Key Takeaways
- Sye originated in Stockholm in 2015 as a solution to latency problems in live sports streaming.
- Filippa Hasselström joined the project in 2016, bringing extensive live‑stream expertise to turn a technical challenge into a breakthrough product.
- The collaboration with Amazon began as a shared engineering effort to solve latency, not as a typical business transaction.
- Integration with Prime Video scaled Sye’s technology to power major global broadcasts (Thursday Night Football, NBA, UEFA Champions League, Premier League) across more than 220 countries.
- Global deployment accelerated innovation, driving continuous improvements in reliability, device compatibility, and network adaptability.
- The original Stockholm engineering team remained intact after acquisition, doubled in size, and expanded to hubs such as London and Seattle, creating new career paths beyond pure engineering.
- Sye’s impact extends to academia through university collaborations, internships, and research on network congestion, fostering a stronger industry‑academia link.
- The story illustrates that for innovative companies, the most impactful growth often begins after an acquisition, as scaling creates economic multipliers and lasting innovation ecosystems.
Origins of the Latency Challenge
The journey began in 2015 when a small group of engineers at Swedish firm Net Insight set out to tackle one of live streaming’s most stubborn problems: latency. Sports fans watching online experienced frustrating delays—goals appeared on social media before they showed on screen, and arena cheers reached viewers seconds after the action. The team’s core question was simple yet ambitious: how could live streaming be as immediate as traditional television? This focus on reducing latency laid the technical foundation for what would become Sye.
Filippa Hasselström’s Entry and Vision
In 2016, Filippa Hasselström, a seasoned live‑streaming professional, joined the Stockholm team. She recalled being inspired by engineers solving problems the industry had not yet cracked. Hasselström’s expertise helped shift the project from merely improving an existing product to rethinking the entire live‑streaming workflow. Her belief that the team could deliver a truly low‑latency experience became a driving force behind Sye’s development.
From Technical Collaboration to Strategic Partnership
The initial contact with Amazon was not a conventional sales pitch but a meeting of engineers who recognized they were tackling the same latency challenge. Amazon’s massive scale and experience in delivering video at global proportions offered the perfect environment to test and refine Sye’s capabilities. What started as a technical collaboration quickly evolved into a strategic partnership, with both sides committed to pushing the boundaries of live‑stream performance.
Scaling for Global Sports Broadcasts
Working alongside Amazon allowed the Stockholm engineers to continue innovating while adapting Sye to support millions of viewers, thousands of device configurations, and some of the world’s biggest live sporting events. Today, Sye’s technology powers Prime Video’s flagship broadcasts—including Thursday Night Football, the NBA, UEFA Champions League, and the Premier League—reaching fans in over 220 countries and territories. This global reach transformed a niche solution into a core component of Prime Video’s live‑sports offering.
Innovation Accelerated by Scale
Each new deployment introduced fresh engineering complexities, from varying network conditions to diverse hardware ecosystems. These challenges acted as a catalyst for continuous improvement, pushing the team to enhance reliability, optimise video quality, and fine‑tune latency reduction techniques. The feedback loop created by operating at Amazon’s scale ensured that Sye remained at the cutting edge of live‑streaming technology.
Team Growth and Career Expansion
Following the acquisition and integration into Prime Video, the original engineering team in Stockholm stayed together and began to grow. The group doubled in size as new challenges emerged, and the organisation expanded beyond pure engineering roles to include managers, product managers, and technical program managers. Growth also spread geographically, establishing hubs in London and Seattle. Hasselstrom notes with pride that most of the engineers who joined through the acquisition remain with the team, underscoring the stability and appeal of the evolving workplace.
Broadening Impact Beyond the Product
Sye’s influence reaches far beyond the technology itself. The team actively collaborates with universities, hosts internships, and partners with researchers on topics such as network congestion in global‑scale streaming. These activities strengthen the bridge between industry and academia, helping to cultivate the next generation of engineering talent. For Europe, Sye exemplifies how scaling innovation can generate high‑skilled jobs, bolster local engineering ecosystems, and create lasting economic multipliers in the communities where the technology originated.
A Decade‑Long Journey of Continuous Building
More than ten years after its inception in Stockholm, Sye’s core team is still solving complex problems, still expanding, and still building. The experience demonstrates that for innovative companies, the most impactful chapter often begins after an acquisition—when scaling transforms a breakthrough idea into a global platform that delivers tangible benefits to audiences, employees, and the broader tech ecosystem. Hasselstrom’s story reflects a broader truth: sustainable success lies not just in creating a novel solution, but in nurturing it through growth, collaboration, and ongoing innovation.