IBC 2018: OTT demands the ultimate entertainment experience

TestTree stand IBC 2018

IBC 2018 represented a tipping point in OTT.

Not in the direction of travel – the broadcast world has been definitively moving on-demand and live streamed for several years. What was transparent from the show floor and conference in Amsterdam is that this has moved from theory into strategy with broadcast engineering teams investing in practical solutions to extend their reach online.

A recent survey underlines the trend. Global streamed entertainment revenues will more than double from US$53 billion in 2017 to reach US$129 billion in 2023, according to Digital TV Research.

With predictions that 80 percent of mobile traffic will be video in two years, and Strategy Analytics reporting that worldwide revenue from mobile video will reach $25 billion by 2021, it’s also clear that mobile is shaping the video delivery landscape.

Change is constant across the television industry. OTT services are a requirement, cloud technology is transforming the way video content is produced and delivered, the migration to all-IP is well underway, previously dedicated production and playout silos are being offered as a service and incoming 5G networks will impact the entire video ecosystem.

At IBC, we had in-depth conversations with customers who need to adapt to this evolving media landscape. But change doesn’t happen overnight. The expectation for high quality audio and video doesn’t go away when content is streamed from the internet rather than delivered by a cable set top box or played from a Blu-ray player.

Ensuring the availability and quality of both live and file-based content is a critical challenge for video content owners and distributors moving to adaptive bit rate (ABR) and over-the-top (OTT) delivery models.

As an experienced video delivery partner, we know this and that’s why we provided a solution, launched at IBC, for just this type of workflow. StreamProbe is a software-based high-density IPTV and OTT monitoring solution for content providers, network operators and service providers.

In a modern broadcast and broadband video delivery environment, transport streams originate from a variety of sources and need to be monitored in real-time to ensure the overall service quality and reduce viewers churn rate. That’s why StreamProbe can be deployed throughout the digital video delivery media chain; from contribution and encoding, head end processing, to final delivery and end user point of view reception.

With the integration of StreamProbe into the digital media transport chain platform, we are ensuring that our customers — leading media and entertainment content creators and distributors including Canal+, Globecast and France Médias Monde — can provide their customers and viewers with the ultimate home entertainment experience.

Quality of Service (QoS) plus Quality of Experience (QoE) married to the highest quality content equals the highest quality entertainment and will go a long way to turning churn-minded viewers into loyal subscribers and engaged consumers.

As we look toward 2019, the expectation on media companies to deliver the highest quality entertainment on all their devices has never been higher.

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