{"id":148535,"date":"2018-10-22T13:12:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T17:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/?p=148535"},"modified":"2018-10-22T13:20:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T17:20:29","slug":"svg-transport-2018-ott-pros-examine-ways-to-deliver-better-qos-and-latency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/2018\/10\/22\/svg-transport-2018-ott-pros-examine-ways-to-deliver-better-qos-and-latency\/","title":{"rendered":"SVG TranSPORT 2018: OTT Pros Examine Ways To Deliver Better QoS and Latency"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many OTT and streaming services, the goal is to provide an immersive and reliable experience for all consumers. The constant battle of finding the lowest possible level of latency has been at the forefront of the digital landscape. At 2018 SVG TranSPORT, Eric Bolten<\/strong>, VP, business development, Zixi; Geir Magnusson Jr.<\/strong>, CTO, fuboTV; Evan Statton<\/strong>, senior solutions architect, AWS Elemental; Andre Vawdrey<\/strong>, senior director, Playmaker Media, NBC Sports Digital Technology; and Ben Ziskind<\/strong>, director, live video products, Fox Networks Group, <\/strong>provided possible solutions to enhance QoS for customers by lowering latency.<\/p>\n

Channeling Quality of Service Across the Board
\n<\/strong>Unlike with latency, many experts in the digital space know what\u2019s needed to establish better interactivity with the content they create and their audience. \u201cWhen we think of quality of service, we think of quality of experience, or QoE,\u201d said Ziskind. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s about the user getting video with a broadcast-like experience or better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On The OTT Landscape panel at SVG TranSPORT, (from left) Zixi\u2019s Eric Bolten, fuboTV\u2019s Geir Magnusson Jr, AWS Elemental\u2019s Evan Statton, NBC Sports\u2019 Andre Vawdrey, and Fox Networks Group\u2019s Ben Ziskind discuss reducing latency.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to Statton, three critical objectives need to be accomplished in promoting the best possible QoS: high-quality video, a reliable connection, and the lowest level of latency.<\/p>\n

As live streaming becomes more complex to replicate a traditional linear broadcast, the issue of latency is heightened. For example, the use of statistics and multiple camera angles for mobile use can complicate and, ultimately, compromise the streaming quality. After producing content with as many as 21 camera angles, Vawdrey understands the importance of a stream being as close to real time as possible. \u201cSyncing all of those camera angles that may come from various sources is one reason we would introduce latency,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other complexity is metadata. All the different data overlays and syncing that to each other is difficult as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a large amount of moving parts, controlling the production network can be one of the hardest challenges in regard to improving QoS. \u201cWhile live and linear broadcast was always difficult, digital and live workflows are very complex,” Bolten said. “There are a lot of partners in the chain. That has a huge impact on the ultimate end-user experience, and just managing that process at scale is a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production elements aren\u2019t the only components that prevent the narrowing of the real-time gap. \u201cThe reality is that, once you get out of the original [creation source], you need to do some buffering to deal with the fact that networks are unreliable,\u201d Magnusson said. \u201cYou can potentially get as close to zero as possible, but I think physics is still going to get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another complication is the current popularity of legalized sports betting. As this new layer continues to progress, many see direct-to-consumer and on-the-go streaming as a vital home base of sports betting. In addition, Magnusson pointed out, social media engagement is hampered when streams are delayed: \u201cYou have the magic Twitter machine telling you that Ronaldo scored a goal 30 seconds before scoring a goal [in the stream].\u201d<\/p>\n

Also involved is the need to increase monetization while decreasing lag. Many companies are testing dynamic ad insertion to capitalize on OTT platforms, but are remaining cognizant of its effect on the overall product. \u201cWith the idea of dynamic ad insertion, a big component for us is balancing that latency with the desire to maximize monetization,\u201d Ziskind said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to deliver unique ad payload to every single user, which may involve multiple different people filling ads into that pot, that adds a lot of complexity, which can reduce the stability of the stream as well as significantly increase latency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Future of OTT<\/strong>
\nThe OTT business is booming, and the future of digital is bright. According to Ziskind, 17% of all viewing consumption of the Group Stage match between Germany and South Korea during the 2018 FIFA World Cup was through digital platforms and not traditional broadcasts. He noted, \u201cIt\u2019s a representation of what\u2019s going on with consumers\u2019 wanting to be able to consume sports content live, when, and wherever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for making significant strides in lowering latency, companies are combining efforts for the betterment of the industry. \u201cI think we\u2019re finally at the point where we\u2019re moving past not wanting to share with each other,\u201d Vawdrey said. \u201cWe all realize that the world\u2019s pretty small and we all work together. We all want the same thing, which is higher quality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many OTT and streaming services, the goal is to provide an immersive and reliable experience for all consumers. The constant battle of finding the lowest possible level of latency […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":148536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8899,9248,2155],"tags":[12472,5629,9899,11470,1488,6390,15561,6940],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148542,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148535\/revisions\/148542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}