ADVANCED OTT - Streaming Media Magazine...our pre-built building blocks, which means organizations can build and launch a full OTT platform within budget in under 6 weeks. Tulix’s

VOLUME 1, NO. 6 OF A SERIES OF BUYERS’ GUIDES

TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

What do content creators,

publishers, and carriers need to be in tune with?

S I L V E R S P O N S O R S : G O L D S P O N S O R S :

ADVANCED OTTStrategies and Technologies

SPONSORED CONTENT SEPTEMBER 2019 • STREAMING MEDIA • VOL. 1, NO. 6 STREAMINGMEDIA.COM

The OTT Business Model

F or a lot of content owners, content aggregators, and rights

holders, one of the most pressing issues is how to monetize

their inventory in the information age. A rapidly changing

media landscape has brought about a huge shift in the way

in which content is both distributed and consumed. OTT—a

streaming service delivery via the internet that bypasses cable,

broadcast, and television platforms that traditionally act as

controllers or distributors of content—has become the primary

method of content distribution and consumption. Let’s look at

how this affects all the stakeholders involved;

TV Channels and Media Houses The ability to cut out the traditional “middle-men,” typically

satellite and cable providers, has seen them take more control

over their product. You will be hard pressed to find a major

television station today without its own dedicated OTT platform.

The proliferation of B2C IP-based television platforms has

seen vast amounts spent on content procurement, which has

been of great benefit to these traditional production houses

with huge libraries of back catalogs.

Traditional Consumption Platforms Gone are the glory days for cable and satellite platforms.

Many of them fell asleep while the OTT revolution swept

millions of subscribers away from their grasp. This has

resulted in the coining of the phrase “cord-cutters,”

referring to consumers cutting expensive satellite and cable

subscriptions for cheaper IP alternatives, a particularly

prevalent trend among millennials. The fight is not over,

but traditional services are starting to migrate to more

IP-focused delivery methods with greater f lexibility in

packages. Dish’s Sling in the U.S.and the new Sky Q boxes for

Sky UK are examples of those who have been more successful

in this regard.

New Consumption Platforms Lower barriers to entry to the market have resulted in a vast

amount of new players in the broadcast distribution market.

From Netflix to Hulu, brands that didn’t exist even just a

decade ago are now corporate institutions across the world.

Whatever your interests, everything is covered. From knitting

to yoga, there is an OTT platform for everyone—aggregating

the best content in every field.

Content Creators Sparked by platforms such as YouTube and Vine (now

defunct), talented content creators are now able to build and

reach audiences across the world with as little as a camera

and an internet connection. Gone are the days of countless

auditions, failed pilots, and having to schmooze industry

bigwigs. By the time TV executives are hovering around, the

power is already back in the hands of the creators with their

millions of followers.

Viewers Of course, the biggest impact has probably been on all of

us. The way we consume content and the amount of content

we have access to has created a massive cultural shift for every

generation. We can now access our favorite content from our

multiple devices, select from an immense library of genres

and platforms, and choose a budget that suits us.

So where do content owners, aggregators, or rights holders

fit in to all of this? As you may have guessed from the title of

the article, we are going to focus on OTT and how to execute

an effective business model around it. Tulix offers a fully

end-to-end OTT platform that makes it easy and affordable

for any organization to start a OTT business. First, let’s look

at the technology.

http://www.streamingmedia.com

ADVANCED OTT: Strategies and Technologies VOL. 1, NO. 6 • STREAMING MEDIA • SEPTEMBER 2019 SPONSORED CONTENT

TULIX END-TO-END OTT Tulix’s OTT platform is fully end-to-end. From source

acquisition and ingest to delivery via our own CDN and

everything in between, everything is covered. Our solution

can help organizations generate revenue from their live,

linear, DVR, and VOD content.

Ingest Tulix can accommodate multiple ingest methods through

our data centers across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Our data centers have the ability to downlink from any

satellite whose footprint covers any of our facilities, and we

also work with third-party downlink stations for any areas

we are unable to cover. We can accept multiple IP-based

delivery methods, including RTMP, HLS, UDP, fiber, MP4,

WMV and nearly all other common file containers, and a

full transcoding service is provided upon ingest to translate

content to the correct formats.

Core Engine Our core engine is the heart of the OTT platform and

enables organizations to incorporate and manage a number

of features within the platform. The f lexibility of the Tulix

core engine means that operators have the ability to add

or remove features depending on their budget, allowing

them to scale up as they grow. Our team of engineers and

developers can design and build a private cloud architecture

which suits all business requirements.

Example features include (but are not limited to):

• Content management

• Live ingest

• nDVR and DVR

• Transcoding

• DRM

• 3rd party API integration

• CRM

• Stats and analytics

• Ad-integration

• Billing engine

• Physical and virtual security layers

• CDN distribution

• Multi-CDN services

• Devices

Finally, to complete the OTT platform, Tulix will design

and build a state-of-the-art frontend that engages viewers

and encourages them to keep coming back to watch their

favorite shows and movies. Tulix can design and build a

unique application based on set requirements given by

the client. Tulix also offers customers the option to access

our pre-built building blocks, which means organizations

can build and launch a full OTT platform within budget in

under 6 weeks. Tulix’s team of experts can guarantee a fast

approval process on all platforms, so there are no delays in

any go-to-market plans.

