The rise of Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST)is reshaping how broadcasters and content owners reach global audiences. While FAST channels offer flexibility and strong monetization potential, their success depends on a reliable, broadcast-grade foundation. Launching and scaling channels across multiple platforms requires a seamless architecture - one that integrates encoding, automation, ad signaling, and distributioninto a unified, low-latency workflow. At DVEO and Stream Republic by DVEO, we’ve designed a unified FAST channel ecosystem built to solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges: fragmentation.

Instead of managing multiple vendors for encoding, playout, and delivery, each with its own latency, metadata, and monitoring systems, our architecture brings everything under one operational framework.

This end-to-end infrastructure combines:

• Brutus Cloud, for real-time transcoding and adaptive streaming;

• Playout Automation, for dynamic scheduling and precise ad signaling;

• AI-powered content enrichment, including subtitling, dubbing, and upscaling and

• Global Distribution, with multi-protocol delivery (SRT, satellite, and hybrid CDN).

Together, these components form a single, synchronized environment where every part of your FAST workflow, from ingest to monetization, works seamlessly. The result is lower latency, faster deployment, and a fully broadcast-grade operation, ready to scale across regions and platforms.

From ingest to delivery: designing a FAST architecture that scales

Every FAST channel starts at the ingest layer. Using Brutus Cloud, operators can process multiple inputs, from live sources (RTMP, SRT, HLS, MPEG-TS) to file-based assets, and transcode them into adaptive bitrate (ABR) outputs optimized for OTT and linear distribution. This transcoding layer is fully GPU-accelerated and operates in active-active mode, with nodes distributed across data centers in the Americas and Europe. This redundancy ensures automatic failover in case of hardware or network degradation, keeping the channel uninterrupted even under peak load. 

Because Brutus Cloud directly integrates with the playout core, latency between processing and scheduling is minimized. The result is a real-time pipeline where live, pre-recorded, and ad segments are orchestrated without delay, a crucial factor for FAST environments that depend on responsiveness and precision.

Automation and precision at the playout layer

After content is transcoded, it enters the Playout Automation layer, which serves as the control point for scheduling, metadata management, and ad cue generation.Unlike traditional linear systems, FAST channels demand flexibility. Schedules need to be dynamic, with playlists that can be altered on the fly to accommodate live events, programming shifts, or localized versions of the same channel. Our cloud-native playout infrastructure runs within a containerized environment, enabling dynamic scaling without downtime. It integrates directly with content management systems (CMS), traffic automation, and metadata engines — allowing operators to control entire channels from a unified interface.

Regional feeds are easily generated through virtual channel mapping, enabling localized graphics, audio tracks, or ad breaks without duplicating the full pipeline. This architecture ensures efficiency, consistency, and speed, essential for global FAST deployments.

Monetization at scale: the role of SCTE-35 signaling

FAST channels are built on ad revenue, and SCTE-35 signaling is the core of that monetization model.At DVEO and Stream Republic, SCTE-35 markers are embedded directly into the playout output with frame-level accuracy. This precision ensures that ad breaks trigger seamlessly, avoiding the abrupt transitions or missed cues that can disrupt viewer experience and revenue tracking.

The markers integrate with Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) platforms and Ad Decision Servers (ADS) for dynamic ad replacement, enabling targeted delivery per region, platform, or device. The result is a monetization workflow that’s both highly automated and transparent, supported by real-time analytics and cue-point verification.Because ad signaling, playout, and distribution share the same metadata structure, timing inconsistencies and synchronization issues are eliminated. The entire pipeline operates as one cohesive system.

Low-Latency global distribution

Once the signal leaves the playout core, it must reach viewers with low latency, reliability, and security, no matter the distance.Our hybrid global delivery architecture combines SRT transport, satellite downlinking, and hybrid CDN distribution, ensuring fast and stable content delivery across Europe and the Americas.A

daptive routing engines analyze network performance in real time, selecting the most efficient path between origin and destination. Meanwhile, regional edge nodes replicate content closer to end users, minimizing buffering and improving Quality of Experience (QoE).All network components are orchestrated through a centralized monitoring layer that tracks packet loss, latency, and bit-rate fluctuations across every node. This visibility allows operators to predict performance issues and make proactive adjustments before they impact live delivery.

Scalability and operational resilience

FAST success depends on scalability, the ability to go from one channel to hundreds without disrupting operations.The DVEO + Stream Republic ecosystem uses containerized microservices to handle playout, transcoding, monitoring, and ad signaling independently. New channels or regional variants can be deployed instantly, with workloads distributed automatically across the available infrastructure.

This geo-distributed, active-active cluster design provides continuous delivery, even during maintenance or unexpected network events. Centralized orchestration gives engineering teams full visibility over ingest health, ad insertion, and delivery performance, in real time.It’s an architecture built not just for growth, but for sustained uptime and operational efficiency.

One Partner. One Workflow.

When every component of your FAST channel - encoding, automation, ad signaling, and delivery, is synchronized within one ecosystem, latency drops, reliability improves, and scaling becomes predictable. With DVEO and Stream Republic by DVEO, you gain a broadcast-grade, end-to-end ecosystem engineered for automation, monetization, and global reach.

From ingest to delivery, every frame travels through a seamless, optimized path, so you can focus on creating and monetizing great content, while we take care of the infrastructure.