Back to School with New Video Teaching Skills

Educators learned a lot about video learning over the last 18 months. With most schools reopening this fall, how do you integrate those new skills and techniques into the physical classroom?

Defend Your Video Encoding Choices with Data

If you're charged with configuring your encoding ladder, there are a few datapoints you should have nailed. The most important is the VMAF score of the top rung of your encoding ladder.

OTT Ad Tech's Biggest Challenges (and a Few Solutions)

OTT advertising technology is at a crossroads, as brands work to build relationships with consumers without alienating them. Here's a look at some of biggest questions facing the ad tech industry, along with some possible answers.

Ditch the Niche: It's Time to Come Up With a New Term

Calling some OTT services "niche" is an insult to not only the content they deliver but the audiences they serve. Isn't ESPN a "niche" service, too?

Reaching the Global Classroom

China provides a particularly interesting global classroom case study, due to both its huge population size and the difficulty of operating in its networks.

The Road to Wellville

The familiar flow of event work was upended when COVID-19 restrictions brought in-person production to a screeching halt and virtually everything went virtual. Mutually recognized production standards were among the first things to go. 

When to Ditch the Webcam

I produce most of my live training with a webcam because the quality delta between a webcam and other options is negligible when presented in postage-stamp-sized videos. But what setup should you use for a really important conference or a call that will be distributed to many viewers live or on demand? That's where things get interesting.

In Search of Better Encoding Quality for WebRTC

Suffice it to say that Web­RTC is finally out of kindergarten and moving into the elementary grades. Which grade exactly? Well, that likely depends on which web browser you're using and which server technology or platform your Web­RTC implementation uses.

New Rules of Codec Development

The game has changed for new codecs entering the market.

Live Production During COVID and Beyond

Lessons learned during the pandemic can provide guidance for how live producers can continue to not just survive but thrive.

From Zoom Fatigue to Serendipity

It's March. Again. And we're still all on Zoom. It's been a lifeline, but it'll never replace in-person meetings and conferences.

Educational Video and Protecting Student Rights

Both student privacy and accessibility need to be considered by any school, college, or university that's using video for education.

The Evolution of the Movie Theater is at Hand

With OTT services like HBO Max streaming first-run movies on release day, movie theaters need to think beyond comfy chairs and draft beer to keep selling tickets.

A Look Back at Streaming Video's 2020

From the rise of Zoom to the fall of MPEG, 2020 has been a year of surprises.

The Digital Divide and COVID-19

One of the few upsides of the pandemic is that many schools whose students were on the wrong side of the digital divide now have access to high-speed internet

When It Comes to Being on Camera, Don't Be "That Person"

There's no longer any excuse for poor-quality audio or bad video on your Zoom meetings or webinars. By following just a few simple tips and spending less than $200, you can look like a pro.

As Streaming Grows, the CDN Must Evolve

Streaming is still only a fraction of total video watched, even post-COVID lockdown. What happens when it's the de facto method for delivering video content? Will the existing CDN approaches be enough to handle the next phase of streaming growth?

Rasing the Bar for Educational Video

It's time to "level up" your video instruction strategies. Here are a few concepts to rally around to help you do so.

Is the Pandemic the Death Knell for the Multiplex?

In a world dominated by streaming, cinemas still offer the optimal viewing experience for movies. OTT will never replace that.

It's Time to Retire PSNR

Peak signal-to-noise ratio is poor predictor of subjective video quality. So why are PSNR comparisons used in almost all codec comparisons?