Tulix build applications for all major platforms, including

the following:

• iOS

• Apple TV

• Android

• Android TV

• Amazon Fire

• Roku

• Smart TVs

• Games consoles

Diagram 1


THE BUSINESS MODEL Tulix is both a streaming and technology incubator. As a

streaming incubator, we aim to offer our clients the newest and

best technology in the broadcast marketplace, and we dedicate

25% of all our resources to research and development.

As a business incubator, we carefully design and build

our services so that they are scalable and flexible enough to

suit a wide range of budgets and scopes. Our desire to create

technology like this was spurred by a realization that our own

success is completely dependent on our customers’ success,

and while this is true for many businesses and industries,

in the OTT arena there is a very tight cause-and-effect

relationship between the supplier and the customer. With

so many TV platform options nowadays, the user experience

within the platform is as critical as the content available within

the platform itself. Netflix is a prime example of a platform

that reaches high levels on both sides of this equilibrium. The

Netflix user experience look and feel has become synonymous

with OTT. Even here at Tulix, when we first meet prospective

customers it is common for them to request a “Netflix-style”

front-end as one of their main objectives for launch.

Our business model can be classified under two stages:

capital investment and operational expenditure.

Capital Investment The capital investment is the initial expenditure on the

project and will typically cover items such as the design and

build of the platform. At Tulix our team of specialists will work

within the proposed client budget to create a platform that

engages viewers but constrains the overall project budget.

It is a myth that start-ups in the OTT market require a 7, or

even 6, figure budget to even consider a large-scale project

such as this. Many of today’s most successful OTT platforms

started with a fraction of the budget or

investment of their corporate counterparts.

Tulix can design and build a state-of-the-

art frontend on par with the market leaders

that encompasses each and all key feature

available. We can also design and build a

unique platform based on our pre-built

building blocks and incorporate carefully

selected features within the core engine,

and then add features and mold the design

as the platform grows in popularity.

Operational Expenditure The operation expenditures are the

on-going monthly, quarterly, or annual

costs associated with these services. To start with, the first

part of the operational expenditure costs organizations

can expect to pay are the minimum monthly costs which

will be ref lective of the features that have been chosen

to be included in the cloud infrastructure build, and will

be priced based on Tulix’s costs (bandwidth, support,

monitoring, hosting, etc) only.

The second part of the operational expenditure costs

are structured within the subscription or PPV prices that

are charged to viewers. A number of our cloud features are

chargeable only upon usage by the viewer. So why, as many

OTT providers do, does it make sense to effectively “pre-

charge” customers for something that is not being used yet?

For example, with no subscribers the platform will be using

no bandwidth, have no payment processing costs, and little

to no DRM or player-associated costs. A major challenge

for startups in the OTT sector is that the costs rack up very

quickly early on in the project. The reason for this is that

many OTT provider pricing models are built to make as

much money as possible in the early stages of the services

lifecycle due to the high fail rate of startup companies.

The thinking behind this is counterintuitive and often this

model proves fatal for platforms that could have otherwise

thrived under a different model. The business model

Tulix operates is built upon a fee-per-subscriber structure

based on a fixed fee or percentage of any subscriber or PPV

charges. This fee per subscriber is based upon the features

selected within the OTT cloud environment. Tulix customers

can add and remove features as required throughout their

time using our services.

You can see from Diagram 2 an example of the make-up

of the subscriber fee costs and how they are attributed within

the price charged to subscribers or PPV customers. The Subscribers

Rev

enue

Cost of Service

Profit

$9.99 per month subscription fee

Core Engine Costs

CDN Costs

Merchant Fees

Your Profit

Meet Tulix at IBC 2019 in Amsterdam13th -16th September 2019

[email protected] +1.404.493.8845

Diagram 2



model allows businesses to make a profit from every single

subscriber from day 1.

Diagram 3 shows an example projection of revenue, costs,

and profits for the service as subscriber numbers grow. Once

again you can see that the business model systematically

encourages growth for the Tulix customer throughout the

lifetime of the service.

To find out more about Tulix’s End-to-End OTT service

and how it can benefit your organization, please get in touch

with our team of experts today to arrange a call or a meeting.

Our team will be attending IBC in Amsterdam from the 13th

to 16th September 2019.

ABOUT TULIXTulix is a Streaming Technology Incubator headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with data centers across both North America and Europe. Notable for their innovative and award winning Multi CDN, Tulix have a number of internet firsts to their name, including one of the first ever live streaming broadcasts from the 1996 Summer Olympic games. Today, 23 years later, they offer a wide variety of online video solutions, such as; live and linear streaming, OTT, VOD, CDN, Cloud Playout, DRM, Monetization Engines, and Application Development. Some of their most recent deployments comprise of; 4K HDR live, 8K HDR playout, and native LG applications.

