Festival-Streaming Crossroads: How Santa Monica’s New Big-Scale Event Will Be Broadcast (And Avoid Casting Issues)

Festival-Streaming Crossroads: How Santa Monica’s New Big-Scale Event Will Be Broadcast (And Avoid Casting Issues)

Hook: Promoters hate friction. Fans hate missing a moment. With a Coachella promoter launching a large-scale festival in Santa Monica in 2026—and Netflix's abrupt casting removal still reverberating—this event is the first real test of how modern festivals must stream to avoid consumer headaches. If you’re organizing live coverage or building a broadcast stack, you need a plan that prevents playback breakage, preserves low-latency experience, and protects revenue.

Topline (Most Important): What happened and why it matters

In January 2026 Netflix removed broad mobile-to-TV casting support from its apps—an industry wake-up call that third-party play-to-TV assumptions are fragile. Simultaneously, the Coachella promoter’s new Santa Monica festival—positioned as a large-scale, experience-first event backed by industry investors including Marc Cuban—will demand seamless multi-device, high-quality streaming to reach ticket-holders and at-home fans alike.

That confluence forces promoters and streaming teams to answer: are we relying on brittle consumer-side casting, or building resilient, multi-path delivery that survives platform changes, hardware diversity, and real-time spikes?

Why the Netflix casting change should change festival streaming strategy

Netflix’s decision to deprecate casting in mobile apps is more than a single-vendor policy update—it’s a symptom of a fragmented playback ecosystem in 2026. Promoters planning festival streaming must account for:

• Platform volatility: Major services can and will change device support suddenly.
• Device diversity: Audiences use phones, tablets, TVs, consoles, and browsers with wildly different capabilities and DRM requirements.
• Expectations for zero friction: Post-2024 fans expect instant access, social sharing, and playback on any screen without app installs or configuration hurdles.

Practical consequence

If your broadcast relies on open-ended consumer casting (e.g., “just cast from our app”), you risk angry fans who can’t connect, poor social clips, and lost revenue. The Santa Monica festival needs a robust streaming architecture that anticipates these breakages and eliminates manual workarounds.

Design principles for festival streaming in 2026

Adopt these principles before you choose vendors:

• Multi-path delivery: Use multiple distribution methods simultaneously—native TV apps, web players, social embeds, and OTT packages—so a single failure doesn’t take the show offline.
• Mobile-first, TV-ready: Design the primary UX for mobile but ensure easy, reliable ways to view on TVs without relying on third-party cast behaviors that might be removed overnight. See global TV trends for how studios are optimizing TV delivery.
• Low-latency where it matters: Use WebRTC or LL-HLS for interactive stages and VIP cams; CMAF/LL-HLS for main-stage broadcasts tuned to 3–10s latency for broad reach — practical lessons on latency gains can be found in Mongus 2.1: Latency Gains, Map Editor, and Why Small Tools Matter.
• Fallbacks and graceful degradation: Provide multiple manifest types (LL-HLS, HLS, DASH) and progressive MP4 fallbacks for legacy devices.
• Privacy-first access controls: Avoid heavy login friction; prefer magic links, SMS tokens, or device-bound ephemeral tokens to minimize barriers.

Concrete streaming architecture: recommended stack

Below is a practical, vendor-neutral stack you can implement. Each layer includes why it matters for festival-scale events.

1) Contribution (on-site capture)

• Use SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) for camera-to-cloud feeds—resilient across unpredictable festival networks.
• Implement local bonding (LiveU, Teradek Bond) to aggregate cellular and Wi‑Fi for jump cams and backstage feeds — small-team, edge-backed production patterns are documented in the Hybrid Micro-Studio Playbook.
• Run an on-site hardware encoder for each main stage and multiple software encoders for B-roll and artist cams.

2) Ingest & event orchestration

• Ingest to a resilient origin (multi-region) with multi-CDN capability (Akamai, Cloudfront, Cloudflare) to absorb demand spikes.
• Use a control plane for live switching between feeds and backup sources; keep hot standbys for each camera.
• Encrypt contribution streams and adopt DRM-friendly workflows early to avoid last-minute integration headaches.

3) Encoding & packaging

• Transcode to CMAF fragmented MP4 for universal compatibility; produce LL-HLS + DASH + HLS fMP4 outputs.
• Prioritize Low-Latency HLS (LL-HLS) where broad device support is required; WebRTC for chat-interactive or betting-style features where sub-second latency matters.
• Create multiple ABR ladders tuned for mobile networks and for higher-resolution TV playback.

