Video: The critical importance of user experience

Using the TV used to be very simple, but in recent years the different interfaces we have to viewing content and types of interface have proliferated. So how can we keep these interfaces simple and effective?

This panel from the IBC’s Content Everywhere Hub, hosted by Ian Nock, Chair of IET Media introduces the panel which looks at how to make video ‘just work’ and share their experiences.

Gerald Zankl, from Bitmovin makes the point that in this transitioning market, there is still space for linear news channels even in the midst of our video-on-demand-based market.
“It becomes a one-to-one conversation” agrees Renato Bonomini from ContentWise as he explains that there’s a lot of value in having a service you can turn on and rely on it to give you content you want through personalisation. “Search is the failure of recommendations”, Renato concludes.

Social media is another good example of why recommendation engines are important, explains Gerald. With so much information coming in, it’s not practical and would be boring to simply go through them arbitrarily. Similarly, video services with hundreds of thousands of assets also require a system to manage which content to surface.

Simone Leadlay from You.i TV points out “Customers willingness to pay for 250 services is zero.” meaning people find value in one or two services and are very willing to move to another app if their experience isn’t good enough.

The panel discusses the relevance of weekly episode releases in 2019 and then moves to bringing multiple companies together to form one service.

Bitmovin’s Gerald discusses giving feedback to the user if, for example, you can detect there are issues with the platform/local wifi etc. Giving them actionable feedback allows them to improve their experience, either directly or by pressuring their providers.

Simon, explains that the role of all of the companies on the panel is to fight against the challenges, fragmentation of the market (CDNs, codecs) for instance, so that no one notices they’ve done their job.

This panel concludes with a discussion on (actionable) analytics.

Watch now!

Speakers

Gerald Zankl Gerald Zankl
Global Head of Inside Sales,
Bitmovin
Renato Bonomini Renato Bonomini
VP Global PreSales,
ContentWise
Simon Leadlay Simon Leadlay
VP, Product Market Development
You.i TV
Ian Nock Ian Nock
Chair, IET Media
Chair, Ultra HD Forum

Video: Streaming Live Events: When it must be alright on the night

Live Streaming is an important part of not only online viewing, but increasingly of broadcast in general. It’s well documented that live programming is key to keeping linear broadcast’s tradition of ‘everyone watching at once’ which has been diluted – for both pros and cons – by non-linear viewing in recent years.

This panel, as part of IBC’s Content Everywhere, looks at the drivers behind live streaming, how it’s evolving and its future. Bringing together ultra-low-latency platform nanocosmos with managed service provider M2A Media and video player specialists Visual On, Editor of The Broadcast Knowledge, Russell Trafford-Jones starts the conversation asking what gamification is and how this plays in to live streaming.

nanocosmos’s Oliver Lietz explains how gamification is an increasing trend in terms of not only monetising existing content but is a genre in and of itself providing content which is either entirely a game or has a significant interactive element. With such services, it’s clear that latency needs to be almost zero so his company’s ability to deliver one-second latency is why he has experience in these projects.

We hear also from VisualOn’s Michael Jones who explains the low-latency service they were involved in delivering. Here, low-latency CMAF was used in conjunction with local synced-screen technology to ensure that not only was latency low, but second screen devices were not showing video any earlier/later than the main screen. The panel then discussed the importance of latency compared to synchronised viewing and where ultra-low latency was unnecessary.

Valentijn Siebrands from M2A talks about the ability to use live streaming and production in the cloud to deliver lower-cost sports events but also deliver new types of programming. Valentijn then takes us into the topic of analytics, underlining the importance of streaming analytics which reveal the health of your platform/infrastructure as much as the analytics which are most usually talked about; those which tell you the quality of experience your viewers are having and their activities on your app.

The talk concludes with a look to the future, talking about the key evolving technologies of the moment and how they will help us move forward between now and IBC’s Content Everywhere Hub in 2021.

Watch now!

Speakers

Oliver Lietz Oliver Lietz
CEO & Founder,
nanocosmos
Michael Jones Michael Jones
Former SVP and Head of Business Development,
VisualOn Inc
Valentijn Siebrands Valentijn Siebrands
Solutions Architect,
M2A Media
Russell Trafford-Jones Russell Trafford-Jones – Moderator
Manager, Support & Services – Techex
Executive Member – IET Media Technical Network