Subscribers

Rev

enue

Cost of Service

Profit


Core Engine Costs

CDN Costs

Merchant Fees

Your Profit



Subscribers

Rev

enue

Cost of Service

Profit


Core Engine Costs

CDN Costs

Merchant Fees

Your Profit



Diagram 3

mailto:[email protected]


True Multi-Platform Publishing

OTT: the ever confusing abbreviation for “over-the-top”

delivery. What does it mean for publishers of digital

content and streaming media? How does it actually

work? In order to build a sustainable and scalable building

that can grow to hundreds of stories tall, you need to focus

on the foundation first. So, let’s cover the OTT basics and dig

a bit deeper into the ground.

First of all, it is important to keep in mind that the meaning

of the term “OTT” has changed over the past few years and is

now used synonymously with publishing of streaming media

content to connected TV and multiple platforms (aka “multi-

platform publishing”).

But what does OTT include? ConnectedT V, meaning TV

apps only? Or TV apps plus mobile apps? Or TV apps, mobile

apps, and desktops? Does it include social media sites? At

Lightcast.com, we believe “all of the above and beyond.” It

is not the term’s original meaning for sure, but it ref lects the

market’s demands of today. When we started to develop the

very first TV app SDKs almost 10 years ago, we knew we would

not want to limit ourselves, nor our customers, to specific

platforms or app types. We knew many publishers wanted

it all, and so did we. It may have been a crazy journey, but it

was one we set sail for, and there was no turning back until

we had proprietary SDKs for every single platform out there

and continued to incorporate every new rising platform into

the Lightcast Media Cloud. And why not? It was supposed to

be “over the top” anyway, right?

That was then. What is OTT now? It is still, in my opinion,

the shortest abbreviation to describe the process of publishing

to all platforms, app types, players, and screens. Now, the

landscape of devices has not become any simpler the past 10

years, and who knows if—or how—it will consolidate or further

diversify over the next 10 years. In any case, it will be exciting.

Here are some of the requirements media publishers have

taught us to focus on:

• Simple: publishers want fast and inexpensive

• Complex: publishers want custom-built and feature-rich

• Support: publishers want support beyond FAQs and

technical assistance

• Safe: publishers want a trustworthy and proven system

Rates are dropping while demands are increasing, and that

slims margins. The question is, “Will OTT providers survive

this, and if so, how?” We have been on our own journey of

discovery, and we have a few advantages on our side: business

ethics, foundations, and automations implemented from

the very beginning. This helped us launch and grow entirely

bootstrapped and oganically, during a time of drought,

which without doubt made us somewhat drought-resistant, a

little like a palm tree (or cactus – whichever plant you prefer).


http://Lightcast.com


Let’s look a bit closer at “Simple”, “Complex”, “Support”,

and “Safe”:

1. Simple: Publishers seek systems with user-friendly

interfaces, allowing them to create and launch new apps

on web, social, mobile, and connected TV platforms easily

and quickly. This means that app UIs need to be consistent

and simplified across the platforms, focusing on core

streaming functionalities.

2. Complex: In contrast to “Simple”, almost like an

oxymoron, publishers also require complex solutions,

custom layouts and designs, and rich and unique feature-

sets within their apps. This often requires extensive API

access to metadata, ingestions, rendering of thumbnails,

and custom app development. Literally thousands of

different requirements have forced us to become highly

versatile over the many years in business. While there is

almost always a solution, or multiple solutions, for each

requirement, it is not always feasible for a publisher’s

budget or timeline. It has become an art form for our

consulting department to evaluate various solution

options and their feasibility for each customer early on.

3. Support: We feel that our customers are entitled to the

best support possible. This goes beyond fast responses

to tech tickets and direct access to our customer success

managers via email and phone. We also implemented a

refined onboarding process with Media Cloud account

training, setup assistance, upload assistance, live encoder

configuration, and streaming test sessions prior to live

events. But we are taking it a big step further: For many

publishers, understanding the technology, knowing

best practices for app setup and content management,

and having a solid grip around on-prem tech for live

streaming is only a part of the support they need. For

many, it goes all the way into business consulting, such as

reviews of business plans and revenue models with one

of our consultants, feasibility studies and comparison

of monetization strategies, revenue projections, and the

exploration of alternative, creative revenue opportunities.

While some of our customers have a business consulting

firm on retainer, or experienced business strategists on

payroll, others don’t, and we get the pleasure of helping

them in these areas. This is where our passion for our

customers’ businesses, products, and organizations

becomes most visible. We love these business consulting

sessions and take time above and beyond to discuss all

matters of the streaming business with our customers.

4. Safe: Publishers want to know what to do in an emergency

situation during live events or other moments of stress.

It is critical to provide options, fallback solutions,

redundancies, and most of all, a robust, proven server and

CDN setup for ingestion, processing, and delivery. Our

world has become complex enough as it is, and publishers

need to feel safe, knowing that their apps, images, video

files, audio files, metadata, sidecar files, and live streams

are all running through the most robust systems possible.

In this case, size does matter, and saving on CDN costs,


the number of POPs, transcoding power, or load balanced

server clusters for processing jobs is not the place where

OTT providers should cut costs. Our customers deserve to

sleep at night, knowing that we’re up, working to upgrade

everything at all times on their behalf.

These are some of the core OTT requirements we have

found among media publishers across numerous verticals

and industries.