4) DRM & monetization

• Protect premium paid streams with Widevine, FairPlay, and PlayReady where needed.
• Use server-side ad insertion (SSAI) to avoid ad-blocking interruptions and support dynamic pricing models.

5) Player & UX

• Ship a progressive web app (PWA) plus native apps for Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and major smart TV platforms. PWAs enable instant, install-light experiences and deeplinking.
• Use robust players (Shaka, hls.js, THEOplayer, or proprietary) that support LL-HLS, DASH, CMAF, and WebRTC fallbacks.
• Design the mobile player to provide QR deeplinks and “Open on TV” buttons that trigger direct TV app deeplinks or universal links when available.

6) Edge & analytics

• Optimize for edge compute: inject personalization and localizations at the edge to reduce origin load — see hybrid edge orchestration patterns in Hybrid Edge Orchestration.
• Install real-time monitoring (Mux/Conviva-like analytics) for bitrate, join time, buffering, and error rates so ops can act during the event. Prepare post-incident playbooks based on postmortem templates and incident comms.

Specific measures to avoid casting-related consumer friction

Given the Netflix precedent, treat casting as a convenience layer—not your primary delivery. Use these actionable tactics:

Build native TV presence before relying on casting

Develop lightweight native apps for top TV platforms. In 2026, app ecosystems are the most reliable way to ensure TV playback works. Prioritize:

• Apple TV (tvOS) and AirPlay support
• Roku and Amazon Fire TV apps (major install bases)
• Samsung Tizen and LG webOS for smart TVs

Offer direct deeplinks and QR codes

QR codes remain one of the fastest ways to bridge mobile-to-TV use-cases without casting. Put QR codes on stage screens and ticketing emails that deep link into the TV app or web player with a one-tap join.

Ship a robust second-screen control layer

If you want remote-control-like features (pause, skip stages, camera angle switching) provide a second-screen control channel using WebSockets or WebRTC signaling—not consumer casting APIs. This lets phones control the TV app without depending on the platform vendor’s cast support.

Graceful fallback flow

1. If TV casting fails, prompt users with a QR to open the session on their TV app or browser-based large-screen player.
2. Offer a “join on TV” email/SMS magic link to transfer playback.
3. Provide an HDMI playback guide and a simple checklist for venues where attendees bring their own displays.

Monetization and audience access: reduce friction, maximize yield

Monetization choices shape UX. Paywalls create friction—avoid them mid-show. Use these patterns:

• Freemium model: Free main-stage stream with premium multi-cam, backstage, or meet-and-greet access behind a paywall.
• Pass-through ticketing: Validate physical ticket holders with magic links tied to ticket IDs; allow limited sharing via device-bound tokens to prevent wholesale password sharing.
• Microtransactions: Sell short clips or encrypted highlight bundles for instant sharing to social platforms.
• SSAI + dynamic ad pods: Balance ads between acts and use location-aware ad stitching to maximize CPMs without interrupting crowds’ experiences.

Mobile playback: what to optimize for now

Mobile remains the primary discovery and control surface. Optimize these 2026 priorities:

• Fast join times: Target sub-5s first-frame time on mobile networks—pre-warm manifest and use prefetch of low-bitrate segments immediately after the “play” action.
• Adaptive ABR ladders: Include very low bitrate renditions (240p) for congested networks, and mid- to high-res for home Wi‑Fi.
• Offline highlights: Offer short downloadable clips that users can watch offline or share on social platforms.
• Caption & language tracks: Provide real-time captions and multi-audio for international fans; AI can help generate and correct captions in near real-time (a major trend in late 2025–2026).

Case studies & examples (experience & expertise)

Learn from recent high-scale festivals:

• Coachella (histor): Successful multi-platform strategy with YouTube and proprietary streams—use as a model for multi-CDN redundancy and social-first clips.
• Glastonbury & major broadcasters: Demonstrated smooth TV app experiences when apps and DRM are baked in weeks ahead of the event.
• Late-2025 AI highlight engines: Festival streams that deployed AI for automatic highlight clipping saw 2–4x more social engagement within the first hour of the stream — learn how creator pipelines monetize highlights in Creator Commerce SEO & Story‑Led Rewrite Pipelines (2026).

