Gbps fiber
▼
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ WAVE PIPELINE (Cloud) │
│ - Ingest & Transcoding │
│ - ABR Ladder (240p-4K) │
│ - OMT Protocol Packaging │
└────────┬───────────────────┘
│ OMT streams
▼
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ WAVE CDN (200+ POPs) │
│ - Edge Caching │
│ - Smart Routing │
│ - DDoS Protection │
└────────┬───────────────────┘
│ <80ms latency
▼
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ End-User Devices │
│ Web | iOS | Android | TV │
└────────────────────────────┘
Remote Correspondents (WAVE DESKTOP):
┌──────────────┐
│ Field Camera │──WebRTC──┐
└──────────────┘ │
┌──────────────┐ ├──► Master Control ──► PIPELINE
│ Field Camera │──WebRTC──┘
└──────────────┘
Infrastructure Configuration
- Ingest: 8 NDI feeds @ 1080p60 (primary channel + 7 multi-angle/B-roll)
- Encoding: HEVC codec, 6-rung ABR ladder (240p, 360p, 540p, 720p60, 1080p60, 4K30)
- Delivery: OMT protocol primary, HLS fallback for unsupported devices
- CDN: 45 edge POPs across 8-state coverage area, 155 global POPs for out-of-region viewers
- Storage: 90-day rolling DVR buffer, indefinite archive for select content
- Monitoring: Real-time dashboards in master control and executive office
Security & Reliability Measures
- Redundancy: Dual-path ingest with automatic failover (primary + backup fiber paths)
- DDoS Protection: Layer 3-7 protection handling up to 10 Tbps attack capacity
- Authentication: Token-based viewer authentication with device limits (5 simultaneous)
- Geo-restriction: Content limited to US viewers for rights management
- Monitoring: 24/7 NOC with automated alerting for stream health issues
Implementation Timeline
Week 1: Discovery & Planning
October 3-9, 2022
- • Technical infrastructure audit and requirements gathering
- • WAVE integration architecture design sessions
- • Testing OMT protocol with sample feeds
- • Stakeholder training for production team (8 staff)
Week 2: Parallel Deployment
October 10-16, 2022
- • WAVE PIPELINE configuration and testing
- • Dual-stream setup (legacy + WAVE) for validation
- • Player integration in website and mobile apps
- • Internal beta testing with 500 employee viewers
Week 3: Soft Launch
October 17-23, 2022
- • Gradual traffic migration: 10% → 50% → 100% over 5 days
- • Real-time monitoring and optimization
- • Player UI refinements based on user feedback
- • Analytics validation and dashboard training
Week 4: Full Production
October 24, 2022
- • Legacy system decommissioned
- • 100% traffic on WAVE platform
- • WAVE DESKTOP rollout to 15 field correspondents
- • Post-launch optimization and staff training completion
Migration Success
Zero downtime migration completed in 22 days, 6 days ahead of schedule. First breaking news test occurred November 2 with election coverage—platform handled 385K concurrent viewers with zero issues.
Results & Metrics
Before vs. After Comparison
| Metric | Before WAVE | After WAVE | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concurrent Viewers (Average) | 8,000 | 45,000 | +463% |
| Peak Concurrent Viewers | 52,000 (crashed) | 1,240,000 | +2,285% |
| Stream Latency | 15 seconds | 78ms | 185x faster |
| Platform Uptime | 98.5% | 99.97% | +1.5 points |
| Buffering Rate | 8.5% | 0.4% | -95% |
| Average View Duration | 4.2 minutes | 11.8 minutes | +181% |
| Monthly Infrastructure Cost | $85,000 | $32,000 | -62% |
| Cost per 1K Viewer Hours | $12.50 | $2.80 | -78% |
| IT Staff Required | 3 FTE | 1 FTE | -67% |
Audience Growth
- • 20x increase in peak concurrent viewers (50K → 1M)
- • 463% growth in average daily concurrent viewers
- • 350% increase in digital advertising revenue
- • 180% longer average viewing sessions
- • Expanded coverage to 3 new markets without infrastructure investment
- • 92% viewer satisfaction (vs. 67% previously)
Performance Excellence
- • 78ms average latency (vs. 15s = 185x improvement)
- • 99.97% uptime over 18 months (vs. 98.5%)
- • Zero stream crashes during traffic spikes
- • 95% reduction in buffering incidents
- • Sub-500ms glass-to-glass latency for field reporting
- • 4K HDR quality for flagship evening news
Financial Impact
- • $636K annual infrastructure savings (62% reduction)
- • $2.1M increased digital advertising revenue (year 1)
- • $420K saved in IT staffing costs (2 FTE reduction)
- • 78% lower cost per viewer hour
- • 6-month ROI on WAVE investment
- • Zero revenue loss to outages in 18 months
Operational Efficiency
- • 90% faster deployment of new streams
- • 67% reduction in IT staff requirements
- • 85% decrease in support tickets
- • Zero-touch scaling for breaking news coverage
- • Field correspondent setup time: 45min → 5min
- • Unified platform replaced 4 legacy systems
Return on Investment Analysis
First Year Financial Summary
Cost Savings:
- Infrastructure costs reduction$636,000
- IT staffing savings (2 FTE)$420,000
- Hardware maintenance elimination$185,000
- Avoided outage revenue loss$720,000
- Total Savings$1,961,000
Revenue Growth:
- Digital advertising growth$2,100,000
- Premium tier subscriptions$340,000
- Expanded market revenue$580,000
- Content syndication deals$220,000
- Total New Revenue$3,240,000
ROI achieved in 6 months. Every dollar invested in WAVE returns $13.54 annually.
