September 2021 Summaries

Mux has released a public beta of Low-Latency Live Streaming, one of the first Software as a Service (SaaS) products to support Apple's LL-HLS open standard at scale. This feature offers low latency capabilities as low as 5 seconds for no additional charge. The technology enables audiences to have interactive experiences and opens doors to various creative use cases such as streamed exercise classes, live quiz shows, social streaming platforms, and interactive shopping events. Mux's Low-Latency Live Streaming is designed with three key principles in mind: player-friendly, affordable, and simple to use. The feature works with most major players and has seen consistent 4–7 seconds of latency in North America and Western Europe.

Mux has been using Apache Flink for stream-processing applications since 2016 and has learned valuable lessons from running it in Kubernetes clusters. They recommend one job per Flink cluster, using the official Flink Docker image, adding custom Prometheus metrics to applications, disabling DNS caching, and utilizing the new Flink memory management model. Future improvements include automated application upgrades with CI/CD and better test coverage for their Flink applications.