In this shadowy realm, there is a constant battle amongst developers to find and implement the highest quality and lowest file size video format container.

In this article, we cover the history, definitions, and outlook of these containers in the MKV v MP4 debate, hopefully allowing you to “stream” away with a better understanding of each and how you can best utilize them to deliver top-quality video content.

Let’s get started!

MP4 Format

What is MPEG-4?

MP4 was initially created by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) as a standardized video coding format in late 1998.
Although there are over 20 different MPEG standards, MP4 is still the most used format within the video developer community

MPEG-4 Part 14, otherwise known as MP4 or MPEG 4, is one of the most commonly used container file formats and often has a .mp4 file ending (or.m4s for segments). It is used for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) and can also be used for Apple’s HLS streaming.
MP4 is based on the ISO Base Media File Format (MPEG-4 Part 12), which is based on the QuickTime File Format. The MP4 container format supports a wide range of codecs, most commonly: H.264 or H.265 (HEVC) for video and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) for audio.

Due to its versatility in application, MP4 is one of the most used video containers as it capable of delivering the top two streaming protocols, HLS and MPEG-DASH.

MKV Format 

What is MKV?

MKV – Otherwise known as Matroska, was created in 2002 by independent (but soon-to-be Google) developer, Steve Lhomme, as a binary, free, and open-standard container format.

Matroska is usually found as an .MKV file (Matroska video), .MKA files (Matroska audio) and .MKS files (subtitles) and .MK3D files (stereoscopic/3D video). It is also the basis for .webm (WebM) files. WebM files are a major subset of Matroska.

MKV, an Extensible Binary Meta Language, was developed as a means to provide a free and open alternative to MP4.

Given its origin as an open standard, Matroska was built in a manner that could be adapted to support virtually any codec, however, one of the main goals was to support Google’s (also free and open) codecs like VP8 & VP9 or Opus & Vorbis.

Although Matroska is highly adaptable, many video distributors avoid implementation due to device incompatibility.

The long battle: MKV vs MP4

So you may ask yourself – what’s the actual difference between MP4 and MKV?

They’re both container formats and designed for versatile web video distribution (for both VOD & Live-Stream).

The reality is, both container formats have a very diverse (but similar) set of applications but are ultimately limited by protocols.

For example, MPEG-DASH is used more frequently by MP4 than MKV and HLS don’t even support  MKV. MPEG-4 (MP4) offers better compatibility with more devices and browsers.

Take-Aways: Bitmovin and Container Formats

Bitmovin supports both of these container formats but utilizes MP4 with more overall frequency as it’s applied at the input, output, and player level. 

Both formats were created by respected thought and standards leaders in the video industry.

MP4 by the Moving Picture Experts Group, who are at the forefront of standards development, pooling in experts from hundreds of organizations with the singular goal of improving a consumer digital video experience.

MKV by Matroska an open-standard format created by a passionate video developer and improved upon by the general development community.

We encourage all users and/or developers to try both formats to determine what’s best for their video-stack needs, so ultimately there is no clear cut “winner” between these container formats, but MP4 is being used at a higher frequency.

More video technology guides and articles:

Did you know?

Bitmovin has a range of VOD services that can help you deliver content to your customers effectively.

Its variety of features allows you to create content tailored to your specific audience, without the stress of setting everything up yourself. Built-in analytics also help you make technical decisions to deliver the optimal user experience.

Why not try Bitmovin for Free and see what it can do for you.

The post MKV v MP4: Which is better for you? appeared first on Bitmovin.

The demand for high-quality video continues to grow at a steady pace

Streamed video content has been on a constant trajectory of growth over the course of the past 5-10 years. However, the demand for even more content, services, and supported devices ballooned throughout 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average market penetration rate of 93% for AVOD services, and 78% for SVOD services with nearly 949 million global users.
As the average consumer is expected to use an average of 5.5 different services at a given time, the competition to capture and keep their attention is incredibly high. So it’s the burden of modern streaming services (including less traditional ones like eLearning, Fitness, and religious institutions) to deliver a high-quality user experience. In today’s streaming environment, a high-quality experience (QoE) is influenced by a few key factors such as resolution, start-up time, buffer rates, error rates, and device reach. However, historically speaking achieving a high QoE is neither an easy, nor an inexpensive feat. But that’s not the case for long, not with technologies like Cloud-based Encoding that efficiently deliver high-quality content across nearly all device types and at any given bitrate.

What exactly is Per-Title Encoding?

Per-Title encoding is the process of encoding a video file that customizes a bitrate ladder based on the complexity of the selected content, with the specific goal of selecting the ideal bitrate that captures just enough information to present the optimal viewer experience. 

This is further optimized by a service’s selection of Video Codecs, all of which have their own variations of efficiency ratings – however, by applying a multi-codec approach (ex: A mix of HEVC and VP9) within the Per-Title workflow, one can reach up 99% of available devices.

For some context, organizations like Netflix, YouTube, Globo, and BBC are all using Per-Title encoding to increase the speed of their time-to-market, all while maximizing the quality of each piece of content. 
So where do cloud-based workflows fit in?

Generational Shift in Encoding Technologies

Up until roughly two years ago, nearly all content delivery workflows utilized hardware encoding solutions, this type of technology even dates back to the original transmission of black and white broadcast television. However, much like nearly every other SaaS solution, encoding has rapidly started shifting towards cloud-based solutions across the three major server providers, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
At the beginning of 2021, Bitmovin hosted a panel session featuring Streaming Media expert Dan Rayburn, alongside experts from Blizzard Entertainment and Sinclair Digital titled Encoding Workflows Best Practices, where they addressed the growing market of cloud-based encoding workflows:

“I’ve definitely seen a huge jump to cloud and transporting as a service and encoding as a service. The cost of operating a workflow is now based on a service per month instead of supporting it on-prem with your own engineers who need to do most of the building and support.” – Doug Bay, Sinclair Digital

Cloud-based workflows help enable organizations to scale their new apps and platforms with extensive potential customization based on their individual needs. This new methodology is consistently improving three primary factors of running an OTT service: Resource Availability, Time-to-Market, and Reducing Operational Costs.

Benefits of Cloud-based Encoding Workflows

1. Resource Availability – Moving encoding workflows to the cloud opens up countless engineering and support resources to focus on other more critical tasks like improving general user experience, implementing AI, or building more stable workflows.
2. Cost Reduction – The next major benefit of a Cloud-based workflow is a reduction in pure cost, building and sustaining your own hardware encoder and the server is an immense undertaking. Given that the cloud is shared by multiple organizations, you are no longer on the hook for owning your own expensive server. These costs are further reduced by an equally expanding market of cloud-service providers to sustain the high demand.