What the Team Says
"WAVE transformed our entire digital strategy. We went from constant infrastructure anxiety to confidently promoting our digital streams. During Hurricane Zeta, we handled 1.2M concurrent viewers without a single hiccup—that would have been impossible with our old system. The cost savings alone paid for WAVE in 6 months, but the real value is in viewer growth and brand trust."
Sarah Chen
Chief Technology Officer
Regional News Network
"As a field correspondent, WAVE DESKTOP changed everything. I can go live from anywhere in seconds with broadcast-quality video. During the tornado outbreak, I was reporting from a gas station parking lot with sub-second latency back to master control. Our viewers got critical safety information faster than any competitor. That's the power of this technology."
Marcus Williams
Chief Meteorologist & Field Correspondent
Regional News Network
"Our digital ad revenue grew 350% in the first year after moving to WAVE. Advertisers trust our viewership numbers now because we never have outages or quality issues. The real-time analytics from PULSE let us offer premium targeting that wasn't possible before. We've signed multi-year contracts with major brands based on the platform's reliability."
Jennifer Martinez
Vice President of Digital Advertising Sales
Regional News Network
Lessons Learned & Best Practices
What Went Well
- Parallel deployment strategy allowed thorough testing before full cutover with zero production risk
- Gradual traffic migration (10% → 50% → 100%) identified edge cases before they impacted full audience
- Early stakeholder buy-in from newsroom leadership prevented resistance to workflow changes
- Comprehensive training for production staff before launch eliminated day-one operational issues
Challenges & Solutions
- Challenge: Legacy player on smart TVs required fallback HLS streams
Solution: WAVE's automatic protocol detection served optimal format per device - Challenge: Analytics team needed time to adapt dashboards to new metrics
Solution: WAVE API integration with existing Tableau dashboards - Challenge: Some field locations had limited cellular bandwidth
Solution: WAVE DESKTOP's adaptive bitrate optimized for 4G/5G conditions
Recommendations for Similar Organizations
- 1.Don't wait for a crisis. We implemented WAVE after a major outage. Planning during calm periods allows more thorough testing and training.
- 2.Involve the newsroom early. Technical excellence doesn't matter if journalists can't use it. Get their input on workflows from day one.
- 3.Quantify the cost of downtime. We calculated $180K revenue loss during Hurricane Maria—that business case made the migration decision easy.
- 4.Test at scale before you need it. WAVE helped us load test with simulated traffic to validate our 1M viewer capacity before election night.
- 5.Monitor quality obsessively. We display WAVE PULSE dashboards in master control so directors can see viewer experience in real-time.
Technical Specifications
| Streaming Volume | 24/7 live news (8,760 hours/year per channel) |
| Concurrent Viewers | Average: 45K | Peak: 1.24M | Capacity: 10M+ |
| Total Monthly Hours Viewed | 12.8M viewer hours (average month) |
| Primary Protocol | OMT (One-way Media Transport) |
| Fallback Protocol | LL-HLS (for legacy devices) |
| Quality Settings | 240p, 360p, 540p, 720p60, 1080p60, 4K30 (6-rung ABR) |
| Video Codec | HEVC (H.265) for efficiency |
| Audio Codec | AAC-LC, 128kbps stereo |
| CDN POPs | 45 regional (8-state coverage) + 155 global |
| Storage/DVR | 90-day rolling buffer + selective permanent archive |
| Team Size | 1 FTE (DevOps), down from 3 |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% contractual | 99.97% actual (18 months) |
| Support Level | 24/7 Enterprise Support with dedicated account manager |
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