But how are these requirements best met? How are OTT

providers best structured in order to accommodate rapid

evolution of the various market’s demands? At Lightcast.com,

we have found that some secrets rest in focus and core

business principles. Among others, several key principles

stand out, and we had the privilege to learn them early on

during the transition phase from OVPs to OTT providers:

Focus on common denominators: Which functionalities

are supported by all major platforms, devices and players

today, and which ones are most likely to be supported by

all very soon (and which functionalities may not)?

Even ten years ago, OVPs who only focused on streaming

services for websites, providing an embeddable web player

as a core service, had the luxury to be able to build player

functionalities, which are simply not supported by all

platforms today. Our customers expect instant maximum

device compatibility for all functionalities of the Lightcast

Media Cloud—our Media Management System. It has

to work “everywhere”, on all screens, devices, players

and platforms, or else it’s not a feature that is mature for

today’s market (or rather, the screens, devices, players

and platforms may not all be entirely mature for certain

functionalities publishers may already dream about).

5. Focus on future-proof platforms: It may be some kind of

marketing trick to list hundreds of device manufacturers

and exotic device types, or to advertise with hundreds of

“platforms” customers can publish to, but the reality is that

in many cases, the operating system or app store is the same,

and listing device manufacturers does not change that.

Second, not every new device, player, or platform is here to

stay. Focus on the ones that have the greatest potential and

are prone to become major players for years to come. Third,

the four largest platforms and app stores cover the majority

of the market, and dedicated apps on additional connected

devices, such as gaming consoles or cable TV boxes, are

becoming redundant to the “big four” in most households.

6. Choosing the best tech partners: Building a successful

and profitable OTT company, and keeping up with the

rapidly changing landscape of devices, players, formats,

technologies and customer requirements, is enough of a

challenge even to the most

adventurous multitaskers.

There’s no need to also take

on every possible streaming

service out there and

copy, or try to re-invent,

what others have already

been doing successfully.

Instead, find your niche

and develop excellency

and USPs, and select

trustworthy, innovative

vendors. At a time when

reliable vendors were

scarce, or those who existed

did not have the toolsets

we needed, Lightcast.com

was forced to become

CDN, a player developer, a

social network developer,

an encoding vendor, a sys

admin company, and a live

encoder manufacturer,

as well as wear many

other hats. Today, great





tech companies have developed in our industry, with

complimentary services to ours, and we quickly made

decisions to integrate them and their tech seamlessly

into the Media Cloud and give up further development of

similar services of our own. For the most part, we still have

our infrastructure, code, and software solutions that keep

us f lexible and independent, but instead of being spread

thin by becoming a business of dozens of companies, we

prefer to use the “best of the best” in each field, for each

service, such as web players, DRM services, worldwide CDN

infrastructure, or encoder manufacturing. This enables us

to refine our core services and stay agile, fast and furiously

passionate about our industry and tech partners.

7. Focus on customer service: take customer service beyond

technical support, assistance in emergency situations,

FAQs, and tutorials. Yes, all of that is important, but

many publishers who are new to the diverse business

opportunities of OTT publishing are looking for a highly

individualized consultative support, all the way to

business consulting in regards to business plan, revenue

models, and marketing strategies. You have to know your

stuff and share it! Our customers really appreciate the

in-depth consultations our consulting team and customer

success division are able to provide.

8. “Love Thy Customer As Thyself:” We want to take

customer service to a whole new level. Internally we

call it “customer-love.” We want to love our customers,

be proud of them and what they achieve, admire what

they do, and love their subscribers and customers as

well. This sounds entirely non-business-focused, but

it is one of the core principles upon which we founded

Lightcast.com. We do not want to be another company

that trashes customers when they have quirky ideas, make

little mistakes, or miscalculate their business. Instead, we

want to understand and be compassionate. We feel that we

might just reap what we sow, and when the moment comes

that we need some grace from a customer, we might just

receive it, because we gave it first. Writing something like

this for an industry-leading business publication might

be unusual, but providing our service in an attitude of

humility and partnership with our customers, while doing

all we can to make them as successful as they can be, is a

core value we never want to lose.

Who knows? It may just be that the strongest bullies end up

as winners in our industry, like in so many. But what if what

goes around comes around after all, and a sense of humility

and honest passion for customers and their goals, products, and

organizations ends up at the top. When the natural selection

in the evolution of the OTT industry has run its course, it may

be that it was not always the apparently strongest who ended

up surviving, but that heart, determination, intention, and

creativity proved to matter more than expected.

DAI Opens Up New RevenueOpportunities for Broadcasters,

OTT, and Pay TV Service ProvidersBY ALAIN PELLEN, SR. MANAGER, OTT & IPTV SOLUTIONS AT HARMONIC

About LightcAst.comLightcast.com, an Inc 5000 company, is an OVP and end-to-end OTT Provider with an intuitive Media Management System – the Lightcast Media Cloud – for multi-platform publishing, delivering bitrate adaptive live-streams, on-demand media and linear 24/7 streams at transparent and budget-minded rates for publication on websites, social networks, mobile apps and OTT/ConnectedTV. It encompasses cloud-based transcoding, DRM, API, viewership analytics and content management features, providing monetization tools and viewer-response systems to maximize growth. Ask about our Foundation-Grants for Roku, FireTV, AndroidTV and AppleTV.





