Video: Using CMAF to Cut Costs, Simplify Workflows & Reduce Latency

There are two ways to stream video online, either pushing from the server to the device like WebRTC, MPEG transport streams and similar technologies, or allowing the receiving device to request chunks of the stream which is how the majority of internet streaming is done – using HLS and similar formats.

Chunk-based streaming is generally seen as more scalable of these two methods but suffers extra latency due to buffering several chunks each of which can represent between 1 and, typically, 10 seconds of video.

CMAF is one technology here to change that by allowing players to buffer less video. How does this achieve this? An, perhaps more important, can it really cut costs? Iraj Sodagar from NexTreams is here to explain how in this talk from Streaming Media West, 2018.

Iraj covers:

  • A brief history of CMAF (Common Media Format)
  • The core technologies (ISO BMFF, Codecs, captions etc.)
  • Media Data Object (Chunks, Fragments, Segments)
  • Different ways of video delivery
  • Switching Sets (for ABR)
  • Content Protection
  • CTA WAVE project
  • Wave content specifications
  • Live Linear Content with Wave & CMAF
  • Low-latency CMAF usage
  • HTTP 1.1 Chunked Transfer Encoding
  • MPEG DASH

Watch now!

Speaker

Iraj Sodagar Iraj Sodagar
Independant Consultant
Multimedia System Architect, NexTreams

Video: P4 Tutorial

P4 is a powerful programming language which runs on network switches themselves allowing realtime manipulation of the data traffic. In broadcast, this can be used to alter SMPTE 2110 video in real time as demonstrated by Thomas Edwards at the EBU Network Technology Seminar year and that can be seen in this short video. “This shows how even on an ethernet switch now, we can program it to make these switching decisions based on any header [including] the application layer of the broadcast data”

This video explains what P4 is and how it works taking us all the way from the core principles to ways of programming it and harnessing its power. Watching the beginning of the video is sufficient for most in order to get a feel for P4 and how it could be (and is) applied to broadcast.

The speakers, from Cisco and Barefoot Networks (who work with Thomas Edwards from Fox), cove these topics:

  • What is the Data plane
  • Software Defined Networking (SDN) & Openflow
  • Benefits of programming your own dataplane
  • Typical Applications of P4
  • Novel Applications
  • Basics of the P4 language
  • P4 Software tools

Watch now!

Speakers

Antonin Bas Antonin Bas
Software Engineer,
Barefoot Networks
Andy Fingerhut Andy Fingerhut
Principal Engineer,
Cisco Systems

Video: AMWA NMOS State of Play

With all the talk of the SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite, it’s sometimes forgotten that it only deals with content. If you want a working system, you’ll need to do a few more things – find new devices on the network, work out what they can do, control them, guarantee the bandwidth and often deal with metadata that arrives separately like tallies.

This is what the AMWA NMOS specifications do. Peter Brightwell and Thomas Edwards have been heavily involved in creating them and in this video lead us through what each one does and how they are used.

Watch now!

Speakers

Peter Brightwell Peter Brightwell
Lead Engineer,
BBC R&D
Thomas Edwards Thomas Edwards
VP Engineering & Development
Fox NEO

Video: The state of advanced codecs; separating hype from reality

There are a lot of codecs both new and old that are in use or vying to be the next big thing. Tom Vaughan helps us see what they really can achieve and where each one is useful.

Recorded at San Francisco Video Tech Meetup in September, this video starts with a look at a the ‘hype cycle’. Tom places each codec, from MPEG 2 to VVC on the curve before looking at what the barriers to adoption are.

Tom then looks at HEVC discussing which devices can receive it, which can create it, the streaming services which support it and where adoption is likely to be. Finally, HEVC discussion is complete without a look at the HEVC patent landscape Venn diagram.

The focus then shifts to the Alliance for Open Media and their AV1 codec, its patent status and technical progress to date. He then discusses the performance of AV1, HEVC and Beamr against each other.

Almost brand new out of the starting blocks is VVC from MPEG and the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF). Tom explains the aims of the forum and the VVC codec they are creating before taking questions from the floor.

Watch now!

Speaker

Tom Vaughan Tom Vaughan
VP Strategy,
Beamr