The StreamForge solution is designed for maximal scalability which means that there are no bottlenecks in the system imposing a limit to the possible number of parallel listeners. No matter how large the audience is StreamForge can handle the load.

An often witnessed phenomenon on the internet are so called “flash crowds”. Suddenly much more users than normal are interested in an online service such as a website or a radio program. The resulting increase in infrastructure requirements is a severe challenge for the host of the service and thus service breakdowns are a frequent result of unexpected flash crowds. For radio programs small bursts in the size of their audience during prime time are not uncommon. However, especially at times of events which provoke a wide user interest (such as the inauguration of Barack Obama) these peaks can become significant.

Server-based solutions are ill-suited to handle such flash crowds as the whole load of the additional listeners hits the streaming servers which quickly run out of resources. The StreamForge solution is much more resilient to this problem as the increased load is spread among the streaming servers and the already connected audience. A peak that overloads a single server can easily be handled by a network of hundreds of listeners and even make the network stronger. Where traditional solutions break down the StreamForge solution starts to shine and provides the best user experience.