“The availability of the silent architecture allows more organizations to make the shift away from on-prem: firstly from a financial perspective, and secondly from a scalability standpoint – you can’t get this type of scale with the financial return in continuing with ground-based encoding factories.” – Corey Smith, Blizzard

3. Time-to-Market – Establishing a fully functional transcoding workflow on your own will take you months, especially since you have to devote those highly valuable engineering resources. Cloud-based infrastructures have preset templates that you just need to plug your content into, and you can carry on with your distribution, allowing organizations to publish VoD content almost immediately after the live broadcast concludes.

Today, most video encoding service providers offer a cloud-based solution in addition to the standard hardware-based solution. As of 2020, Bitmovin shifted to a cloud-only solution and offers operators to use their own cloud service, aptly called “Cloud Connect”.

Introducing Cloud Connect

The new Cloud Connect cloud-based encoding solution makes it possible to install Bitmovin’s API directly on your infrastructure, so you can ensure that private data never leaves your cloud data center. This yields three overarching benefits:

1. Data Privacy and Security – If the privacy and security of your video files are of paramount importance, Cloud Connect adds a layer of protection. While Bitmovin’s standard Managed Cloud supports Hollywood-grade security practices such as multi-DRM support for Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine, & Apple FairPlay Streaming, license key protection, watermarking, concurrency management, and more, data still needs be processed through Bitmovin’s API. With Cloud Connect, you can keep your video files inside your internal network throughout the entire encoding process. 
2. Cost – While Bitmovin’s Managed Cloud encoding API will save you money on bandwidth in the long run, you might be able to negotiate better hosting rates by installing Cloud Connect on your infrastructure directly. Due to competition in the cloud hosting ecosystem, large customers are often able to negotiate rock-bottom rates in exchange for long-term commitments.
3. Maintenance – Finally, it’s worth noting that when you use Bitmovin Cloud Connect, you’ll be bringing your own cloud account. Managed AWS, Azure, or GCP instances should require very little maintenance because Bitmovin’s software handles the auto-scaling and container provisioning for you. With Bitmovin Managed cloud, Bitmovin’s team will be responsible for configuring these instances, so you won’t have any direct input, but with Cloud Connect, you’ll have full control over your servers.

With an ever-increasing global demand for high-quality VoD apps and platforms, it’s imperative that streaming services within every industry work towards creating a highly efficient (while relatively inexpensive) backend video infrastructure.  
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into cloud connect encoding workflows, check out some of our other great content below:
Blog Series – Cloud-based Per-Title Encoding Workflows (with AWS)
Establishing the Architecture
Implementing the new Workflow
Adding a Player and Video Analytics

This article was featured in MEDIANTEK’s Summer 2021 Magazine. View the full magazine here

The post Delivering the Best Quality of Experience with Cloud-based Encoding appeared first on Bitmovin.

1. Better overall experiences for new users with new consumer-facing features
2. Improved back-end workflows that increase operational efficiency

Better overall experiences for new users with new consumer-facing features

We’ll begin by addressing four of the most exciting streaming innovations that promise to improve or bring the consumer quality of experience to a completely new level:

1. 4K+ Supported Virtual Reality Devices

Content providers aren’t the only industry to finally catch up to the consumer craze of 4K quality devices. As of 2021, 4K supported headsets are now available at more cost-effective prices by major consumer electronics. Admittedly, the jury is still out on the success and quality of 8K headsets, but the prospect of more top-tier resolution devices is an exciting development for consumers and developers alike. Today, the burden rests on back-end technology to support the delivery of 8K quality content. We expect the adoption of future codecs, like VVC and LCEVC to enable the future success of 4K+ devices.

2. The Rise of Synchronized Viewing

Over the past 10 years, OTT platforms have taken over as a completely new type of social experience. Consumers were no longer restricted by broadcast viewing times or theaters to catch the next big film or TV series. With VoD available as an option, the concept of watch parties or the colloquial “Netflix and Chill” has risen. However, the pandemic of 2020/21 has yielded growth in the latest social viewing experience, “Synchronized Viewing,” wherein consumers view the same content at the same time and have some form of additional engagement with each other (ex: chat, video conferencing, etc).
Synchronized viewing initially grew on social media networks (with recent additions to LinkedIn), but exploded in popularity as people were unable to meet or go to live events and theaters with near and dear ones. At the time of this article, synchronized viewing is largely only possible (natively) on live sports apps, social networks, Disney +, and Twitch, but is supported via countless 3rd party apps (such as Teleparty, Kast, or Discord).  
However, there this a trend that many streaming platforms are catching on to and plan to launch natively on their platforms as well. The benefit to most consumers is the new interactive social experience, and the benefit to streaming services is reduced pirating – as to join a synchronized viewing, you need to be signed in to the native app where concurrent viewers might be restricted.

3. Upscaling Content Resolutions

4. 5G Network Adoption

Before consumers could even get tired of 4G, consumers and governments are seeing the launch of the newest and fastest network 5G. Both consumers and developers are always chasing low latency streaming opportunities, with standardized 5G around the world, the burden of delivering high-quality content is lifted slightly off of the shoulders of OTT and streaming service providers. However, the combination of faster internet speeds, cloud-based per-title encoding solutions, and new codecs will ensure that no one experiences the dreaded buffering symbol again.

Streaming innovations that improve back-end workflows that increase operational efficiency

When it comes to enhanced workflow and efficiency, SaaS and B2B companies are developing countless new back-end technologies: 

1. Adopting SMPTE 2110 to Bring Broadcast Online

Broadcast content is one of the oldest methods of consuming/distributing content. Today, the broadcast industry is slightly behind that of the OTT big hitters. To match the quality and speed of OTT delivery workflows, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) develops the latest back-end tech to support video delivery over IP. The latest set of standards known as SMPTE ST 2110, offer additional flexibility compared to SDI connectivity by specifying how to deliver compressed and uncompressed video and audio streams (amongst many other improvements). 

2. Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) Technology Improvements

Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) is not new in the technology or even in the video market, ad insertions have been customizable since YouTube truly became an AVoD platform nearly 10 years. However, the innovations in DAI lie in their latency and customization capabilities, both of which are heavily influenced by the AI that’s built into each part of the DAI workflow. The latest DAI implementations use consumer information in a more efficient manner to deliver ads that relevant not only to the viewer but to the viewed content as well. From the latency perspective, DAI’s that implement proper encoding workflows perform better as they don’t interrupt the streaming experience with lower quality resolution or buffering/

3. Context Adaptive Content Delivery Workflows

Context Adaptive Content Delivery Workflows, otherwise known as CAD, employ a lot of different methodologies towards an optimal end-user experience. The most well-known method is the application of an Adaptive Bitrate Ladder (ABR), where content is compressed (encoded) and delivered at the ideal resolution at a given bitrate expenditure. The true streaming innovations in the space lie within the various technologies that actually apply ABR throughout their workflows. Technology like future codecs (such as AV1, HEVC, and VVC) and cloud-based per-title/per-shot/per-scene encoding that adapts lossy compression methods to not only the delivered content types but also the specific shots or sequences within a piece of content.

