​How is American football connected to the capital of Romania? Or what is the connection between the millions of users who watch matches in real time using streaming platforms and the Adobe engineering team?

At first glance, the 104th season of the National Football League (NFL), the division of American football in the United States and several dozen lines of code are not related to each other. In the heart of Bucharest, far from the deafening noise of the stadiums hosting the Wild Card or Super Bowl matches, Streaming Media’s team monitors in real time the infrastructure that makes these events a success.

Super Bowl LVIII, the 58th edition of the Super Bowl, was not just an American football game; became the denouement of the series of matches that began in September 2023. For 5 months, the fans of the participating teams followed the evolution of their favorite teams with their hearts, experiencing the emotions of each scored point in the competition.

These events attract not only millions of users who want to watch matches on streaming platforms, but also big companies who broadcast advertisements during breaks and invest significant sums to broadcast them during peak audience times.

To help these companies better understand how users interact with media, video or audio content, Adobe offers Adobe Analytics for Streaming Media.

The foundations of the Streaming Media product were fully laid in Bucharest shortly after 2010. This product, which is mainly used for sporting events in the United States of America, has grown steadily and at an accelerated pace, keeping pace with the millions of users who have chosen to abandon classic television content and replace it with online streaming subscriptions.

12 months of preparation, 5 hours of live broadcast, tens of millions of subscribers

Preparation for the SuperBowl begins several months before the event, continuing a series of detailed discussions with key partner companies to determine traffic estimates. Then the technical teams spring into action, performing thorough analysis and detailed planning of the event itself. They determine effective solutions for configuring the necessary infrastructure, taking into account the type and volume of expected traffic. A crucial step is thorough end-to-end testing of this infrastructure to ensure proper performance in real-world conditions. During the event, careful monitoring of parameters ensures adaptability and optimal performance of the system.

On the technical side, the main challenge is maintaining a real-time infrastructure that scales proportionally to the millions of users logging on at the same time to watch events like the Super Bowl. Technical issues change from year to year – finalist teams, halftime artists, the way the game is broadcast – all directly affect the number of users who access the content, and at the same time, their behavior during the live broadcast.

A behind-the-scenes look at the 2024 Super Bowl

For this year’s edition, Adobe has been intensively preparing to handle traffic, which is estimated to be 5 times more than in previous years. With tradition in their DNA, the team watched the system unfold in real-time, enjoying the match, watching exclusive promos and attending Usher’s concert.

Given the scale of the event, the team organized itself into smaller groups, closely monitoring various infrastructure components. At the same time, he maintained close contact with external and internal teams in other time zones.

The exceptional performance allowed the teams to also enjoy moments of relaxation, banter and enjoy the culinary delights of Lebanese cuisine.

The epic football game ended at 5:47 with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating San Francisco, making it the most watched Super Bowl in history. With this outstanding achievement, Adobe has added another tab to its impressive history!

Article supported by Adobe Romania