Our usage scenario requires to have many users (from a few to hundreds) watching together, in sync, the same recorded media file (usually 100s MB in size). Right now we use an on-demand app and, by remotely controlling the user’s player, we start/pause/seek the video file playback for everybody at the same time.
The question: is this the most efficient way (server load, disk usage, performance etc) of doing it or maybe I should try to create a ‘live’ stream from the static file and have the users pulling this stream? Would be this approach significantly better, any drawbacks/concerns? I’ve seen some posts about building a stream from a static file but if this solution makes sense I would appreciate a hint from where to start. Thanks.