4. Immersive Experiences with Dolby Vision and Atmos

Dolby has always been at the forefront of creating immersive experiences with its surround sound devices and technologies. Dolby Atmos takes surround sound to the next level by adding in better audio depth and spatial metadata, enabling a completely immersive sound experience. To complete the feeling of being inside the content your consuming, Dolby Vision enables a higher range of color, depth, sharpness, and contrast to your video. 

Conclusion

A lot of innovation is born out of struggle and conflict, much of which is true of the video, technology, and streaming sector for the early 2020s as a result of the global pandemic. However, video technology is constantly evolving to match consumer demand and the creativity of individuals and organizations alike. Today, we’re seeing the development of new virtual (video-based) social experiences, faster content delivery workflows, and services that bring the highest quality content on any device at nearly any bandwidth. We eagerly await the next wave of streaming innovations, be it higher quality VR/AR/3D video content experiences, faster networks, or something completely inconceivable today.

The post Top 8 Streaming Innovations & Technologies That You Need to Know appeared first on Bitmovin.

There is one constant that has emerged from the chaos that was 2020, that despite how many new streaming services emerged and how many consumers purchased new devices to view the plethora of new content, every single one of these new (and existing services) experienced countless video errors. Errors in streaming are nothing particularly new, nor will they entirely disappear for the foreseeable future, as the nature of internet streaming is steeped with various issues that need debugging or more often than not, based on problems that may be outside of the control or influence of video services.

Technical video errors come in all shapes, colors, and values

Much like all web-based services and/or pages, and regardless of the back-end Video Player(s) that an organization uses to power their service or platform, video errors are always displayed using an error code that typically comes with a specific error message (ex: 404 – “Page not found”). However, the level of detail that derives from the code and message is very dependent on the documentation that comes with any commercial, native, or open-source player. All video streaming error messages can be sorted into one of three categories:

1. Clear – The error and message point to a specific and identifiable error behavior.
2. Ambiguous – Often indicated with a “catch-all” message, these error types can be attributed to many different types of error behavior. Although error origin is provided, there is no specific or identifiable behavior(s) subsumed under that error.
3. Unclear – As the name suggests, these video errors are completely uninformative and often read as “Unknown”, “Null”, or something similar.

An analysis of the Bitmovin Analytics database indicated that the distribution of error messages and codes were broken down as follows:

It’s important to note that some of the categorizations can be debated based on other contributing factors. Even so, the most striking takeaway is that 20% of errors are identified as “unclear”. Unclear errors are often the most costly to resolve as they cannot be debugged by simply looking at the message and code, and will need significant engineering or solutions manpower to resolve. Even the best Video Player documentation will not help. Given the severity and volume of the unclear category, it will be the primary value when calculating the cost of video errors and the potential monetary savings that would result from properly identifying unclear errors.

The cost of errors for video streaming

Effects on subscription video streaming (SVOD)

In a recent study and article, streaming service Vimeo released the following numbers that define the different reasons for subscriber churn for SVOD OTT services.

These results are based on a multiple-selection survey, and therefore add up to more than 100%. However, as each statement is treated as an “and” response, selections such as “technical reasons” are considered churn rate for the purposes of this paper’s calculations. Given that the other reasons are based on cost and/or content, therefore, the assumption is that errors (or technical reasons) attribute towards 6% of the churn rate. 
According to the same report from Vimeo, the average revenue per user (ARPU) across all SVOD service types is ~$15. 
*LTV = Lifetime Value
So, with an ARPU of $15, and an assumptive $15 subscription price/service the calculated customer lifetime value (LTV) with a 6% churn rate is $250 or 500 days. The next logical step is to determine how to increase the average customers’ LTV. According to the Bitmovin Analytics industry insights benchmarking data, OTT providers are experiencing a 6.6% error rate across their services. 
Based on data points from the “best-in-class” SVOD services using the Bitmovin dashboard, an individual subscriber (or household) attempts 150 plays/month, resulting in 0.33 errors per day. Over an average consumer’s service lifetime, this adds up to an error acceptance threshold of 165 errors over the period of 500 days.

In a perfect world, if a streaming service could remove 10% of their “unclear” or “ambiguous” errors with more accurate information the customer lifetime would increase by 5 days or 1.1%. In monetary terms: By reducing errors by 10% for an SVOD service with 1M subscribers and a $15/month subscription fee, the 5 days increased in lifetime value for the technical churner segment would result in an estimated revenue increase of $160,000.

Effects on ad-based video streaming (AVOD)

Given that there is a full set of additional elements within an advertising-supported video platform to support ad insertions and content protection – there are different error types that come into play, thus a different error calculation model is necessary. The AVOD cost of error model is based on research from S. Shunmuga Krishnan and Ramesh K. Sitaraman who found that viewers that experienced any interruptions to their streaming service were 2.32% less likely to revisit the video platform than a viewer who did not experience interruptions. This additional data point is especially important for AVOD services that depend on maximizing viewership, and thus the number of ads served, through driving regular consumption of their content.
Based on the Bitmovin Analytics platform for AVOD services, 25-50% of users visit the site or service weekly (recurring users), and each unique user generates around 1.5 plays per week, and AVOD platforms serve around 2 ads/play. At the time of this whitepaper’s publication, the price per 1000 ad plays (CPM) for premium content was around $60 and had an upward trend in price in upscale markets such as Germany. In the scenario where a service maintains a 30% recurring viewership and stands to lose ad revenue from 2.32% unique viewers that experience start or in-stream failures, the service would incur a cost of $1.25 per 1000 errors.

Applied at scale and applying the 6.6% error rate from Bitmovin Analytics industry insights for a service experiencing 25M play attempts per week, this error rate would result in an estimated revenue loss of $3,445/week. Unfortunately, removing all errors is not a likely scenario, however, but in this case, reducing the error percentage by 20% already results in a $35,000 revenue increase.
It’s important to note that costs for both SVOD and AVOD errors are highly variable based on the input values (subscription fee, error rate, subscriber count, etc). To find out the potential monetary impact of reducing errors for your specific use case, please visit our calculator at the following link: https://bitmovin.com/demos/cost-of-errors
Find out how to tackle these unknown video errors and to save this information for future use, fill out the form below to receive our complete “Cost of Errors: How to reduce churn with granular data in video analytics” whitepaper.