DAI Opens Up New Revenue Opportunities for Broadcasters,

OTT, and Pay TV Service Providers BY ALAIN PELLEN, SR. MANAGER, OTT & IPTV SOLUTIONS AT HARMONIC

The television industry is changing. Consumer demand

for personalized content on a wide range of screens—

including connected TVs, smartphones and tablets—is

growing rapidly. As broadcasters, pay TV operators, and OTT

service providers explore additional ways to increase revenue

in this ever-evolving environment, dynamic ad insertion (DAI)

represents an exciting opportunity.

Global spending on TV advertising is expected to rise to

$192 billion in 2022, according to Statistica. By deploying

DAI solutions, TV providers have the tools to compete for a

larger share of this advertising budget and increase viewer

engagement. This article will explore the DAI business models

for broadcasters, pay TV operators, and OTT service providers,

highlighting the key capabilities to look for in a DAI solution,

including manifest manipulation.

SCALABILITY IS KEY FOR BROADCASTERS Advertising already represents a significant percentage of

broadcasters’ revenues. The larger the size of the audiences,

the more advertising dollars are up for grabs. Live sports

events present attractive opportunities for broadcasters and

advertisers that want to increase engagement with viewers.

According to Comscore, more than 90% of linear sports

content is viewed live, and $10.3 billion was spent on TV

advertising during sports programming in the U.S. in 2017.

DAI is an opportunity to for broadcasters to augment

advertising earnings by giving advertisers the possibility

to target geo-localized audiences, with the potential to

earn as much as 10 times more than usual CPM rates. To

succeed in delivering localized ads, broadcasters need

scalable ad insertion solutions, capable of serving numerous

niche audiences simultaneously, as well as large peak time

audiences viewing live events.

TARGETED ADS ARE LESS DISRUPTIVE FOR PAY-TV SERVICES

Pay TV operator revenues have traditionally been based on

subscription fees. Yet, increasingly the subscription business

model is being challenged. According to a recent report from

The Diffusion Group, 21% of broadband homes with a pay TV

service are considering canceling their service in the next

six months. The main reason is price, as 56% of those that

answered said that their pay TV service was too expensive

for what they got.

As operators face increased pressure to lower subscription

fees and offer more content, targeted advertising represents

an untapped opportunity for driving new revenue. This is

especially true for MVPDs in the U.S., since they have the

right to sell and replace content providers’ advertising. This

type of business model is currently being used by the DirecTV

NOW service.

Targeted advertising vs. a one-size-fits all approach is

better suited for pay TV subscribers, because it is seen as less

disruptive. Moreover, targeted advertising enables smaller

advertisers to play a role in the pay TV world.

DAI BUSINESS MODELS FOR OTT SERVICE PROVIDERS VARY

According to SpotX, a leader in ad serving and the ad

marketplace, 30 percent of U.S. digital video ad revenue is now

spent on OTT services. Freewheel, a leader in ad serving, found

that 33 percent of OTT ads are now delivered for live content.

The OTT business model for DAI allows targeting and

accurate reporting, such as digital online advertising, and it

is becoming increasingly popular on the big TV screen. As a

result of targeted advertising, smaller advertisers can afford

to participate.



For broadcasters and content providers, DAI optimizes their

ad revenue thanks to higher prices for targeted ads. Broadcasters

and content providers can monetize their direct relationship

with users through OTT apps.

For MVPDs and service operators, DAI represents a chance

to improve ad revenue on their share of the ad inventory.

Operators can leverage their own subscriber base and data via

cooperation with content providers. MPVDs, excluding those

in North America, do not actually own the ad inventory; they

can leverage subscriber data and implement DAI on behalf of

content providers to share revenue.

For MVPDs in North America, the business model is a little

different. MVPDs own 15 percent of content providers’ ad

inventory. This scenario will require MVPDs having their own

ADS and DAI solution.

FOUR ESSENTIAL CAPABILITIES FOR ADVANCED ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS

There are four key capabilities that operators should look

for in an ad-insertion solution:

1. Server-side ad insertion: For targeted advertising to be

a success, the quality of advertising should be consistent

in quality with the content being watched. Server-side

ad insertion (SSAI) solutions, such as those powered by

Harmonic’s VOS®360 SaaS, can transcode and ingest

advertising and content into the same stream. By stitching

advertising and content into the same stream, before

it’s delivered, TV providers can counteract ad blocking

software installed on end users’ devices. With SSAI,

advertisements and content look the same to the ad

blocking software, making it much more difficult to detect

ads. SSAI also guarantees a seamless transition and the

same viewing quality of experience for content and ads.

2. DAI: It is also important to ensure that advertising

messages are relevant to the content being viewed, as

it will increase the likelihood of viewer engagement.

By choosing a solution with DAI capabilities, television

operators can instantly replace ads with more relevant

content based on what is being viewed at the time.

3. Manifest manipulation: In order to substitute advertising

in real time, the media processing platform must

support manifest manipulation capabilities. Why?

In the streaming workflow, video content is encoded

into fragments that include video, audio, and all other

data such as subtitles. The media processing platform

organizes fragments into a playlist or manifest. Within the

manifest, specific time slots are allocated for advertising.

