Like many sectors, the TV industry is not how it once was. At Edgeware, we’ve had to adapt quickly to the challenges of the pandemic, remote working and the uncertainty that’s hit all aspects of the market.
Our customers – telcos, cable operators, broadcasters and content providers – have also had no choice but to respond to these changes. But doing so comes with potential risk, which has emphasised the importance of remaining in constant dialogue with our customers and partners. Providing support in a business environment hit by hesitancy and disruption is essential, even when conducted remotely.
Next-generation online TV
While it’s important for all providers of online TV to emerge from the pandemic stronger, it’s just as important to deliver high-quality content during it.
The interest in fine-tuning networks and making sure services are performing optimally has certainly grown. As more audiences picked up the remote or opened their streaming apps to escape the everyday mundane, the pressure mounted on TV providers to fill their services with compelling yet relevant content, while ensuring quality of experience (QoE). While this isn’t exactly a new challenge, TV providers were suddenly faced with a surge in internet traffic, CDN usage and network pressures when delivering content.
This became particularly apparent when live sports came back on our screens after a hiatus – making the fight for internet capacity even more intense. With live sports being one of the key drivers for TV streaming, we and our customers have inevitably been affected.
During the time of the pandemic, we launched our content processing platform StreamBuilder in June to give customers access to advanced technology – including OTT segmentation, packaging and subtitling, and channel creation capabilities – to create next-generation online TV. StreamBuilder empowers users to build online TV channels that enable future growth by adding relevance to its customers and advertisers, and increasing reach.
We also deployed our brand-new cloud-based elastic CDN solution in a customer’s large-scale commercial trial that will deliver ABR content to thousands of OTT service subscribers. The solution’s innovative functionalities will enable CDN owners to quickly spin up and down streaming resources when needed. With TV viewing rocketing, causing streaming traffic to fluctuate, this elasticity is hugely desired by our customers.
In addition, our multi-CDN delivery control platform StreamPilot has now been deployed by Norway’s leading commercial streaming service, TV 2 Sumo. As more providers of streaming TV services turn to a multi-CDN solution for their content distribution, the ability to monitor and control the delivery from different CDNs in a unified manner becomes increasingly important to ensure the delivery is optimized for the best possible QoE.
Beyond customer successes
Like the rest of the industry, our team has been working remotely. Despite not being together physically, it has proven to be a positive experience and one that’s likely to be a bigger part of our working life going forward.
And of course, we weren’t able to meet our customers and friends at NAB Show and IBC this year, but that didn’t put our show plans on hold. Alongside virtual product demos, we’re encapsulating the online TV trends and topics that would have no doubt shaped our discussions at the shows in our new free quarterly eMagazine, Beyond Broadcast – from multi-CDN delivery to tailor-made content.
We remain optimistic about the future of our industry. Those who operate within it are already geared to be agile and adaptable; it’s in our nature. This is something we can’t afford to lose.