Video technology guides and articles

• Back to Basics: Guide to the HTML5 Video Tag 
• What is a VoD Platform?A comprehensive guide to Video on Demand (VOD)
• Video Technology [2022]: Top 5 video technology trends
• HEVC vs VP9: Modern codecs comparison
• What is the AV1 Codec?
• Video Compression: Encoding Definition and Adaptive Bitrate
• What is adaptive bitrate streaming
• MP4 vs MKV: Battle of the Video Formats
• AVOD vs SVOD; the “fall” of SVOD and Rise of AVOD & TVOD (Video Tech Trends)
• MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP)
• Container Formats: The 4 most common container formats and why they matter to you.
• Quality of Experience (QoE) in Video Technology [2022 Guide]

The post Calculating the Monetary Impact of Video Errors in SVoD and AVoD Services appeared first on Bitmovin.

3D video content – a topic that can easily be perceived through the polarized lenses of mockery & failure or innovation & success. Depending on your generation, 3D video content might yield a completely different perception; for some, they’ll remember 3D content as a novelty (yet nostalgic) theatrical experience where you would put on those plastic red/green glasses to view content “pop-out” from your local screen. Others will think of 3D video and chuckle at their experience viewing the wonderfully terrible, My Bloody Valentine 3D, the first-ever R-rated film projected in RealD technology. Yet, more recent memory might bring forth nostalgia around the failed attempt at consumer 3D televisions or James Cameron’s record-breaking, industry innovating Avatar.
Although recent memory of 3D consumer content might not resonate well with most audiences, there have been many groundbreaking developments in the past few years with the rise of web-based VR content and consumer-friendly devices like the Oculus VR and VR-enabled apps on personal devices. So how did we get where we are today, and where is the future of 3D video content heading?

Where does 3D Video content originate?

First Generation 3D

Would you be surprised if I told you that 3D “video” technology is just over 130 years old? The very first iteration of viewing 3D video originates from stereoscopic viewing of two side-by-side projected images in the late 1890s. Although not widely adopted, this was the “futuristic” method of 3D content until 1915, when the tried and true red-green anaglyphic method was developed, where each eye’s image was encoded using chromatically opposite colors to trick the brain into perceiving a three-dimensional scene. Although other methods were tested, like the German Alabastra and Kinoplastikon technologies, the stereoscopic 3D video remained within the consumer market until late 2002.

Second Gen 3D

The early 2000s yielded great technological advancements in the space of circular polarization to replace the stereoscopic experience. RealD and MasterImage 3D systems were developed alongside sophisticated IMAX 70 mm projects and cameras. This new experience was and continues to be used for theatrical releases to date, albeit, no longer creating a fully “jump out of the screen” experience but to yield a more immersive depth-of-field experience. 

This brings us to the near-present stage of 3D video content, where multi-media conglomerates have attempted to move 3D out of pure theater experience and into a user’s home as a consumer product. Consumer electronic-producers like Samsung, Sony, LG, and Panasonic came to market as early as 2007 with in-home friendly 3D devices. Unfortunately, these consumer electronics never ended being very “in-home friendly” as there a serious lack of available, the 3D experiences were nowhere near the experience you received at a theater, the tech was not very user-friendly, and worst of all, it was expensive; Different manufacturers backed different 3D TV formats and technologies, meaning one set of glasses wouldn’t necessarily work on a competitor’s set. 3D video content felt dead once again…

Where does 3D Video content (fit) stand today? 

Next-Gen 3D

Innovated content mediums rarely stay “dead” for too long – what we now know as 3D, especially from a personal consumer perspective, started to re-emerge in popularity. One of the first movers in this next-gen 3D video content space was the 2012 virtual reality headset creator Oculus, which released its first iteration of the Rift virtual reality headset as a means to enhance video gaming experiences. After Oculus’s acquisition by Facebook, it increased its investment into video streaming and mixed reality, while continuing to grow its core gaming offerings.

Oculus (re)started interest in 3D content with its affordable, consumer-oriented, and reasonable quality headsets, followed quickly by Google, HTC, Valve, Samsung, and others as mobile gaming companies join in on the VR and AR experience development, each with its own support for 2D and 3D video streaming.
More recently, Looking Glass released holographic displays, now breaking records with their new Kickstarter ending January 2021 for a consumer-priced personal edition. Sony entered the space in 2020 with a $5k eye-tracking display to project holograms without a headset.

Where is 3D Video Content heading?

Consumers are seeking new ways to enjoy higher and higher quality experiences, the older models of 3D, VR, or AR content can’t be blocky, in low resolution, or with high latency. But not all 3D content is created the same, and different techniques have strengths and weaknesses for various situations.
Here is an overview of a few key strategies for transmitting 3D “hologram” content:

• Point clouds
• Multiview
• Streaming scene graph (such as dynamic animated mesh with texture streaming)

Astute readers might ask, where are 360º or stereoscopic formats on this list? Wide field-of-view (such as 180º or 360º) and stereoscopic (3D side-by-side, etc.) are usually mapped to a 2D video container and codecs which can use traditional video compression toolsets with mature solutions from Bitmovin and other providers.

ATHENA at the Forefront

Bitmovin is one of the key contributors in cutting-edge research across all of these key strategies (point clouds, multiview and scene graph streaming) thanks to both Bitmovin internal R&D as well as ATHENA, our innovative joint research program with Alpen Adria Universität in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Stay tuned for our next series of blog posts on this topic as we explore ATHENA research work on some of the key 3D content transmission strategies we’ve outlined in this blog post.

The post Innovations in VidTech: The History and Future of 3D Video Content appeared first on Bitmovin.

Intertrust: Reduce TCO with Direct-to-TV broadcasting using DRM-based converged security

Intertrust kicked off the DRM security and protection week by defining how DRM converged security can bridge the digital gap and support direct-to-TV broadcasting and OTT services, all while saving on the total cost of ownership with a cloud-based network-agnostic infrastructure that can communicate with both a classic conditional access system (CAS) and the digitally-oriented DRM solution. 

Intertrust’s ExpressPlay XCA (built on and supported by MarlinDRM) offers this middleware solution by running an operator app that’s enabled by almost all major set-top boxes (STBs), smart cards, and conditional access modules (CAMs)  

BuyDRM – Deploying Multi-DRM for CMAF

BuyDRM followed up by discussing the specific processes that go into implementing a dynamic DRM solution to keep up with the ever-evolving Common Media Application Format. BuyDRM supports CMAF across their platform from encryption to license delivery and just announced new support for CMAF in their MultiPack Utility and MultiPack plug-in for Wowza.