Having the ability to customize manifests in real time

for each viewer gives TV operators the power to align

advertising content according to what is being watched

and the device type.

Server-Side Ad Insertion Workflow


Effectively, television providers have multiple scenarios

for targeting viewers and providing a unique playlist with

hyper-targeted ads can be delivered to smartphones, PCs,

tablets, connected TVs, and virtually any other device that

receives live or on-demand video programming. Selecting

a media processing platform with manifest manipulation

allows TV providers to support other applications, including

blackout management and video content replacement.

When this workflow is put on the cloud, as it is with

Harmonic’s VOS360 SaaS, these processes become even

faster and simpler.

4. Third-party integration: The media processing platform

should also offer seamless integration with third-party

data management platforms and advertising decisions

servers in order to enable dynamic ad insertion.

CONCLUSIONDAI is a great way for TV providers to drive new revenue

in today’s competitive landscape. We’re seeing a growing

number of content providers, broadcasters, and pay TV

operators deliver personalized content, including targeted

ads, as a way to boost interactivity with the content. When

ads are more relevant to viewers, ROI goes up for advertisers.

By deploying a fully-scalable DAI solution that supports

the creation of ad slots, ad ingest, ad stitching, playout,

encoding, blackout management, transcoding, and ad

impression reporting for up to hundreds of thousands of

simultaneous ad insertions, content providers can open

up an entire new world of advertising opportunities. When

selecting a DAI solution, it’s important to look for one like

Harmonic’s VOS360 SaaS that offers manifest manipulation

capabilities and a software-as-a-service business model.

Only then can content providers deliver custom ads to each

viewer and take advantage of the f lexibility, scalability, and

efficiency of the cloud.

ABOUT HARMONICHarmonic, the worldwide leader in video delivery technology and services, enables media companies and service providers to deliver ultra-high-quality broadcast and OTT video services to consumers globally. The company has also revolutionized cable access networking via the industry’s first virtualized cable access solution, enabling cable operators to more flexibly deploy gigabit internet service to consumers’ homes and mobile devices. Whether simplifying OTT video delivery via innovative cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, or powering the delivery of gigabit internet cable services, Harmonic is changing the way media companies and service providers monetize live and VOD content on every screen. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.

Personalized and Targeted Advertising Boosts Interactivity

Thematic Advertising Linked to Content Catalogs


http://www.harmonicinc.com


For Programmers Taking Live OTT Video Direct to Customers, Innovation is RequiredBY KEN HAREN, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, TELESTREAM

A recent Frost and Sullivan report estimated that the

global OTT VOD market reached 535 million subscribers

in 2016, and that same report predicts that viewership

will increase to more than 900 million by 2020, with much

of that material being delivered via OTT platforms. As a

consequence, the demand for programming is also trending

up, both in terms of traditional programming and, increasingly,

streaming of live events such as sports and concerts. Whilst

these programs were delivered in the past via cable and satellite

companies, the growth in OTT video services and technologies

means that programmers now have the ability to engage

directly with their customers while retaining maximum

control over the media and its distribution.

This new paradigm also allows producers and rights holders

to engage with their consumers in new and innovative ways—

creating a bespoke “pop-up” channel for a specific event and

taking it down again once the event is over, for example. For

this to be feasible, though, the underlying infrastructure must

be economical, as the traditional cost model for creating a TV

channel is simply too expensive for programmers to consider

and the time it takes to put together a traditional channel

is prohibitive. For producers, the answer to this dilemma

is technology which has now become ubiquitous—cloud

deployment. Programmers and rights holders now have the

ability to originate a channel quickly and economically in the

cloud, with control over when the channel is spun up, when

the channel is shut down, which cloud platform will host the

channel, where the channel is located (using availability zone

management), and—critically—utilizing all of this capability

via a “pay as you go” costing model.

As always, though, there’s a catch. For most programmers,

this is a completely new way of interacting with their

customers. They’ve never owned a direct relationship with

the end user; they traditionally delivered their material to the

viewer via a cable network or satellite system. As they launch

these new direct-to-consumer services, they must take on

new responsibilities. Specifically, they are now responsible

for ensuring that the viewer experience is of the highest

quality. Online video providers (OVPs) overwhelmingly rate

quality as their greatest problem, with a focus on a reduction

of the frequency of buffering events and the improvement of

overall video quality. Each of these issues can cause viewers

to leave a program—often silently,

sometimes never to return. But

for programmers, the big issue is

how to gather these performance

metrics, analyze the results, and

take corrective action.

Traditional pay TV operators

deploy distributed analytics

throughout their systems. They do

this for a number of reasons, mostly

in order to be able to correct issues

as they arise, but also to be able

to prove to their clients that they

did indeed deliver the media

to their endpoints in pristine

condition. What happens when the

content owners and rights holders

take on the task of content delivery?

The same desire for QoS (quality


of service—the performance of the network) and QoE

(quality of experience—the quality of the encoding and

packaging) remains in this new world of agile, direct-to-

consumer, pop-up channels. As mentioned earlier, quality

is an extremely important metric to measure, as it directly

affects the revenue generated by the media. It is also a set

of metrics in which the producers and rights holders have

little to no experience.

