🎬 Media & Entertainment · Sequence

OTT Video Playback Sequence

What happens when a viewer presses play: entitlement check, DRM licence, CDN manifest and adaptive bitrate streaming.

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Drawing diagram…

What this diagram shows

Entitlement is checked before any DRM licence is issued
The player fetches a manifest and switches bitrate as bandwidth changes
Playback events feed recommendations and QoE dashboards

Prompt used

OTT playback sequence: the viewer presses play in the app. The playback API checks the user's subscription entitlement and returns a signed manifest URL. The player fetches the HLS/DASH manifest and video segments from the CDN, requests a DRM licence (Widevine/FairPlay) from the licence server, and adapts bitrate to bandwidth. Heartbeat events go to an analytics service for resume points, recommendations and quality monitoring.

Mermaid code

sequenceDiagram
  actor V as Viewer
  participant P as Player App
  participant API as Playback API
  participant ENT as Entitlement Service
  participant CDN as CDN
  participant DRM as DRM Licence Server
  participant AN as Analytics
  V->>P: Press play
  P->>API: Request playback
  API->>ENT: Check subscription
  ENT-->>API: Entitled
  API-->>P: Signed manifest URL
  P->>CDN: Get manifest and first segments
  CDN-->>P: HLS / DASH segments
  P->>DRM: Licence request
  DRM-->>P: Decryption keys
  loop Every few seconds
    P->>CDN: Next segments at best bitrate
    P-)AN: Heartbeat and position
  end

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OTT Video Playback Sequence

What this diagram shows

Prompt used

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