DRM Complexities Untangled: VUALTO and Bitmovin demo CBCS encrypted CMAF with VUDRM

For those with limited DRM knowledge or seeking to learn how to two to knock out two birds with one stone with an integrated encoding and content protection system Bitmovin teamed up with VUALTO to display how an organization can implement a CBCS encryption with VUDRM. This session demonstrated how a team would go about building this system with geo-restrictive and concurrency token code samples and case studies.

Irdeto: Concurrent Stream Management at Scale

Perhaps the biggest elephant in the DRM security and protection conversation is account sharing by end-users. Although most streaming organizations would naturally prefer that one account = one stream, the reality is that this model is often very off-putting for consumers who have multiple individuals in a household or would prefer to share an account. The middle-ground solution is to limit users who can stream at one time, otherwise known as concurrency management. However, once an organization reaches a certain scale, managing concurrency can become a challenging endeavor. Irdeto and Bitmovin teamed up to discuss how a streaming organization can gain and retain control over who is viewing the content in a fast, simple, and smart way.
Learn how you can apply concurrency management, what challenges you may face, and what the cost of failing to control stream management will have on your bottom-line in this high-level discussion.

EZDRM: How to implement DRM in 30 mins or less

DRM implementation doesn’t have to be complex or require countless hours to implement into your existing workflow. In this session, Bitmovin and EZDRM came together to discuss the very basics, defining exactly what is Digital Rights Management, why you need it, and how you can set it up in 30 minutes or less using native browser DRMs and SDKs and out-of-box encoding solutions.

Axinom: Mastering DRM license and client configuration in a multi-DRM world

To close out the DRM security and protection week, the content delivery and DRM organization, Axinom explained the license configuration process for Widevine, Fairplay, and PlayReady using Axinom DRM. In this demonstration, Axinom proposed the concept of Entitlement Message codes, which are produced at runtime by the customer backend using a simple JSON structure to display how content can be securely delivered to nearly any player device or service. This method creates a singular DRM tech-agnostic authorization mechanism that’s embedded in a signed JSON Web Token (JWT).  
This process can be seen in a full end-to-end delivery worfklow below:

With a few real-life cases, the session displayed how to configure your content protection workflow to handle up to 100,000 DRM requests/second with varying levels of security, license persistence, and multi-key delivery methods. 

DRM Security and Protection – How it all Fits

Much like all systems in video workflow, there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution for any streaming organization. This equally applies to content protection which requires completely different solutions for different needs, from broadcasters to start-ups, to mid-size OTTs, to those who are simply looking to build their process for scale fast, and at an affordable cost. If you’d like to view all of these sessions to understand which solution fits your organization best, check out the full line-up sessions here.
Did you like this post? Check out some of our other great content below:

• [PDF Whitepaper] State of the Web: Digital Rights Management
• [Blog post] Digital Rights Management (DRM) – Everything you need to know
• [Blog post] Guide to Selecting and Implementing DRM & Content Protection
• [Content Series] How to Trust Your Player

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Over the course of the past few years, consumers, video content providers, and electronic device producers alike have been pushing the boundaries of what each considers a higher quality of viewer experience; Ranging from the user-friendliness of an application to improved content recommendations to the highest resolution video content with the ultimate goal of elevating the viewer experience. As the quality of consumer electronic devices increases with over 50% of global consumers owning a 4K or higher resolution TV, it’s imperative that the quality of content and experience are there to match.

The over-abundance of services (more than 300 OTT services in the US alone) makes it more important than ever to find means to differentiate and find a way to capture a significant piece of the market share. A key method of doing so is to provide premium content that can reach the maximum number of devices, wherever and whenever a consumer wants to view it. However, the cost of producing (or purchasing the rights to) premium content can be incredibly high – Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Hulu have spent a combined estimated $30 billion on content in 2020 to reach the millions of global SVOD consumers.

Thus, it becomes invaluable to find new ways to innovate on cost and quality of experience (QoE). Some of the latest innovations in the space are to provide more efficient methods of delivering high-quality sound and video on 4K, HDR, and Immersive sound-enabled devices. To differentiate at this level of quality to gain and retain consumers, organizations can adopt cloud-agnostic / multi-cloud compression technologies enabling high fidelity content delivery support with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Video and Audio Innovations with Dolby

Realistic visual quality in HDR

Dolby has played a key role in the development of HDR for both commercial cinema and home theatre applications. From a home entertainment perspective, the company’s most important contribution has been the advanced form of HDR (High Dynamic Range), known as Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision has the potential to improve consumers’ viewing experience by constantly optimizing the way their TVs deliver HDR pictures. It also gives content producers more control over how their HDR programming appears on TVs.

The most significant advantage of Dolby Vision HDR versus HDR10 is the addition of dynamic metadata to the core HDR image data. This metadata carries scene-by-scene instructions that a Dolby Vision-capable display can use to make sure it portrays the content as accurately as possible. Dolby Vision-capable TVs combine the scene-by-scene information received from the source with an awareness of their own capabilities in terms of brightness, contrast, and color performance. HDR-enabled TVs aren’t the only device types that are supporting Dolby Vision implementations, as the new Xbox Series X will support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision and the iPhone 12 will record content in Dolby Vision HDR, further supporting the winning strategy of expanded consumer reach. 

Immersive audio experiences are the new norm

The improvement of sound quality in video content has been as progressive as the development of perceptual video quality. The most recent development of note that led up to Dolby Atmos was the rapid consumer device adoption of 5.1 surround sound from standard stereo. Although, 5.1 hasn’t been the standard for premium movie sound in the living room for long, as the sound experience was upgraded to 7.1 channels within 10 years. The additional two channels don’t just improve the resolution of the two-dimensional surround sound world by adding more speakers, but also create a more immersive audio experience. To further improve on 7.1, Dolby sought out to add a third dimension to the mix.
The goal was to give mixers better tools to create the best immersive audio experience independent of the actual speaker configuration. While mixers will still create a 7.1.2 audio bed that includes things like dialog, music, and other background sounds, they can now also place over 100 audio objects into the 3D environment around you to create a more life-like and truly immersive experience.

These latest innovations from Dolby are a clear and definitive step to help provide the premium content in the best possible quality across countless platforms and devices to stand out as an OTT service. However, the high cost of efficiently implementing and delivering said content remains an obstacle to the bottom line. 

Higher QoE with cloud-agnostic encoding solutions using Bitmovin & Dolby

Using Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos within Bitmovin’s cloud-agnostic encoding will ensure the perfect balance of quality and costs as streaming services can produce content for immersive at-home viewing experiences. Development teams can simply feed object-based Atmos files to the encoder with the confidence that their files are Dolby certified and usable for streaming. No additional setup or integration is needed. This enables streaming services to quickly implement Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos without worrying about the certification process so they can market their assets faster, all while Bitmovin’s per-title or multipass encoding will provide the least lossy compression, thus maintaining quality while reducing the cost of storage and delivery.

