Introduction: The Birth of Serraform
Justen Hansen, co-founder at the Microsoft service practice Serraform, started his journey in web3 initially as an enthusiast and investor. Along with his friend Tyler Morrison, they started Decentral Comedy aimed at streaming live and pre-recording comedy shows into Decentraland. However, the process of uploading content, transcoding, delivery, and managing bandwidth proved to be overwhelmingly complicated for both developers and event organizers.
Meeting the Solution
Through Serraform’s practice, Justen continued to build similar streaming and on-demand video services into Decentraland. However, when it came to streaming, they encountered a lot of manual work and complexity in setting up live streams using Azure and the costs turned out to be prohibitive given Decentraland’s use cases. After two months of searching, Serraform came across Livepeer, a powerful alternative to Azure media services.
Livepeer's API presented a much simpler and cost effective approach to streaming, eliminating the microsegmentation components of Azure and brought a massive 94% cost savings while delivering comparable performance and reliability. It was a game-changer for Serraform and Decentraland and enabled the project to move forward.
The solution was realized in 3 key outcomes:
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Key Outcome #1: Delivered intuitive and extremely competitive pricing model for Serraform users ($1 per hour).
- How: Livepeer’s affordable video infrastructural cost allowed for pricing not possible with any other streaming service.
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Key Outcome #2: Dramatically increased interactivity of 3D scenes so video streaming could be scaled to millions of viewers, no matter the device / network condition.
- How: Livepeer offered HLS playback in 3D rendered scenes in Decentraland.
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Key Outcome #3: Launched quickly and focused on their core differentiator - working with users and creators in Decentraland.
- How: Livepeer’s easy-to-use API and SDK allowed Serraform to build an intuitive user experience for everyday users.
Unlocking the Future with Livepeer
With Livepeer at the core of their streaming solution, Serraform started to explore new horizons with Decentraland. Beyond comedy shows, the platform aimed to support a myriad of video use cases in the metaverse. One significant aspect was the need for content gating to secure and control access to valuable content.
NFT galleries emerged as a prominent use case for gated content, and Serraform was committed to enabling this functionality. By integrating Livepeer's capabilities, they could effortlessly pull in m3U8 streams and ensure the protection of their clients' valuable content from unauthorized access using Livepeer’s native content gating features.
Key Metrics and Value Delivered
The implementation of Livepeer not only resulted in an impressive 15x cost savings but also brought comparable uptime performance comparable to Azure. Serraform could now offer a premium streaming service that catered to Decentraland's diverse requirements and enable web3-native video features that were impossible with any other solution on the market.
Embracing the Web3 Difference
Beyond Decentraland, Serraform's partnership with Livepeer opened doors to a wide array of innovative applications. Other players in the metaverse space sought Serraform's expertise in developing content management systems and in-game control panels for streaming audio and video content.
Whether it was building virtual parcels or providing a hassle-free content management experience to non-developers, Serraform's Livepeer-powered API stood ready to service the metaverse's streaming landscape. DCL Connect, a CMS catering to non-developers, offered premium streaming services, seamlessly connected to Serraform's Livepeer-backed infrastructure.
Conclusion
Serraform's partnership with Livepeer has transformed the way content is streamed in the metaverse. By harnessing Livepeer's simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and performance, Serraform has unlocked a world of possibilities for Decentraland and other clients. Serraform continues to push the boundaries of the metaverse for its clients and works alongside Livepeer to deliver features necessary to expand that market.
Check out Serraform:
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For Video Innovators:
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