Operational checklist for Santa Monica–scale festivals

Use this on-the-ground checklist in build and rehearsal weeks:

• Conduct multi-device playback tests (100+ device matrix) across networks and browsers.
• Validate TV app deep-links and QA AirPlay/HDMI fallbacks.
• Test CDN failover and multi-CDN switching under load.
• Simulate login flows and magic link flows with thousands of concurrent users.
• Run DR rehearsals for ingestion loss and corrupted feeds — pair rehearsals with postmortem templates and incident comms.
• Confirm licensing for songs, visual content, and rights in streaming territories.
• Set KPIs and dashboards for buffering, join time, quality switches, and share/clipping events.

Legal, rights, and platform partnerships

Music rights are a core constraint. In 2026, rights clearance must be part of the streaming architecture:

• Clear performance and sync rights for broadcast and VOD.
• Plan geo-blocking where catalog rights differ.
• Engage platform partners early to negotiate feature parity (e.g., ad-sharing, analytics access) for aggregated revenue.

“It’s time we all got off our asses, left the house and had fun,” said Marc Cuban on investing in Burwoodland’s live experience push—echoing the industry push to prioritize in-person moments and high-quality live streaming to extend reach.

Future-proofing: trends to watch (2026 and beyond)

Plan for these near-future developments when architecting your Santa Monica broadcast:

• Edge-native personalization: Audience-specific bitrates, ads, and language tracks delivered at edge nodes — see edge cost/placement guidance in Edge-Oriented Cost Optimization.
• AI-driven real-time clipping: Automated creation of vertical, 30–60s social clips within seconds of the live moment — combine with creator pipelines such as Creator Commerce SEO & Story‑Led Rewrite Pipelines.
• Hybrid low-latency stacks: A common pattern will be WebRTC for interactivity and LL-HLS (CMAF) for large-scale distribution—operators must seamlessly transcode between them.
• Privacy-first identity: Device-bound tokens and ephemeral authentication will replace heavy-account gating for live event access.

Quick action plan for promoters (what to do this week)

1. Inventory: List all required outputs (main stream, multi-cam, VIP, social clips) and map to required DRM and rights.
2. Choose a multi-CDN + edge partner and finalize ingest redundancy.
3. Build or confirm native apps for top TV platforms; implement QR deeplink flows to avoid casting dependence.
4. Set up an ops war room with real-time monitoring and a runbook for quick device or CDN switchovers.
5. Run a full stress test with 10–20k concurrent streams to validate auto-scale and join-time SLAs.

Final takeaways

Streaming a large-scale festival in Santa Monica in 2026 is not just about bandwidth—it’s an architecture problem shaped by platform policy, device fragmentation, and rising user expectations. Netflix’s casting removal is a practical reminder: you can’t outsource the TV experience to third-party behaviors. Build for redundancy, prioritize mobile-first UX with TV-deeplinks and native apps, and adopt low-latency options where interaction matters.

Actionable summary:

• Don’t rely on consumer casting—treat it as optional.
• Ship native TV apps and QR deeplinks for reliable big-screen playback.
• Use multi-CDN, LL-HLS/CMAF, and WebRTC hybrid stacks for scale and interactivity.
• Optimize mobile join times, ABR ladders, and provide frictionless access via magic links and SMS tokens.
• Automate real-time clipping to feed social and monetize highlights — see how creator pipelines can help in Creator Commerce SEO & Story‑Led Rewrite Pipelines.

Call to action

Promoters, ops leads, and streaming engineers: start your Santa Monica broadcast checklist now. If you want a downloadable ops runbook and testing matrix tailored for large-scale festival streaming—optimized for 2026 realities like casting removal and edge personalization—subscribe to our updates or contact our editorial team to arrange a technical case review. Don’t let platform changes steal your audience’s moment—build resilient streams that match the live energy.

Related Reading

• Hybrid Edge Orchestration Playbook for Distributed Teams — Advanced Strategies (2026)
• Edge-Oriented Cost Optimization: When to Push Inference to Devices vs. Keep It in the Cloud
• Hybrid Micro-Studio Playbook: Edge-Backed Production Workflows for Small Teams (2026)
• Postmortem Templates and Incident Comms for Large-Scale Service Outages
• Global TV in 2026: Why Bigger Studios Are Buying Smaller Format Houses
• Digg’s Reboot vs. Reddit: A Comparative Guide for Community Managers
• How to Run an Ethical Audit of Your Generative Models After Public Abuse Reports
• Designing a Cozy Iftar Table: Textiles, Accessories, and Warm Lighting on a Budget
• Green Deals Flash Tracker: Daily Alerts for Power Stations, Robot Mowers and E‑bikes
• Govee RGBIC Smart Lamp: Buy It Now or Save for a Full Smart Lighting Setup?