To date, Bitmovin is the first online video Dolby Pro Partner platform that offers both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos encoding in the cloud. To do so, there are two fundamental elements that you must adapt to make use of our Dolby certified encoding. In the case of Dolby Atmos, you must adjust your codec configuration and inputStreams, as illustrated below:

This workflow can be applied for either the DAMF or ADM input formats. Here is an example of a DAMF codec input configuration:

DolbyAtmosAudioConfiguration config = new DolbyAtmosAudioConfiguration(); config.setName("Dolby Atmos audio config"); config.setBitrate(768000L); config.setRate(48000.0);
DolbyAtmosLoudnessControl loudnessControl = new DolbyAtmosLoudnessControl();
loudnessControl.setMeteringMode(DolbyAtmosMeteringMode.ITU_R_BS_1770_4);
loudnessControl.setDialogueIntelligence(DolbyAtmosDialogueIntelligence.ENABLED);
loudnessControl.setSpeechThreshold(15);
config.setLoudnessControl(loudnessControl);
return bitmovinApi.encoding.configurations.audio.dolbyAtmos.create(config);

Followed by adding DAMF as the defacto input format for the inputStream:

DolbyAtmosIngestInputStream inputStream = new DolbyAtmosIngestInputStream();
inputStream.setInputId(input.getId());
inputStream.setInputFormat(DolbyAtmosInputFormat.DAMF);
inputStream.setInputPath("input-file.atmos")
return bitmovinApi.encoding.encodings.inputStreams.dolbyAtmos.create(encoding.getId(), inputStream);

Much like most of our services, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you, and those two configurative steps are all that you need to run a successful Encoding using Dolby Atmos with the Bitmovin Encoder.

Learn more about Bitmovin and Dolby’s video and audio quality innovations below:

[Blog Post] How to Effectively & Affordably Deliver 4K, HDR, & Dolby Vision Content

The post Cloud-agnostic encoding solutions for Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos appeared first on Bitmovin.

Piracy occurs at all levels of video streaming, from illegal downloads to screen captures. How can an OTT provider overcome these issues? Fortunately, there’s a good answer: with a mixed balance of back-end solutions including digital rights management (DRM), watermarking, and/or client-hardening. As a part of a multi-post series between partners Bitmovin, FriendMTS, and Intertrust Technologies, Bitmovin is here to define some of the top tips and tricks to implementing these solutions into your web-based player. 
By the time content arrives at a web-based player, a majority of protection measures should already be in place. Although it’s possible to arrive at the player without a concrete DRM, watermarking, and/or client-hardening solution, this is ill-advised, as not all consumer players can be trustworthy enough to simply view content without engaging in some kind of piracy measures.

How to Secure Video Streaming Content in Web-Based Environments

The browser environment, open by default, is a challenging environment to secure. Delivering high-value premium content to a web browser can be a risky venture, but one that is critical to reaching your audience. To reach a maximum audience, the recommendation is to implement a player in as many devices as possible, including app-first or native solutions. Browser environments are amongst the farthest-reaching, but least secure, due to their open nature, and will require some extra attention when implementing content protection systems.
Content licensors (or content owners) are increasingly wary of the impact of content theft at user playback, and will often mandate the use of certain obfuscation techniques as part of authentication and authorization flows. As the second article in our “How To Trust Your Player” series highlights, ensuring that session authorization tokens are securely ciphered and can prevent attacks against DRM license acquisition servers is critical to developing a truly end-to-end end security chain.
For the browser playback environment where website code (JavaScript) is interpreted and executed, masking how to interact with security systems in place is a critical step. This typically takes place through the use of a code obfuscation tool. The goal of this type of tool is to render the source code unintelligible to prying eyes without fundamentally altering how it functions.  
Obfuscation entails parsing JavaScript (JS) source code, rearranging the code, and at some points, transforming it by renaming variables and data structures, and refactoring logic structures to mask algorithms. This makes it nearly impossible to understand the code and how data is parsed by it. The result is code that is extremely difficult to read and reverse-engineer, either by a tinker or a more determined actor…such as a content pirate.

How to Bolster Your Video Streaming Defenses

Techniques such as uglify-ing or minify-ing JS code provide some minimal defenses but can be reverse-engineered themselves through automated tooling.  While it may not be possible to get back to the original source, it is possible to generate much more intelligible code from tools such as a JS Obfuscator, from which a hacker would have a harder time discerning information beneficial to attacking your code or services.

Improving on Obfuscation

JavaScript protection solutions, such as Jscrambler, provide significant robustness by generating code with polymorphic obfuscation techniques. On top of this obfuscation, code locks are added to restrict the browsers and platforms on which the code can be executed, providing the ability to restrict the code use to a specific user session. They also aid in the generation of self-defending code, where anti-tampering techniques protect functions and objects. These anti-tampering techniques can trigger defenses (such as halting execution and throwing fatal errors), or generate session invalidation events that trigger a service block for future HTTP requests to your security services.
As your code has to execute on a web browser, following open JS standards, it just is not possible to completely secure playback. Obfuscation products are not a foolproof mechanism to create a secure execution environment. Someone with enough motivation, and time to spend gathering intelligence and doing research, will eventually be able to reverse engineer your playback code. However, putting in place multiple layers of JavaScript code obfuscation as part of a complete defense strategy will deter attacks from content pirates. 

Concurrency Management

Many content owners require OTT service providers to limit account oversharing – the number of simultaneous video views that can take place from a single authenticated and authorized user account. While this is primarily to ensure that a household’s stream concurrency or device limits are not exceeded, this has the effect of limiting the impact of credential sharing outside of the user’s household. Concurrency management typically takes place by keeping a tally of the number of play/pause/stop events that the player framework’s analytics data generates. 
Below is a standard tally-event measurement system that measures users “Alice” and “Bob” based on overlapping timestamps of video views in similar geographic locations. (“P” indicates a video pause.) Although this helps monitor general concurrent usage across shared accounts, this method has its limitations.

Domain Locking

Whereas concurrency management is a method of monitoring how many users are viewing the same account, domain locking is essentially a technique to allow or deny streaming on certain websites. It will prevent a player from being embedded on a non-approved site, such as one on which an aggregator might want it to look like they have content available – but in reality, are embedding another service’s player.
Bitmovin’s web-based player, as part of the standard security controls, uses an allowlist for player licensing to prevent misuse. The top-level domain name or host for which the player can be used must be added within the “Player — Licenses” section of the dashboard by selecting “+ Domain” before deploying a player. 

