The State of Streaming Sustainability 2024
12 Mar 2024
How do others see us, and how do we measure our progress? New data on streaming power consumption will allow the industry to target further reductions in power consumption while working toward longer-term solutions that reuse old technologies alongside current best practices as a way to extend the life of streaming tech for years to come.
The End of NDI As We Know It?
13 Feb 2024
NDI runs the risk of losing their lead in the homestretch—squandering the nearly decade lead they have in IP video by not enforcing that licensees integrate all of the standard. I write this in the hope that they re-establish what the NDI standard means: that to license NDI, and display the NDI badge, a product must be 100% compatible.
Michael Cerda, CPO for Streaming at TelevisaUnivision, Talks Building and Growing the World’s Largest Spanish-Language Streaming Service
30 Jan 2024
Nadine Krefetz interviews Michael Cerda, CPO for streaming at TelevisaUnivision. He discusses the from-the-ground-up rebuild he implemented when he arrived at the company. He describes how—in just 9 months—his team assembled and scaled the tech stack driving ViX, the world's largest Spanish-language streaming service, which haslive-streaming, AVOD, SVOD, and FAST offerings.
Leveraging Metadata and User Data for OTT and FAST Monetisation
23 Jan 2024
Nothing makes recommendation engines—and every other means of profit-making leverage—go, go, go like data in its many varieties. Metadata in particular is the key to personalising viewer experiences and optimising content portfolios. AI plays an ever-greater role in enhancing the metadata quality and improving recommendations. As analysts focused on the M&E industry and insiders at major media companies playing critical strategic roles agree, data is also essential to understanding customer journeys and making informed decisions on how to reach and retain subscribers and, on the ad-supported side, deliver the right ads to audiences and the right audiences to brands.
Review: Magewell Director Mini
09 Jan 2024
Magewell's new Director Mini is a mini marvel. This 5.5" "all-in-one" production tool with a $1,299 street price can mix multiple inputs and do picture-in-picture graphics, audio mixing, recording, streaming, and more, as IEBA's Anthony Burokas explains in this in-depth review.
Progress Towards Giving the Gift of Streaming: Help Me Stream’s 2023 Research Highlights
02 Jan 2024
Year full of research preps significant 2024 acceleration to give "the gift of streaming" globally
The State of CTV Advertising
12 Dec 2023
Ad buying is changing. For example, now you can buy from an agency that has deep knowledge of data around local viewing, or you can go to a TV manufacturer that has deep knowledge of all of the viewing on its hardware.
Review: NETINT Quadra T1U Video Processing Unit
05 Dec 2023
This review will highlight the NETINT Quadra T1U and explore its capabilities as a video processing unit (VPU) for high-volume encoding and transcoding of single files, encoding ladders, and live streams.
Instant Replay: Streaming Media Connect November 2023
28 Nov 2023
Streaming Media presented its 12th Connect virtual conference November 13 - 16, with media industry cartographer Evan Shapiro as host and MC. Shapiro kicked off the event with a dynamic keynote, digging deep into the Q3 earnings call data to hold the spin doctors accountable and giving an unvarnished view of the industry. Other highlights included The Future of Streaming with Shobana Radhakrishnan, Senior Director of Engineering at Google TV, and several panels covering topics such as Cloud Workflows for Streaming and CTV, Optimizing Live Streams at Scale, How Codec Patent Pools Will Impact Streaming in 2024, Making Live Streaming and VOD More Accessible, Live Streaming Technology Trends, and more.
Glass-to-Glass Report: Comparing Low-Latency Streaming Providers
17 Nov 2023
In this article, I examine low-latency services provided by streaming CDNs, removing actual vendor names and making conclusions based on delivery method. I'll start with a discussion of the basics of latency before moving on to the testing results and analysis.
UX Evolution in Live Sports Streams
14 Nov 2023
On a panel at the recent NAB NY show, Rick Allen from ViewLift, Scott Morris from Agilis Quantum, and Lawrence Chan of LiveLike discussed the state of UI and UX for live sports and engagement, with a focus on the importance of low latency and reliability in streaming services, the need for high-quality streams, dynamic content, and personalised experiences for fans.
The Future of CDN Technology: Unlocking the Next Frontier in Video Streaming
07 Nov 2023
The video streaming market is booming, and as video streaming consumption continues to soar, content delivery network (CDN) technology needs to evolve rapidly to keep up. Damien Sterkers of Broadpeak discusses the current challenges with streaming and what measures to take to face them.
How Premium and Freemium OTT Content Strategies Differ
01 Nov 2023
When it comes to leveraging and building an audience for premium OTT content, how do strategies differ for premium ad-supported content and subscription-based content? Roku VP Jenn Vaux and ESHAP's Evan Shapiro discuss how and why these strategic approaches differ in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.
Generative AI and the Future of Media Tech
10 Oct 2023
Incorporating generative AI into our workflows has the potential to impact almost everything in media technologies, and I'll examine several of the possibilities in this article.
How OTT and FAST Market Consolidation Will Spark a New Wave of Alternative Monetization Strategies
26 Sep 2023
Vijay Sajja of Evergent explains how OTT and FAST market consolidation will spark a new wave of alternative monetization strategies.
Review: Ant Media Server (Enterprise Edition)
12 Sep 2023
This review will highlight Ant Media Server and many of the features supported with the streaming server. Viewers will also learn how to configure the WebRTC streaming server on Amazon Web Services and how to get up and running with delivering live streams and video-on-demand streams.
How to Get Up-to-Speed in the European FAST Market
04 Sep 2023
Free ad-supported television (FAST) has been a rapidly rising element of the streaming industry since the beginning of the pandemic. But while the FAST sector has soared in the US, it faces distinct challenges in Europe and international markets that have prevented it from reaching equal viewership heights enjoyed in the US. This article outlines ways to get up-to-speed in the European FAST market.
Is Your Streaming Service Fit for Whatever Comes Your Way?
29 Aug 2023
How certain are you of what's next for the streaming industry? Kjeld Beijer, Head of Marketing at 24i, discusses the recent and largely unpredicted significant industry changes and outlines ways to get ahead of the curve by improving UX, business models, content discovery, and integrations.
Review: ViCueSoft CodecWar
28 Aug 2023
CodecWar is an analysis service created by ViCueSoft, the developer of codec analysis tools VQ Analyzer, VQ DVK, and VQ Probe. As currently configured, the site's ideal users are researchers who are looking for a convenient way to compare codecs using relevant datasets and codec developers who are looking for a structured way to benchmark their codecs against others. In contrast, it's not a particularly convenient way for streaming producers to run experiments to optimise their encoding parameters, although it could grow into this.
Review: Magewell USB Fusion
28 Aug 2023
The USB Fusion is a device that can be used in a production environment for local content feeds/sources. It can be used to input various sources such as HDMI devices, webcams, USB microphones, videos, images, screenshares, and other items. The USB Fusion is touted as a tool to make your online lectures and virtual events more engaging and to easily combine numerous sources into attractive live presentations for remote education, webinars, live streaming, and video conferencing.