Dear Gamers, Qwilt Understands and Supports Your Addiction to Twitch

REDWOOD CITY, CA – April 23, 2014 – Qwilt, a leading provider of transparent caching and online video delivery solutions, is helping the millions of Twitch fans around the world take their live video game viewing to the next level. Qwilt is focusing on Twitch to get ahead of the pending online traffic tsunami created by the rapidly increasing consumption of live video streams.

Over 45 million viewers visit Twitch every month and spend an average of 106 minutes per person per day watching videos. As the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers, outpacing ESPN, NBC Sports and even YouTube Live, Twitch caters to the fanatical gaming crowd. The site’s rise in the video streaming sphere—some users even depend on private channels on Twitch for revenue streams—presents complicated bandwidth issues.

“Twitch is generating more live video streaming traffic than any other site online today. Given the size of the gaming community and high quality of the video generated, scaling the business on today’s Internet is a major challenge,” said Colin Dixon, founder and chief analyst at nScreenMedia. “Live stream caching technology such as Qwilt’s is a critical tool to help network operators stay ahead of the bandwidth demands generated by the Twitch community and keep Twitch streamers enjoying a high-quality, buffer-free experience.”

Based on its live streaming technology and deep expertise in online video optimization, Qwilt has updated its live stream caching technology with media signatures specifically for Twitch that cache and stream Twitch video directly from Qwilt’s platform within operator networks. This avoids the inefficient routes streaming live video typically takes which can result in poor streaming quality, dropped sessions, re-buffering and frustrated viewers. In this way, Qwilt helps operators respond to the challenge of growing online video traffic by offloading 50 percent or more of the traffic to local cache systems, resulting in reduced network costs and improved Quality of Experience (QoE).

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel (@fatal1ty) is considered the world’s most accomplished professional gamer in history and has become the sport’s ambassador. He has competed in tournaments around the world and even started his own gaming brand, “Fatal1ty Gaming Gear.” Wendel trains for hours a day and shares live streams with the gaming community on his Twitch channel, twitch.tv/fatal1ty.

“For gamers, Twitch is like our ESPN. It’s also a social hangout, a place where we connect with millions of other gamers who share our passion. We may be obsessed, but that obsession is pushing the limits of what’s currently possible for live streaming technology,” said Wendel. “I’m fiercely competitive—bandwidth issues are the absolute last thing I want to be thinking about. If I had to describe gamer nirvana, it’s fast streaming with zero interruptions that lets us stay in the zone and be completely immersed in our world of games.”

“We’re the first company to develop a live stream caching technology for unmanaged streaming video like YouTube, ESPN and Twitch. From a live stream gaming perspective, Twitch is clearly ahead of the industry in how they deliver live streaming video. They have started a truly remarkable movement. Close to 60 percent of their community spends more than 20 hours on the site each week, rivaling traditional TV broadcasts,” said Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt. “Twitch is a hugely important member of the online ecosystem, and now, by leveraging operator network equipped with Qwilt’s caching for live video streaming, Twitch can better serve their community and scale their fast-growing business.”

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About Qwilt 

Qwilt addresses the impact of OTT video on operator networks with a unified, turnkey solution that combines transparent caching, video delivery and analytics technologies deployed at the subscriber edge. Qwilt QB-Series Video Fabric Controllers optimize delivery of streaming video content to relieve network traffic congestion for operators, and deliver a higher quality viewing experience for their customers. A growing number of the world’s leading cable, telecom and mobile service providers rely on Qwilt to optimize their networks to support growing consumer demand for online video content as a primary entertainment source. Founded in 2010 by industry veterans from Cisco and Juniper, Qwilt is backed by Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker and Redpoint Ventures. Learn more at www.qwilt.com.

Qwilt Press Contact:
Pam Njissang
Bhava Communications for Qwilt
1 (510) 984-1528
qwilt@bhavacom.com

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