Rules to Gaining and Retaining Trustworthy Video Players

1. Make your content available where your users  want to watch it

Combining Bitmovin’s encoding and packaging solution to prepare the content for delivery, the robust ExpressPlay DRM system provided by Intertrust to protect delivery, and Bitmovin’s Player, it is possible to support a wide range of browser versions and devices to reach your audience.
Bitmovin’s multiplayer SDKs streamline the development by bringing your apps to all of the platforms your users would be willing to pay to watch it on — e.g., Smart TV, tablet, or mobile device (iOS, Android, etc.). You can find information on the Bitmovin SDK and how to implement it in its documentation.
You can also view all devices and apps supported by the web player.

2. Feature parity with piracy 

Create an impactful and feature-rich player that improves the viewer’s quality of experience. Don’t punish legit users by restricting how they view their content, such as with offline play, time to release, and overall quality. In some cases, legitimate content just is not available in high enough resolution, whereas pirated content might offer 4K quality.

3. Provide your content at a reasonable price point

Bitmovin’s player SDK enables an OTT provider to spend less time developing workflows for each potential player implementation by reducing workflow cost with easy-to-use configurations. 

Summary: How to Secure Video Streaming

The combination of these three golden rules creates a more favorable user experience than what content pirates can provide. Yet, there is one last problem to overcome once your player is ready: re-streamed content. This is where an effective watermarking service comes in. Not only will it detect, deter and disable leaks, it will work to create a frustrating experience for illegitimate viewers and encourage them to use more legitimate means of consuming content.

Make it harder to pirate content, but easier to pay for content

Check out the corresponding fireside chat:

Visit How to Trust Your Player

Check out the full blog series below:

• How To Trust Your Player #1 – Tips from the Top: Secure Content Delivery and Playback
• How to Trust Your Player #2: Securing Content Access with DRM Best Practices by Intertrust
• How to Trust Your Player #4: Beyond DRM – Video Watermarking
• How to Trust Your Player #5: Protecting Content from Origination to Playback

View the webinar on the How to Trust Your Player Page
Download this article as a PDF
Download the full series as a PDF
_____________________________________________________________________________________
How To Trust Your Player is a collaborative effort between Bitmovin, Friend MTS, and Intertrust Technologies. Our goal is to educate media and content providers on the importance of delivering streaming content in the most secure ways possible, from the video player to the end consumer, while protecting both their content and revenue. 

The post How to Trust Your Player #3: How to Secure Your Content in Challenging Streaming Environments appeared first on Bitmovin.

The Difference Between 4K, HDR, & Dolby Vision

4K is an ultra high definition video resolution—and the next progression beyond high definition—that’s quickly becoming the standard for most new TVs. In fact, 4K video has about four times as many pixels as traditional high definition 1080p video. While this may seem dramatically better, the quality difference may only be noticeable if the video content is native 4k or you’re viewing from a close distance. Besides the video resolution, there are other factors that have an impact on the viewing experience, such as screen size, color range, sharpness, and more.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a technology that enables improved brightness, color accuracy, and contrast when compared to standard dynamic range (SDR). That means HDR can do more with the pixels it’s given, whether the content is 4K resolution or not. While HDR has been used in theaters for a while, it’s now making its way into home viewing with HDR-compatible TVs. But not every HDR format is created equal and there are a variety of options to choose from, such as HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision.

What is Dolby Vision?

Dolby Vision is an HDR 4K video format that’s at the forefront of high-quality TV viewing. The format supports 12-bit color, which is 2 bits more than HDR10 and nearly 68 billion total colors. In terms of brightness, Dolby Vision can handle up to 10,000 nits—a measure of screen luminance or brightness—which is near the limit of existing display capabilities. Moreover, it’s a dynamic format that can adjust HDR elements on a granular level as well.
Dolby Visions is a relatively new format, yet far exceeds the capabilities of today’s TV technologies. That means Dolby Vision content is a futureproof option for broadcasters that can implement the necessary workflow now. Dolby Vision is now available as a delivery option on Bitmovin Player and Encoding solutions.

Delivering 4K, HDR, & Dolby Vision Content

If brands want to provide the best viewing experience possible at an affordable rate, they’ll want to follow some best practices for delivering high-quality video content.

Multi-Codec Encoding

Multi-codec streaming is a file compression technique that entails encoding videos into several codecs, and letting the video player choose which files to stream during playback. That means broadcasters can maximize the video quality and viewership of their Dolby Vision content while reducing bandwidth consumption and data usage.
While H.264 (AVC) is nearly universally compatible, it’s not as optimal as H.265 (HEVC), VP9, or AV1. By encoding videos into each of these formats, however, the viewer’s device can choose the best format that it’s compatible with. Multi-codec encoding may require more processing power up front, but the potential cost savings in bandwidth over the long run makes the method a key part of an optimal encoding workflow.

Per-title & Multi-pass Encoding

Along with offering multiple compression formats, broadcasters can streamline their Dolby Vision content delivery by optimizing the encoding process itself.
Per-title encoding is a method for reducing the cost of streaming high-quality video by customizing bitrate ladders to a video’s content and complexity. Software that can perform per-title encoding analyzes each video file and builds a unique encoding profile that uses the lowest bitrates possible without affecting the video’s perceivable quality.
Broadcasters can take compression a step further with multi-pass encoding. For example, 3-pass encoding involves a high-level analysis of the video file, a more in-depth analysis of its individual segments, and finally using these insights to encode the file. In many cases, multi-pass encoding leverages machine learning (ML) algorithms to compress future video content even more efficiently based on previous inputs.

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

The key to getting the most out of encoding video files into multiple codecs and bitrates is adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), which requires a streaming profile that covers the potential viewing capabilities of an audience. 

The two most popular protocols that support ABR streaming are MPEG-DASH and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). These protocols split video files into 2-10 second chunks, and an adaptive video player adjusts the quality of the segments it downloads in real-time to optimize the viewing experience. That way, broadcasters can strike the right balance between efficiency and quality.
For example, if broadcasters only provide a high-bitrate 4K stream, viewership could be greatly limited. On the other hand, only providing low-bitrate streams could leave viewers that have higher-end devices disappointed. ABR streaming is crucial for efficiently delivering multiple streams at varying codecs, bitrates, and more so that audiences can enjoy content with any device or network conditions.

Per-Scene Adaptation

Dolby Vision has the option for both static and dynamic metadata. Static metadata records HDR-related information about an entire video file, while dynamic metadata efficiently defines this information on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis.
For broadcasters, the dynamic metadata enables per-scene adaptation, which is a technique that identifies specific scenes that can be played at a lower bitrate because they’re indistinguishable to the human eye. This takes ABR streaming a step further to reduce bandwidth consumption and drive cost savings.

