The Lure of New Gear
12 Jun 2024
As the march of new tech accelerates, it begs the question: Do we wait a bit to see what new gear can offer, or do we go with what's available now, even if might seem a bit older
Data, Personalization, and Practical Magic
12 Jun 2024
Discussions of data acquisition, application, and monetization that would have seemed like the most mind-blowing magic to denizens of other eras proved ever-present at Streaming Media NYC, the reimagined and rebooted Streaming Media event that made its raucously well-received return to Manhattan in May.
Radically Reforming Public Education--and How Video Can Help
31 May 2024
By the time students finish their sophomore year of high school, they should know how much they have yet to learn about financial literacy and maybe even have a good idea of what they want to do in life. This is where streaming media comes in: Online video and books can provide for rich, specialized independent study to any community with motivated students.
Why You Should Embrace Sustainability (But Not For The Reason You May Think)
03 May 2024
To really make an impact, we have to put sustainability within a context we can understand. It's hard, whether as individuals or businesses, sometimes to grasp the very huge concept of climate change and then commit to "sustainability efforts" as a way to have an impact. But when there is context, sustainability efforts can be achieved without actually trying to focus on them in particular. Within the streaming industry, that context is power.
Post-Peak Performance in the M&E Universe
04 Apr 2024
The recent Subscription Wars report commissioned by U.K.-based digital payments tech company Bango points to consumer dissatisfaction with the fractured state of subscription services in general and the increasing appeal of indirect subscription options and super-bundles of aggregated services sold through telcos like Optus in Australia. Perhaps it's another sign of less-than-inspiring times that the best thing consumers say streaming services can do for them is to stop standing out from the crowd and start disappearing into it.
All-in-One Streaming Tools Let You Do It All—But Should You?
26 Jan 2024
Today, we are seeing a similar conglomeration of features and abilities in today's production hardware, enabling one person to "do it all!" This begs the question: Should you do it all?
Live Sports Streaming and the Edison Tone Test
26 Jan 2024
There can be little doubt that live sports streaming has a lucrative and dazzling future. But first, it needs to get past the Tone Test stage.
Effective K–12 Video Strategies
26 Jan 2024
The revolutionary change over the past 10 years has made production technologies accessible to teachers and even students. And 4 years ago, of course, almost everyone was forced to rely on educational video to keep schools asfunctional as possible. Today, we can identify several use cases of teacher-produced educational video that are particularly effective.
Should We Trust Nielsen Math?
23 Jan 2024
After reviewing Nielsen/Gracenote's 2023 State of Play report, Data-Driven Personalization: The Future of Streaming Content Discovery, I found the numbers they cited to be very much on the creative side. I don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I think about their research.
Is 2024 the Year of WebRTC?
19 Jan 2024
With large sports-streaming operators, WebRTC provides a real opportunity for ultra-low-latency streaming. But those same operators, which spend billions on licensing rights, can't afford to just swap the ability to stream content in real time for basic OTT functionality like SSAI and DRM.
For Live Streaming Producers, Tables of Gear Are Still a Good Idea
16 Jan 2024
While the All-In-One live production and streaming tools grow and mature, let's make sure we keep backup solutions in mind to ensure a successful production—even if it still means a table full of gear.
Dances with Wolves
01 Dec 2023
Most of those following the Hollywood strikes of 2023 found reason to cheer on Nov. 8 when SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reached a tentative agreement that reportedly resolved the AI-related disputes that largely motivated the strike (alongside the impasse over streaming residuals). But that resolution came with a significant compromise.
WCAG 2.2, Web Content Accessibility Standards, and You
17 Nov 2023
Instead of a patchwork of accessibility standards for California, Illinois, Europe, and everywhere else, the current standard is set by a broad cross-section of experts from the industry and published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
The State of CTV Advertising
10 Nov 2023
Ad buying is changing. For example, now you can buy from an agency that has deep knowledge of data around local viewing, or you can go to a TV manufacturer that has deep knowledge of all of the viewing on its hardware.
With Social Video Sizing, Serve Your Viewers What They’re Hungry For
24 Oct 2023
The customer wanting to watch your stream on Insta does not want a horizontal video shoehorned into a vertical frame. The customer watching the horizontal version doesn't want the vertical slice with the same thing blurred out behind it to fill the frame. Each of those customers is hungry for that particular experience. It's your job to give your customers what they are hungry for.
8 Lessons Surfing Can Teach Live Streaming Producers
06 Oct 2023
I had the opportunity to try and learn to surf earlier this year. I'm very glad that I took the lessons because I soon found out how hard surfing really is. While trying, failing, getting hurt, watching, and learning, I saw some parallels between my lessons on the water and the streaming business—which isn't quite as easy as it looks either.
Everything in Streaming Has Its Price
04 Oct 2023
This column isn't meant to be a downer, especially because the overall economy seems to be plugging along. But it is meant to ask those of you in the industry to share anecdotes and stories about the pain points you're facing. We know that everything in streaming has its price, but you are in a better position to help us fully understand what that price entails.
Personalization Is More Than What You Think It Can Be
04 Oct 2023
With advances with generative AI, just-intime transcoding, SSAI stitching, and other streaming video tech stack components, companies like Infuse Video are demonstrating that the true vision of video personalization—changing the video content itself—is finally at hand.
The Argument for Addressable Advertising
04 Oct 2023
For this column, I spoke with Larry Allen, VP and general manager of data and addressable enablement at Comcast Advertising, about a question that lands firmly on the deterministic side: "What is addressable advertising?" The term "addressable" refers to targeting digital and broadcast inventory and being able to buy audience segments on a household level.
Backward Design for Educational Video Production
04 Oct 2023
Software developers are trained in accessibility issues for front-end development and basic concepts like labeling control elements and reporting state changes to assistive technology—screen-readers—are part of a professional developer's code testing procedures. Despite this progress, two very different forces are swirling with the potential to push back on the trend towards better technological inclusion of the disabled.