What Features Should a Video CDN Support?
You want a video CDN that makes playback instant, steady, and secure at any scale.
That means rock solid global reach, segment‑smart caching, HLS and DASH done right, low‑latency options when you need them, origin shielding, fast purging, signed access and DRM, real time logs, and programmable edge logic so you can fix problems without new deploys.
If a vendor cannot show you those boxes checked with numbers, you keep moving.
Core Delivery Features You Should Not Compromise On
You need a delivery backbone that does not blink when traffic spikes. Look for core baseline capabilities because they make or break real world viewing.
Here is how you should be evaluating these features:
If a provider cannot show segment cache hit ratio, purge latency, and shield effectiveness with numbers from your pilot, you will feel the pain during your first big launch.
Streaming Protocol And Player Compatibility
You are going to deliver HLS and DASH, and probably use CMAF so both can share segments. Your CDN must be friendly to players, not just browsers.
- HLS and DASH packaging support, with CMAF segments and reasonable defaults for segment duration and window size
- Low‑Latency HLS and Low‑Latency DASH capability when the use case needs it, with partial segments and preload hints
- Correct CORS headers for manifests, segments, keys, and subtitles
- Range request support and byte serving for trick play and scrubbing
- Manifest compression for speed, do not compress video segments
I push vendors to show a reference player test using your own content, with metrics for startup time, rebuffer ratio, and average bitrate.
Your goal is a video streaming CDN that keeps the player happy without extra hacks.
Low Latency Options, Only When You Need Them
You may not need ultra low latency, but you should have the option. Choose the right tool for the job.
- LL‑HLS or LL‑DASH for 2 to 5 seconds glass‑to‑glass when interactivity is moderate
- WebRTC or similar for sub‑second use cases like auctions or real time gaming
- Support for chunked transfer, partial segment prefetch, and small manifest windows
- Consistent prioritize and pacing so the beginning of each segment arrives early
If a provider says “we do low latency,” ask for an end‑to‑end test with a real encoder and your player, plus a graph of audience scale versus sustained latency.
I like vendors who will show the curve flattening under pressure.
Caching Rules That Help Video
Video is not generic web content. You want fine control, and you want it without drama.
- Different TTLs for manifests and segments, manifests short, segments longer
- Cache key normalization that drops useless query parameters, keeps device‑critical ones
- Negative caching for 404s on just‑published segments to avoid thundering herds
- Stale‑while‑revalidate so viewers keep watching while the edge refreshes in the background
- Concurrency control on origin fetch to collapse duplicate requests
Ask to see the rules as code or Terraform, not screenshots. You want “CDN for video” features that are predictable, versioned, and repeatable.
Security And Content Protection
You control who watches and where. Leave nothing to chance.
- Signed URLs or tokens with expiration, path binding, IP pinning, and replay protection
- TLS certificate management at scale, custom CNAMEs, automatic renewals
- DRM pass‑through and key delivery compatibility for Widevine, PlayReady, and FairPlay
- Geoblocking, ASN or IP allow and deny lists, and hotlink protection
- DDoS mitigation and a WAF that will not break segment delivery
- Watermarking or forensic watermark pass‑through if your studio contracts require it
You are not paranoid, it’s called being practical. If you cannot lock access per viewer or per region, someone else will consume your bandwidth.
Live Streaming Essentials
Live introduces pressure. Your CDN should keep it boring during stress.
- Multi‑origin failover with health checks, so a broken packager flips quickly
- Manifest rewrite at the edge, so you can update base URLs or reduce variants on the fly
- SCTE‑35 marker pass‑through and server‑side ad insertion compatibility
- Start‑over and short DVR windows when your use case wants it
- Edge prefetch for upcoming segments to reduce tail latency
I like to see a honeycomb of pre‑flight tasks before a big event: purge manifests, prewarm the path tree, verify shield health, and turn on enhanced logging.
Your provider should give you a runbook template you can adopt.
Scalable VOD Delivery
For VOD, you win with high cache efficiency and predictable costs.
- Cold region controls so rarely watched titles are served from shield, not every PoP
- Thumbnail and sprite caching, not just main video tracks
- Range request support on MP4 when you use progressive fallback
- Large object optimization for long films, but keep segment sizes consistent
- Consistent ETag or Last‑Modified handling for origin validation
If your vendor claims “CDN video hosting” perks like built‑in object storage, test it. You want S3‑compatible APIs, lifecycle policies, and predictable egress to the CDN edge.
Observability, Analytics, And QoE
You cannot fix what you cannot see. Demand both breadth and depth.
- Real time logs streamed to your system with fields for request ID, cache status, TLS protocol, edge PoP, and response time
- Aggregated dashboards for startup time, rebuffer ratio, average bitrate, error codes, and audience concurrency
- Origin analytics, shield analytics, and cache hit ratio broken down by content group and region
- Anomaly detection and alerts you can tweak without professional services
You should be able to click from a spike in 5xx errors down to the exact bad origin or path in minutes. If you have to open a ticket to get data, you lose time and trust.
Edge Logic And Personalization
Programmability at the edge keeps you fast and flexible.
- Edge functions or workers to rewrite headers, filter variants per device, enforce tokens, and set cache keys
- Manifest manipulation at the edge for SSAI beacons, watermark IDs, or fast path changes
- Device and network awareness so you can trim ladders or change segment durations per class of client
- A safe rollout model with staged deploys and real time rollback
With a programmable edge, you fix a bad cache key or a wrong CORS header in minutes. I would prioritize a provider that treats configuration as code and supports Git workflows.
Multi‑CDN And Traffic Steering
You will eventually outgrow a single network, especially during tentpole launches. Plan for it early.
- DNS or API‑based traffic steering with health signals, cost signals, and QoE metrics
- Session‑aware steering so one viewer stays on one CDN during playback
- Consistent token and header schemes across providers to avoid player breakage
- Common logging schema and correlation IDs so you can compare apples to apples
When you test multi‑CDN, simulate failure and see if sessions stay stable. Your “CDN video” strategy should handle a provider wobble without viewers noticing.
Get those right and your viewers will think everything just works, which is the whole point of a proper CDN for video. The features video CDN buyers care about are the ones that keep play pressed, keep buffers empty, and keep your team out of fire drills.
When someone asks you about a CDN for video hosting or a CDN for video streaming, you now have a concrete list that is simple to check and hard to fake.