Choosing the right technology to fit your 4K, HDR, & Dolby Vision content strategy

Today’s users are demanding high-quality viewing experiences from their favorite broadcasters.  For brands to deliver 4K, HDR, and Dolby Vision content, however, they’ll need a video streaming platform that can keep costs low. This requires powerful encoding and delivery capabilities that reduce bandwidth consumption without compromising on end-user compatibility and the viewing experience.
Bitmovin is an online video solution that supports Dolby Vision streaming. The platform allows broadcasters to encode each video on a per-title basis into multiple codecs, and deliver this content using ABR streaming. Moreover, the encoder supports the latest codecs as they’re released, so that broadcasters can reduce their time to market and reach a growing audience, no matter which devices they choose to use. Choose Bitmovin to deliver Dolby Vision content to your viewers without the headache. 
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might also like the following content:

• [E-Book] Choosing a Per-Title Encoding Technology
• [Blog Series] Fun with Container Formats

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Bitmovin’s next Virtual Event Series Live: IBC Edition, which includes content applicable to all regions across the world, is taking place between September 8th – 24th.  This content-rich virtual event will focus on how to innovatively reduce the cost of video distribution, app development, and optimizing video workflows with a plethora of tools. For our 3rd event series, we’re joined by some great partners and clients alike, like Dalet, Dolby, Google, Google Cloud Platform, IABM, Intertrust, Looker, Streamroot, Sky Studios, Teleport Media, Variety, ViacomCBS, and more!

These events are broken by content that anyone within the OTT industry can enjoy, from technical deep dives around codecs, compressions, and super-resolution, to high-level discussions and panels for decisionmakers around how to succeed in the global streaming industry. The International Trade Association for Broadcast & Media (IABM) stated:

“The Bitmovin Live series has demonstrated how it has been possible to adapt quickly and effectively to an online-only conference format in response to COVID-19,” said Ben Dales, Digital Media Manager from the broadcast and media technology industry trade group IABM. “IABM has long been a champion of collaboration, and with Bitmovin Live: IBC Edition, we are impressed to see Bitmovin expand its involvement to partners, industry leaders, and sometimes even competitors in the spirit of providing a place for the community to thrive despite the global challenges.”

Roku, Google, Sky Studios, ViacomCBS, Bitmovin Execs to Discuss Succeeding in Global Streaming Economy

This session will be an exploration of how streaming services are expanding internationally. Learn about the best business practices that your service must implement to succeed at a global scale, from content creation & distribution to your back-end workflows like SSAI, content protection, and compression. This high-level panel discussion will bring insights from the biggest live and on-demand OTT services on the market, Roku, Sky Studios, YouTube, and ViacomCBS. Featuring:

Sign-up to view the Variety moderated session Sept 10th: Roku, Google, Sky Studios, ViacomCBS, Bitmovin Execs to Discuss Succeeding in Global Streaming Economy

LIVE: IBC Edition – Virtual Event Innovation with VR

Bitmovin is dedicated to using new and innovative ways of interacting with event participants.  As a complement to the usual programming of webinars, tech talks, and panels, it has created a “Virtual VR Event Booth,” a space that can bring prospects and customers closer to Bitmvovin’s employees and services. 
“The ‘Virtual VR Event Booth’ will showcase a high-level overview of Bitmovin origins, the value the company brings, as well as a look at the solutions and products that are offered,” said Jamie Attfield, Head of Design at Bitmovin.  “Attendees are also free to explore an assortment of collateral pieces that can be downloaded to their machines and devices for further reading. This experience will be accessible on mobile, desktop, and Oculus Quest, bringing a new perspective on how the company can communicate in the digital realm.

Evolving SVOD and AVOD for a new world – How 2 leading providers with very different business models see growth in a reshaped world (with IABM)

The closing event will be a panel session featuring IABM and top next-gen broadcast leaders, Britbox and Freesat as we discuss how they successfully innovated their AVOD and SVOD strategies to capture market share in a quickly changing global media market. This session will be hosted and supported by IABM’s industry insights and commentary on September 23. Sign here: Innovating AVOD and SVOD strategies

LIVE: IBC Edition additional sessions during the event include:

September 8th – Behind-the-scenes: Insights into the new virtual video industry era. The session will address that “the new normal“ is here to stay and how companies have been adjusting their business models to optimize costs and continue to deliver high-quality viewer experience.  
Featuring:

• Jure Žlak, Sales Director, Beenius
• Xavier Leclercq, VP Business Development, Broadpeak
• Matej Puhan, Sales Director, Castoola
• Jin Soon Brancalhao, Field Marketing Manager, Bitmovin
• Teddy Zeskind, Partner Manager, Bitmovin

September 10th – A case study review of how Dalet + Bitmovin solutions can help you innovate your sports content OTT strategy. 

September 14th – There’s a Fix For That: the Top 5 OTT Video Challenges … and How to Fix Them! – Bitmovin’s CTO Chris Mueller and head of product Reinhard Grandl tackle the top 5 challenges for OTT video providers with real-world examples of straightforward technical solutions to materially improve the long-term business outcomes for streaming operators. 
September 14th – Encoding where it matters: How will the changing demand in content type affect your workflows? – Join Peggy Dau and Women in Streaming Media as they discuss the most critical factors in developing your future video workflows. 
September 16th – How VuClip Achieved Scalable, high-performance Video Encoding with Bitmovin on Google Cloud – Join Google Cloud’s Solutions Engineer, Chris Hampartsoumian, Vuclip’s Technical Product Manager, Praveen Singh, and Bitmovin’s Solution Director, Adrian Britton. Vuclip will cover why time is so critical to effective delivery and how a cloud-based encoding solution reduced their costs. 
September 17th – Wow your audience: Unleash the creative potential of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision with Bitmovin Encoding into a unified workflow – Sound design and effects are a crucial part of filmmaking that elevate your viewer’s quality of experience. Hear from Dolby experts about the versatile use cases and capabilities of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Learn how to create workflows and mezzanine files using cloud-based techniques. 
September 21st – State of Streaming: Bitmovin’s 2020 Video Developer Report – Bitmovin’s 4th Annual Video Developer report is here! Bitmovin will review the top-level results of its survey and define what some of the most important video tech trends of 2020/21 are for OTT services around the world. Learn about what developers and project managers are seeking in the VidTech workflows as well as the technologies they hope to implement in the next 12 months. 

About Us:
Built for technical professionals in the OTT video market, Bitmovin’s software solutions help you optimize customer operations and reduce time-to-market, resulting in the best viewer experience imaginable. This is achieved through our device reach, flexible and scalable integration, and commitment to supporting our customers. Learn more at www.bitmovin.com.

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