Software Decoding and the Future of Mobile Video

If you'll be encoding with SVT-AV1 or VVC, in this article you'll learn a bit about how to optimize your encodes, particularly the trade-offs that pre­sets deliver, and how many logical processors to use. With SVT-AV1, I also explore the qual­ity and playback efficiency of the fast decode option, although I didn't find much to show for it. You can also peruse the FFmpeg command strings used for all encodes.

REMI Production with LiveU LU800-PRO4 and LiveU Studio

This article will highlight the features of LiveU's LU800-PRO mobile unit and how it can be used for REMI lightweight production, webcasting, online interviews, and multi-camera streaming productions. You'll learn how to get up and running with the LU800-PRO and how to use it for production with LiveU Studio 2.0. You'll also learn how to create channels, add media and live-streaming inputs, and configure multicam streams.

The 2025 Streaming Media All-Stars

After a 12-year hiatus, Streaming Media is bringing back the Streaming Media All-Stars for 2025 to pay tribute to a select group of key technology innovators who are driving and disrupting the streaming industry.

Buyers' Guide: Hardware Transcoders

Although software transcoding is accept­able for transcoding most VOD streams and even low-volume live programming, most high-volume live applications need hardware for efficient transcoding, both to save you money and to save the planet. This buyers' guide will cover: What hardware transcoders are, what you need to bring to the table to identify the best hardware transcoder, factors to consider when choosing one, choosing a hardware transcoder for cloud workflows, and choosing a hardware transcoder for on-prem workflows.

The State of the Video Codec Market 2025

HEVC rode the 4K/HDR wave to success, but AV1, VVC, and LCEVC lack an equivalent killer app. With CDNs racing to the bottom on pricing and new royalty pools threatening to increase costs, codec adoption is no longer just about technical merit—it's about survival. These are the issues I'll explore in this article.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Mergers and Acquisitions of 2024

The 2024 edition of Streamticker, recapping the streaming industry's most momentous mergers and acquisitions of 2023, kicked off with Disney's gobbling up the last extant portions of Hulu, as Comcast ceded its re­maining 33% stake. But if the late-2023 deal marked only the quiet conclusion of an already-silent part­nership, the much noisier news of Jan. 6, 2025, found Disney absorbing sports-centric streamer Fubo and merging it with Hulu Live + TV. Here we'll review this and other done (or more nearly done) M&A deals that reshuffled the stream­ing industry in 2024.

Buyers' Guide: Third-Party Commercial Streaming Codecs

For some streamers, open-source solutions meet all their needs. For others, commercial codecs deliver efficiency and optimizations that justify the cost. This article explores the factors that influence those decisions.

Review: Osprey Video TALON 4K60 Encoder

This review will showcase Osprey Video's TALON 4K60 encoder and explore its capabilities for ingesting live streams over RTMP and SRT. Readers will learn how to get up and running with the encoder and gain a better understanding of how to use the device. This article will also touch on some of the streaming options available as well as the different options available on the encoder. In addition, I'll share results of latency testing for RTMP ingest. 

Review: Magewell Director Mini 3.0

All-in-One (AIO) live production devices leverage the latest mobile CPU and GPU power and integrated capability, with real hardware connections for multiple HDMI ports, ethernet, headphones, audio input, and more—all from one manufacturer so there's just one update cycle to track. Magewell recently came out with the 3.0 update to their Director Mini AIO production tablet (Figure 1), and they are pushing the envelope with what these little powerhouses can do.

The 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! We've counted all of the votes in the 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, and—drumroll, please—it is now my pleasure and sworn duty to present winners and runners-up in each of our 17 categories.

Review: DVEO Brutus V

This review will highlight Brutus V, DVEO's IP-to-IP multichannel AV1, H.264, and H.265 transcoder for IPTV or OTT. I will touch on Brutus V's options for delivering streams over H.264 and cover streaming delivery over various streaming protocols such as HLS, LL-HLS, Smooth Streaming, and MPEG-DASH. I will also dive into transcoding using H.264 and HEVC.

The Generative AI Industrial Revolution

Generative AI may prove even more divisive to society than the Indus­trial Revolution. There are many questions well worth examining re­garding gen AI's impact on the streaming in­dustry, the media and entertainment world, and more. In this article, I'm going to focus on a few streaming use cases in the hope of pro­viding a broader perspective on the changes happening in our world now and those we can expect going forward.

Presenting the 2024 Streaming Media 100

Here we reveal the 2024 Streaming Media 100, our list of the top 100 companies in the streaming universe outside of Europe. This list complements the Streaming Media Europe 51, which recognizes Europe's key streaming innovators, exemplars, and disruptors.

AI and Streaming Media

This article explores the current state of AI in the streaming encoding, delivery, playback, and monetization ecosystems. By understanding the developments and considering key questions when evaluating AI-powered solutions, streaming professionals can make informed decisions about incorporating AI into their video processing pipelines and prepare for the future of AI-driven video technologies.

Review: AirenSoft OvenMediaEngine

This review will highlight OvenMedia­Engine, the open source streaming ser­ver from AirenSoft, and explore its fea­tures for providing sub-­second latency for live streaming. The article will also touch on OvenMediaEngine's options for LL-­HLS and WebRTC. Finally, we'll dive into testing SRT and RTMP ingest options.

Tutorial: Quick Export with Adobe Premiere Pro

In this quick overview of Adobe Premiere Pro's Quick Export feature, Stjepan Alaupovic of Clear Online Video explains how producers can improve postproduction efficiency for quickturn projects by exporting a video in just a few clicks.

Decoding the Landscape: Recent Developments in Video Codec Licensing

Navigating the ever-changing world of video codec licensing can be complex. This article breaks down major IP-related events from the past 18 months, including the new European SEP licensing rules, Avanci's new video patent pool, and the Sisvel-RPX deal. Explore who's making deals, what technologies are involved, and the implications for royalty-free models

Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2024

A detailed guide to Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2024.

Tutorial: Capturing Video over USB 3.0 with AJA U-TAP 3G-SDI and HDMI Devices

This tutorial explains how to capture a full HD signal up to 1920x1080 60fps with the AJA U-TAP series of devices and highlights ingest into OBS for macOS and Zoom for Windows

How to Deploy GPAC for FFmpeg Packaging and ABR Distribution

As much as we love FFmpeg for transcoding op­erations, it can get frustrating when packag­ing your content for ABR delivery. By packag­ing, I mean formatting and segmenting your media files, creating manifest files for HLS and DASH, for­matting for CMAF, and managing multiple audio and subtitle streams. Fortunately, there are easier-to-use solutions that are equally open source and equal­ly free. In this article, I'll focus on GPAC, which is a great packaging alternative.