Understanding the legacy of HBO Max & its powerful, scalable technical stack

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Understanding the legacy of HBO Max its
powerful, scalable technical stack
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Over The Top or OTT Platforms have changed the
rules of video consumption across the world. By
2027, around 4 billion users will be accessing
OTT platforms like HBO Max, Youtube, Netflix,
Disney, and more, generating billions of dollars
in advertisement revenues, and unleashing a new
era in video content and consumption. In this
blog, we will try to understand and dissect the
top-of-the-class scalability and powerful
performance of the HBO Max app and share some
interesting information about its legacy.
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The Legacy Of HBO Max
49-year-old HBO, which is the oldest and longest
continuously operating subscription television
service in the United States, launched its first
on-demand, Internet-based video service called
HBO on Broadband in 2008. Later, in 2010, HBO Go
was launched, which was a better and enhanced
version of HBO on Broadband, and provided
on-demand videos to their paid customers via
website, mobile app, TV, and other devices. This
continues to be among the top 10 downloaded apps
in the US, and the only video streaming or OTT
app in that list.
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Understanding The Technical Stack Of HBO Max
HBO has invested and researched a lot, to make
the backend stronger, and a user-friendly,
seamless UI to ensure the highest engagement and
higher subscribers. We will breakdown the tech
stack, and understand the backend of the HBO Max
app
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Primary Framework
The framework deployed by HBO Max is created by
BAMTech, which was earlier acquired by Disney.
Hence, both HBO Max and Disney use the same
framework for delivering video content to their
users.
In-House User Interface
As per Ottball, HBO Max uses a lot of in-house
software and systems, developed by their team.
And this also includes a proprietary trickplay
system and an in-house video player.
Streaming Protocols
As with most of the big OTT platforms, HBO Max
uses MPEG-DASH and HLS with DRM for
streaming. To achieve multi-key protection,
MPEG-DASH splits its video qualities over more
than one AdaptationSet, while the audio is
delivered across different formats via TTML.
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CMS USED BY HBO
CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK
A CMS called Comet is used by HBO Max, which
functions as their public CMS. As observed in
their app, a payload is shared with
https//comet.api.hbo.com/content, and a JSON
response is received.
As per some experts, HBO Max uses at least two
CDNs Level 3 and Akamai. Level 3 has been in
use with HBO since 2011.
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VIDEO ANALYTICS
PACKAGER
HBO Max is using Conviva v2.151.0.36981 for Video
Analytics. If we observe the code of this app,
then the client pings at https//telegraph.api.hbo
.com/events/v1, to indicate the changes.
HBO Max uses Unified Streaming Platform v1.9.5,
which produces HLS Manifests. With their latest
update for the app in 2021, they are now using an
advanced version, because Unified Streaming
Platform v1.9.5 has been in usage since 2018.
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DRM
VIDEO PLAYER
For earlier versions, HBO Max used the
ever-dependable Shaka Player for web browsers,
and Exoplayer for Android, and AV Player for
iOS. Note here, that HBO has been using Google's
open-source player for long, for Android users.
HBO Max (earlier version before 2021), used
Widevine, PlayReady, and PlayReady (with
multi-key). As of now, (post-2021), HBO Max has
been using their own in-house built DRM.
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The Scalability Of HBO Max Is The Gamechanger

• If we focus on the technical aspects of creating
  such a powerful OTT app, then scalability is
  critical. The ability to manage such a massive
  number of concurrent users, without disrupting
  their overall experience and behavior, is the
  recipe to success.
• One such strategy is Video Transcoding, wherein
  the video format is converted into another
  format, so that
• All users, across all devices and locations, get
  a uniform, delightful experience
• Buffering is decreased, which translates to
  seamless viewing
• Latency is low, thereby ensuring high-quality
  streaming
• Here is a three-step process for Video
  Transcoding

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Validation
Parallel Encoding
Encoding Profile
During the process of converting the video
formats, some elements can change or alter such
as frames, colors etc. With the Validation
process, the system makes sure that the
Transcoding process is seamless.
Typically, videos these days are multiple
terabyte-sized in size and volume, and it doesnt
make sense to process such a huge amount of data.
This is the reason that the video is first broken
down into smaller fragments, and then they are
encoded in parallel.
This is the secret of scalability, as deployed
via Video Transcoding. Every device has a video
format, that ensures optimal performance, based
on different network speeds and connectivity.
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Some other processes for enhancing scalability
includes TrickPlay When a user scans the
content via the sidebar or the main menu, then a
thumbnail is generated which gives a small
snapshot of the video content. This is Trickplay,
which is achieved by HBO Max by requesting images
via template-URL and passing the playhead
position along. (e.g. https//media.fly.cdn.hbomax
.com/videos/PRO42/e1/gov2/turner/feature/613088/v1
/images/23.98p/r0/images_2_000000000.jpg) Alth
ough HBO Max could have achieved this via
MPEG-DASH, they chose to develop their own system
for Trickplay. Similarly, features such as
Offline Watching, Continue Watching, etc are
deployed, which ensures that all the users are
able to get a uniformed, delightful access to
video content If you wish to know more about HBO
Max and find out how you can develop and launch a
similar video streaming and OTT app, then get in
touch with our System Architects and Mobile App
Engineers, and explore the possibilities.
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