Surviving through your next company-wide quarterly update or business update call could soon be a lot less painful thanks to a new update from Google Meet.
The video conferencing platform is looking to improve its capabilities through a new enhancement allowing for "ultra-low latency live streaming".
The new Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) support for Google Meet should mean less buffering and better all-round video quality across live streams on the platform, making watching these presentations much more bearable.
Google Meet eCDN
In a Google Workspace update blog post announcing the launch, Google notes eCDN is able to reduce bandwidth consumption to "a fraction of the traffic volume".
This is made possible through what Google calls "peer-assisted media delivery" - essentially sharing the live stream content automatically between multiple connected nearby devices, reducing the need to retrieve content from Google's servers and minimizing any bottlenecks.
Google says the upgrade will work across all live streams, even those originating from outside your own domain, although proper admin configuration will be necessary (as eCDN will be turned off by default). There is also no additional software, hardware or end user action required to activate, with eCDN working automatically in the background.
"Live streaming is a key tool for presenting information to large audiences such as town-hall meetings, weekly broadcasts or other kinds of events with large audiences. As such, video quality of live streamed content is critical," Google noted in its post.
"Using eCDN can significantly reduce the strain on internet gateways while delivering a high-quality viewing experience with consistently low latency."
The upgrade comes after Google Meet first introduced ultra-low latency livestreaming in September 2023, and is rolling out now to all Google Workspace customers. In January 2024, the platform also announced a number of tweaks to help organizers and admins run and manage their calls, including a new join screen experience featuring a quick-access button which meeting participants can use to join a live stream if they prefer that experience over the regular call.
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