To date, the most common way to obtain these quality

assurance metrics has been to utilize client-side analytics.

These solution sets put monitoring software directly into the

player. While there is clear benefit to monitoring at the point

of playback, client-side analytics are somewhat limited.

The monitoring software can detect that the players are

responding appropriately and report back with some level of

analysis on the health of what’s being delivered, but they see

the media in exactly the same way the audience sees it, and

they only see it at the same point and time that the audience

sees it. If the client analytics report back that some set of

viewers are experiencing some sort of problem, they give no

insight as to where the problem is occurring, who is being

impacted, or the true scale of the problem. This is not to say

that client-side analytics are of limited value, though—there

is real value in knowing that some of your customers are

experiencing a problem. In addition to pure performance

metrics, client-side software can give other valuable insights

on viewer behavior. They can report if a customer becomes

disengaged from the programming—they disconnected

from the stream at this specific point in the program, or

that a large number of viewers dropped off in a specific

geographic region at approximately the same time. This

data is of real value when trying to analyze video issues.

But clearly, a more sophisticated, f lexible, cost-effective

approach to quality assurance is a requirement as D2C and

pop-up channel origination continue their adoption trend.

The unique requirements of these fast spin-up,

(relatively) short life span pop-up channels dictate that

they must be originated in the cloud. By its very nature,

the cloud offers significant reduction in startup time (and

just as importantly, spin-down time)—and, crucially for

this use case, an “only pay for what you use” costing model.

But remember, there is no “single cloud.” Instead, there are

several highly competent cloud platform providers, each of

which has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each

of which has data centers in different “availability zones”

(geographic locations). These differences, while minor for

transactional systems, become significantly more important

when talking about delivery of streaming media. In reality,

delivery of a producer’s video is likely to happen over

multiple availability zones and possibly involve multiple

cloud platforms. How do you deploy quality assurance

measurement across diverse platforms and SDKs?

New technologies, such as Telestream’s OptiQ Monitor,

do exactly that. As a cloud-native (and specifically cloud

platform-agnostic) system, OptiQ offers unprecedented

real-time deployment of robust live ABR monitoring at

scale across 282 public cloud availability zones in over

100 geographic regions. Using this set of cloud services,

users can dynamically spin up monitoring projects with

real-time video QoE analysis and a comprehensive view

of CDN delivery network QoS performance. The pay-as-

you-go pricing model means that customers can scale

their monitoring environment on demand, and even

“swarm” a particular problem stream or availability zone

with monitoring points to quickly pinpoint the source of

the problem, then take the swarm down when the task is

complete—all while only paying for the system for the time

it’s active. Recognizing the value of client-side analytics,

OptiQ can also integrate data from companies such as

Conviva and Nice People at Work directly into its own

performance data and therefore provide comprehensive

analytics across multiple points in the delivery chain.

Given this level of capability, it is not farfetched to

imagine that the system could autonomously switch

between paths and cloud platform vendors—with the

potential to offer, for the first time, an autonomous,

self-healing media delivery network. More information

is available at www.telestream.net/optiq.

For Programmers Taking Live OTT VideoDirect to Customers, Innovation is RequiredBY KEN HAREN, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, TELESTREAM

ABOUT TELESTREAMTelestream provides world-class live and on-demand digital video tools, workflow solutions and quality monitoring capabilities that allow consumers and businesses to transform video on the desktop and across the enterprise. Many of the world’s most demanding media and entertainment companies, and service providers, as well as a growing number of users in a broad range of business environments, rely on Telestream products to streamline operations, reach broader audiences, generate more revenue from and ensure the quality of their media. Telestream products span the entire digital media lifecycle, including video capture and ingest; live and on-demand encoding and transcoding; captioning; playback and inspection, delivery, and live streaming; automation and orchestration. With its iQ product line, Telestream enables the monitoring and management of quality service and experience over any network.

Telestream’s corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California and Westwood, Massachusetts. The company is privately held. For company and product information, visit www.telestream.net.


http://www.telestream.net/optiq

http://www.telestream.net


Massive Global Sporting Events and Live OTT Streaming Delivery

D elivering f lawless live streams to your global audience

for massive sporting events can be a daunting task,

especially during peak consumption times. Live

streaming is challenging, so making sure you know all

components in the workflow are doing their job is paramount.

Here are some of our top recommendations to deliver the

best live streams possible.

1. REDUNDANCY, REDUNDANCY, REDUNDANCYEnsure you have as much redundancy as can be reasonably

achieved in your live streaming workflow, while monitoring

all redundant paths. Then confirm the alternative paths

are fully operational at all times should you need to switch

to them in an emergency. The key in content availability

monitoring is avoiding any single point of failure, and we

believe this is the most important practice to shield you from

the real cost of downtime. Unfortunately, in today’s streaming

operations paradigm, not all paths, CDNs, and individual

bitrates are monitored. However, by building in redundancy

and monitoring proactively, problems can and will be found.

And more importantly, they’ll be found before your viewers

notice issues and complain or, even worse, switch off.

