Scale Matters: How to Deliver Five-Nines Streams to Global Live Audiences

Any streaming workflow is only as strong as its weakest (or least-tested) link. The more massive the stream, unfortunately, the larg­er the opportunity and the smaller the margin for error. So, what do the experts say about the architectural demands and challenges of main­taining five-nines uptime and broadcast quality when the stakes are too high to let either suf­fer? And what solutions do they recommend?

Buyers' Guide: PTZ Cameras

Today's professional PTZ cameras are nothing like their security camera predecessors. Now you can find models with all the professional features, technology, and hardware that you find on professional camcorders and digital cine cameras. In this PTZ buyers guide, I'll explain many of these features so you can make informed decisions when evaluating PTZ cameras in your own video production workflows.

A Broadcaster's Cloud Migration Primer

This article offers a primer on how a traditional broadcaster could start to move services to a cloud provider. I spoke with an engineer from a government-owned European television station and subscription service who agreed to walk us through the process without direct attribution.

Buyers’ Guide: Cellular Bonding Solutions

Thanks to bonding and some of the other technologies discussed in this guide, the days of sending glitchy, buffering video to viewers should be behind us. Read on to learn about the many options available, at a wide variety of price points, to ensure that streaming professionals can deliver the best video possible.

How to Script for FFmpeg Using PowerShell and BASH

FFmpeg was designed as a cross-platform solution for video and audio recording, conversion, and streaming using simple static command lines. Using variables and "for loops" in a command string simplifies the reuse of existing scripts and helps automate their operation. While you can't use these scripts in the Windows Command window, you can use Microsoft PowerShell in Windows and Bash on Linux and the Mac. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create and run such scripts with PowerShell and Bash.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Media Mergers & Acquisitions of 2022

A look at the streaming industry's most notable mergers and acquisitions of 2022, from WarnerBros-Discovery to Microsoft/Activision to Limelight/Edgecast to Dolby/Millicast to Telestream/Encoding.com and more

The State of OTT 2023

Netflix may have pioneered online pay TV on-demand with a model that every other SVOD chased. From April 2022, a pivot was required of every player, Netflix included.

The State of Media & Entertainment 2023

While we're still seeing significant growth in the media & entertainment streaming market at the start of 2023, its pace has slowed compared to the first year of the pandemic. All of the entertainment streaming platforms are looking at a range of different services and approaches for their business models in order to continue to drive growth in subscriber numbers and justify the significant spend on developing content and expanding market share.

The State of Live Streaming 2023

2022 was the year in which sports, the appointment-to-view genre with massive audiences and revenues, moved to the centre of major streaming provider strategies.

The State of Corporate Video 2023

After the massive growth in users for online video, virtual event, and video communications platforms during the pandemic,2022 was a year when a lot of the key players in the industry re-examined how to continue to drive growth and increase profitability.

The State of Video Codecs 2023

Welcome to your codec update for 2023. I'm here to help you decide whether it's time to go all in on AV1, VVC, LCEVC, or EVC or whether it's better to stick with H.264, VP9, and HEVC. Along the way, I'll include 2022-2023 updates to identify significant changes that have occurred since last year.

The 2023 Streaming Media Europe 51

Our annual list of the most cutting-edge, influential, and dynamic technology companies in the European online video market.

Buyers’ Guide: Podcast Mixers for Live Streaming Production

Today's video producers are now able to leverage new technologies that can really help with the live streaming production—especially on-location. By utilising what are commonly called "podcast mixers," streaming producers can deliver a bit more polish, while also gaining better flexibility in production.

Adventures in the Movieverse: Web3, Blockchain, Eluvio, and the Future of Streaming

The movie-watching experience has entered an unprecedented and thrilling new era of full-immersion entertainment with the arrival of a pioneering, living NFT and Web3 offering from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Extended Edition. This Web3 movie event is fueled by Eluvio, a developer of blockchain-based 4K streaming and ticketing technology and the self-described "blockchain home for crypto content."

Winning the Data War: Accessing and Leveraging Streaming Analytics

This article explores the topic of data rights versus technology capabilities as it impacts media companies' ability to leverage accrued data and analytics to target relevant audiences, expand their reach, and monetize their content offerings. If the intersection of data rights ownership and technology capabilities access were captured in a Venn diagram, the space in between would be very small for some media companies.

Review: Netgear M4250 Network Switch

As streaming producers, we are already expected to provide expertise in video cameras, switchers, live streaming, audio, and wrapping cables using the over-under method. How are we now going to master the advanced network management requirements of NDI? Start with the Netgear M4250 AV line of switches.

Advertising, Bundling, and the Future of Premium Streaming

With the arrival of lower-priced ad tiers for premium streaming services, increasing aggregation and shape-shifting bundling options, ongoing changes to the streaming landscape are transforming consumer behaviour and adoption of pay TV and streaming services. But what do the numbers say about emerging market trends? How are platform providers interpreting evident shifts, and does that translate into user experience innovation? And is there really a "Great Rebundling" afoot, as so many pundits have claimed over the last 6 months?

Review: Videon EdgeCaster EZ (w/ LiveEdge Core 8.5)

This review will highlight Videon's EdgeCaster video encoding appliance and explore its unique LiveEdge Compute technology for encoding and delivery, as well as how it works with popular video streaming platforms. I'll also discuss why many video production and remote production teams will likely move to a tool such as this in the future for streaming delivery.

The Streaming Toolbox: Ateliere Discover, Axinom Mosaic, and nanocosmos nanoStream Cloud

In this article, I'll look at three tools that provide interesting services for building media services and products. Ateliere Creative Technologies provides not just traditional MAM capabilities but also content management and app delivery. Axinom, likewise, has a development platform for building back-end services. nanocosmos expands on the old OVP model by delivering low-latency video for live, interactive-product developers. While I see a little bit of overlap with two of these products, it would be interesting to try to use everything here together.

Review: Blackmagic Design ATEM SDI Extreme ISO and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO

Blackmagic has set a new standard for an affordable and professional all-in-one HD video switcher, and the biggest consideration is which model fits your workflows.