Video as we know it is changing
It seems like it was just yesterday when TV services made the digital transition. Video didn't wait around for the dust to settle, it charged forward to its newest frontier: HTTP streaming and multiscreen video services [also called Over-the-Top (OTT) video]. Consumers can now watch video anywhere, any time and they can get their content from a number of different service and content providers. While the number of connected devices watching video skyrocket and the consumer appetite for longer, more complex video services grows, providers are faced with the many challenges that are completely different from those of the linear broadcast world.
New Technology
The first main challenge is the completely new delivery technology for multiscreen video. Typically, multiscreen video is delivered through adaptive bitrate (ABR) technologies. ABR sends different sized (with different quality) data files to the connected device depending on the available bandwidth. This increases overall Quality of Experience (QoE), but in exchange greatly increases the complexities of delivery and chances for service degradation.
New Network
The delivery network is also quite different. Providers now must encode their video files into different bitrate chunks, publish these files to the origin servers, and send them to caching servers upon request from the client device. Oftentimes, the delivery of these video files from caching servers to the device must cross an unmanaged third-party network, where the provider has no control over the number, type and available bandwidth of the last mile. Furthermore, the delivery to this last mile could cross multiple third-party content delivery networks (CDN).
New Business Model
Perhaps the single most challenging difference of this new model is the number of connected devices accessing this video. Whereas video was once delivered to a few set top boxes in a house on a fixed network, today's providers must be ready to delivery video to any number of devices per consumer across any geographic location.
Fortunately for providers, IneoQuest has developed the industry's first end-to-end, real-time monitoring and business intelligence solution that addresses these challenges.