2. MANAGE WHAT MATTERSStart by defining all checkpoints crucial to your online

video delivery. Remove all clutter from your scope, keeping

in mind which delivery areas are core to your service. We

believe this is critical, as sometimes too much data can stand

in the way of efficiency. Clarity of delivery will allow you

to visualise more clearly, and once you have a map of your

infrastructure you can measure it in real-time. To achieve

a full end-to-end monitoring system, start correlating it

to include the 6 main points in the delivery chain: ingest,

encode, package, origin, CDN, and player. The end-to-end

monitoring overview should then visualise data, collected

and correlated from all the monitoring point solutions.

3. DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKETChoose the best tool for each monitoring requirement, and

then pull all the data together. Make sure the software you use

to monitor each part of the delivery chain is specialized and

will be able to deliver you the most detailed data possible. This

is a better solution to the standard “platform” products—those

that require you to use one product for the entire workflow

and often only complete one or two tasks very well.

4. COLLABORATEWe believe all teams, including internal and external

third parties, should collaborate to achieve the same

goals, including data sharing. By working closely with all

technology providers—internal and external—on a live

streamed event, the team will be able to better assess and

overcome any workflow challenges quickly and efficiently.

5. ACCESSIBILITYProvide access to monitoring tools and data to your entire

team and other parties involved so that everyone, including

yourself, know what data is available, where it is, and how to

use it. The more accessible the data, the more accurate and

efficient your troubleshooting will be.

6. MIND THE GAPIn order to avoid oversensitive monitoring architecture,

make sure your thresholds are realistic. Live streaming is

no exact science—there will be f luctuations. A common

mistake is overestimating or underestimating streaming

performances; they will not be perfect. If you apply thresholds

that are too low or too high, you cannot see the reality and

might find yourself making decisions based on exaggerated

alerts that are not necessary and damage the overall stream

performance.

Bear in mind industry benchmarks and set your own. In

addition, determine who is receiving these alerts internally


and externally, and why. Make sure alerts are set accordingly

based on demand, time, location, and the sensitivity of an

event’s audience.

7. GAME PLANMake sure you have a well-thought-out and rehearsed

match day plan. The team needs to know what they each are

doing and for what they each are responsible. For example,

a clear plan of who will be responsible for each workflow

element and who will make any failover or critical decision

should be clearly defined and communicated before the

event. Each failover or alternate plan needs to then be

well-documented and rehearsed.

8. LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKESWith live streaming, it is imperative to fix the problem

fast. What is equally important is to play back and review

the incident, when time permits, to look for underlying

issues to improve long-term QoS and QoE. We believe

the best way to guarantee QoS for live streaming is to

continually improve streaming quality and focus on the

prevention of future problems. By studying all past issues

in your infrastructure, you will be better prepared and

can prevent future issues during your next major live

stream. We believe this is the optimal way to improve your

content’s availability.

TOUCHSTREAM’S APPROACHAt Touchstream, we have made it our mission to help online

media providers better understand their live streaming delivery

process by giving them the most focused monitoring tools to

do so. Our solution not only captures a live view of the entire

infrastructure of the delivery process, it also visually highlights

the root cause of the issue and includes detailed data to help

operators fix issues at hand in a matter of minutes. Because

we are the monitoring solution for global live sports events

including the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and the Olympic

Games, our expertise in this field has grown year-on-year. Our

approach is focused on content availability and performance

monitoring because what can go wrong, will go wrong.

Massive GlobalSporting Events and LiveOTT Streaming Delivery

About touchstreAmTouchstream is a cloud live OTT Content Availability Monitoring solution. Through Touchstream’s proprietary technology, StreamCAM, gain access to critical features and benefits for your OTT service. Ensure OTT content is available 24/7 so your customers have the highest quality experience all the time. With “Incident Playback” operators can at will, rewind an incident in full or from any point in the streaming process and playback the data in one, intuitive visualisation. The tool mimics each network element, presenting an exact visual replica of the actual workflow. A far a more granular way to examine problems contributing to a slowdown or failure. With Touchstream give your operations team an unparalleled vision into every aspect of your video delivery – quickly.



For information on participating in the next white paper

in the Solution Series, contact:

Joel Unickow, VP & Publisher • [email protected] Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055TEL: 250.933.1111 MOBILE: 250.797.5635

GOLD SPONSORS

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TouchsTreamLevel 1, 1 Queens RoadMelbourne, VIC 3004

Australia+61 3 9028 4343

https://touchstream.media

For more articles about Touchstream, see go2sm.com/touchstream.

TelesTream848 Gold Flat Road

Nevada City, CA 95959USA

(530) 470-1300www.telestream.net

For more information and articles about Telestream, see go2sm.com/telestream.

Tulix1002 Hemphill Ave NW,

Atlanta, GA 30318 USA

+1 (404) 584-5035www.tulix.com

harmonic4300 North First Street

San Jose, CA 95134USA

+1 (408) 542-2559www.harmonicinc.com

lighTcasT.com10616 Metromont Pkwy.

Charlotte, NC 28269 USA

+1 (704) 910-2434www.lightcast.com

For more information and articles about Tulix, see go2sm.com/tulix.

For more information and articles about Harmonic, see go2sm.com/harmonic.

For more information and articles about Lightcast.com, see go2sm.com/lightcast.

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http://www.tulix.com

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