PRODUCTS
Aadhan Media was already doing something radical: compressing entire news stories into just 9 seconds. But when it came to their video infrastructure, things were taking a little… longer.
As the company expanded from news snippets to short-form video and experimental entertainment products, the engineering team faced a tough decision: keep patching together their existing AWS + Mux setup, or start fresh with a platform that could handle everything from ingestion to AI tagging to live broadcast scheduling - under one roof.
They chose FastPix.
“We started with a simple idea - to bring short, smart news to mobile-native audiences. But now we’re more than news,” says Indira, Head of Product at Aadhan Media. “We’re building new video-driven experiences across media, entertainment, and partnerships. That meant video couldn’t just be a feature. It had to be a core part of our product and platform.”
Aadhan originally experimented with AWS for storage and playback, and later adopted Mux for video analytics to get better visibility. But the limitations started to show.
“We needed more control over the playback experience, better AI support, faster turnaround from ingest to playback, and someone who could actually help us move fast. That’s when we started evaluating FastPix.”
Before FastPix, Aadhan’s stack looked like this:
“Each part worked in isolation, but nothing was really connected,” says Chandrashekar Reddy, Aadhan’s product engineer. “Our biggest pain was that we couldn't ship features fast. If we wanted to launch an AI-tagged video carousel or a personalized stream, we’d need three tools, five meetings, and two engineers blocked for a sprint.”
“We were growing out of the news app category,” says Prabhakar Patapati, Head of Digital at Aadhan Media. “We’re building a future media company - short-form video, creator partnerships, regional content, live segments, even our own shows. We needed infrastructure that could support that vision.”
Aadhan had already tested the waters with AWS and Mux. But neither could help them actually ship new video experiences - especially when live streaming and cloud programming became central to their roadmap.
“We were doing 3–5 live streams a week,” says Yashesh Shah, Head of Operations at Aadhan. “Some were real-time, some were recorded premieres to YouTube. The process was chaos - OBS setups, uploading files manually, checking if it streamed properly… and it was different for the app vs YouTube.”
What they needed wasn’t just video hosting or insights. They needed full control of how content was broadcasted, sequenced, stitched, analyzed, and personalized - across mobile, web, and social.
The turning point came when the team discovered FastPix Cloud Playout.
Instead of juggling OBS tools and simulcasting hacks, Aadhan could now create scheduled, programmable live channels - for their app, YouTube, and even potential partner apps. They could combine VOD clips, intros, overlays, bumpers, even ad slots - all stitched together through a simple visual dashboard. “We started with a basic program - an hour-long news recap loop that runs every morning. But then it clicked. We could now create themed segments, creator-curated blocks, even do live streams with pre-recorded fallbacks - without touching OBS or needing new gear.”
FastPix Cloud Playout instantly became the engine behind their live news ambitions - transforming Aadhan from a “news app with video” into a full-fledged streaming brand.
And because Cloud Playout is built directly into the FastPix stack, every playout stream came with real-time video data, viewer insights, automatic clip generation, and multi-CDN reliability - no plugins or third-party setup required.
Indira describes the shift as “having video as a native capability, not a bolt-on.” Before FastPix, video was handled with duct tape and hopeful monitoring. Now, it’s part of the core platform.
Here’s how the Aadhan team works today:
“Every team now interacts with video - and they don’t need to learn five tools to do it,” says Prabhakar. “We used to have two people doing live stream prep. Now one person can do it in 10 minutes.”
Another reason Aadhan moved away from their earlier stack was the AI gap. Now, every video uploaded is automatically:
- Transcribed using speech-to-text
- Flagged for NSFW using profanity filters
- Summarized into textual description and video chapters
- Categorized for better discovery and personalization
These AI features save the Aadhan team hours of manual work per video, and help automate video workflows across their in-app feeds.
More than just the APIs and features, what stood out to Aadhan was the support.
“We had questions that weren’t in the docs. Real-world questions. The FastPix team was on every call with us,” says Indira. “It didn’t feel like a vendor. It felt like having a video team inside our team.”
From designing a hybrid monetization workflow for future AVOD plans to configuring Cloud Playout simulcasts, the FastPix team co-piloted the process - helping Aadhan move fast without breaking their roadmap.
Since switching to FastPix, Aadhan has seen:
- 60% faster video publishing from content upload to playback
- 35% reduction in playback failures, especially on low-end Android devices
- 5x increase in live segments per week, thanks to Cloud Playout
- AI-tagged video experiences now power discovery and personalization in-app
- Zero full-time video engineers hired - FastPix APIs handle it
“We didn’t want to build a video platform. We wanted to build with one,” says Indira. “FastPix gave us infrastructure and ownership.”
And they’re just getting started. What’s next?
“We’re planning to open up our platform to creators soon,” says Indira. “And we already know FastPix can handle it - uploads, moderation, playback, analytics, monetization. All with developer-first tooling.”
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