How Does Cloud Help In OTT Streaming?

Due to the pandemic enforced lockdown, OTT video consumption numbers have risen exponentially. As out-of-home means of entertainment have dried up, the demand for video and audio streaming has swelled. Mindshare India and Vidooly have reported a steep increase in content consumption. The time spent by the average user is over 4 hours per day as compared to a previous ~1.5 hours on social media platforms. The ‘Education’ category has reported a 120% spike in the number of uploads post lockdown.

How has consumer behavior affected the OTT space and how is cloud helping? Vinit Mehta, Country Manager – India, Brightcove shares his bit.

How the pandemic has affected and changed the streaming behaviours of consumers, especially in the Indian market?

With mandatory stay-at-home orders still in force in India, this definitely has viewers seeking to fill their time with an increase in media consumption, especially streaming TV shows, movies, news, online gaming and many more media-related consumption.  With streaming audiences surging, so too will the demand for content as soon as the library of desired content runs out.

With a lot of the production studios and production of content on pause during this time, the central question is often: do the streaming providers have enough content to weather out the pause in production. And with viewers doubling, or tripling their streaming hours watching content, how long before they have depleted the content they want to watch. Will this then force a new business continuity reality for streaming providers to have enough content in the library to outlast 3 months of surge in streaming.

Regardless of what type of content we are consuming, the fact is that every generation is likely to be relying on media content during this pandemic to inform and distract more than ever before, creating a huge opportunity for media companies to engage a captive audience.

How video is pushing e-learning platforms to the next level of digital transformation?

The consumers’ hunger for video content combined with high-speed internet access has seen many e-learning organisations launch online learning offerings. Video has truly modernised the way online learning organisation and even how schools can deliver their educational programs.

With the pandemic forcing a large segment of the population under lockdown at home, this is forcing traditional educational institutions to implement some kind of an education continuity plan or a new reality that needs to include an element of a home or remote learning option. As the educational segment recovers and returns to the new normal, it is essential that their future digital transformation strategy includes a business continuity plan, which includes the best channels and the most engaging formats to deliver their education without being impacted severely by future disruptions.

What kind of tech (AI, ML, DL) does your firm bank on?

Brightcove’s Context-Aware Encoding is a video compression technology that lowers the total cost of ownership and improves video quality. Context-Aware Encoding uses machine learning and deep video analysis to achieve optimum quality for each video with the fewest bits necessary. This patent-pending approach to transcoding enables Brightcove customers to maximize visual quality while reducing storage and delivery bandwidth requirements by up to 50 percent.  Unlike other encoding solutions, CAE takes into account the broader context of the video experience creating a custom encoding profile tailored to the combination of each individual video’s content complexity and predicted viewing environment. The result: a higher quality video that starts up faster and buffers less.

Using powerful algorithms, CAE analyses each video individually and generates the optimal bitrate ladder. This process yields fewer and smaller renditions, which, in turn, means lower storage and delivery costs. For content owners managing hundreds of videos and millions of streams, CAE delivers compelling cost savings on both storage and bandwidth.

How are you dealing with cyber threats? Or what kind of security protocols do you have in place for a secure video streaming?

Brightcove has a powerful and secure toolkit to engage, manage and lead teams using the persuasive power of live video and video-on-demand. Be it video communications, from live events for customers to on-demand training for remote employees anywhere in the world, we have a comprehensive and secure suite of tools backed by market-leading uptime.

From video upload to delivery, Brightcove protects our customer video content throughout its lifecycle with its secure online video platform. We have implemented strong user access control measures for our customers.

Security-conscious organizations rely on Brightcove because security is our number one priority when it comes to customer data. Brightcove offers rigorous security features like IP restriction, URL tokenisation, single sign-on, AES encryption, and more.