Location, Location, Location: Cloud vs. On-Prem vs. Hybrid Streaming Workflows

Everything streaming is moving to the cloud, right? Not so fast. Where you keep your content and do your work depends on your own particular circumstances. And on-prem is by no means dead.

Streamticker 2022: The Biggest Streaming Mergers and Acquisitions from Last Year

2021 was a heck of a year for streaming industry mergers and acquisitions, and there's no sign of them slowing down. Here are the deals that set the stage for 2022.

Testing EVC, VVC, and LCEVC: How Do the Latest MPEG Codecs Stack Up?

Jan Ozer put EVC, VVC, and LCEVC through the paces, checking each for not only encoding quality, encoding complexity, and playback efficiency but also power consumption. Each one has its pros and cons; read on to find out how they all performed.

Buyers' Guide: Per-Title Encoding

In per-title encoding, an encoding service creates a unique encoding ladder for each video file. While available for live streaming, per-title encoding is most often utilized with video on demand.

ATSC 3.0: NextGen TV Has Finally Arrived

Bringing together the best of OTT and the best of OTA, ATSC 3.0 is finally available out in the wild. Here's why you should care.

The Building Blocks of the Metaverse

The most important aspects of the entire metaverse project are the interchange standards and the tools, protocols, formats, and services that enable persistent and ubiquitous virtual simulations. Without them, there will be no metaverse.

Moscow State's Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin Talks Codecs and Quality

The head of the Moscow State University Graphics and Media Lab—the people behind VQMT and Subjectify.us—offers his insights into objective and subjective metrics, as well as VMAF hacking and AV1.

The Complete Guide to Closed Captions

Closed captioning is legally required for some video, but it's the right thing to do for all video. Beyond the ethical and accessibility considerations, it engages more viewers and makes smart business sense. Here's all you need to know about captioning today.

The 2021 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Award Winners

New entrants join old standbys in our annual survey of readers' preferred technical solutions

Religious Organizations Take Streaming to the Next Level

Streaming video is helping houses of worship maintain and grow communities of believers in uncertain times. Here's how Jewish Broadcasting Service, Southeast Christian Church in Kentucky, St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and Preaching Christ Church in Tennessee are doing it.

The Streaming Media 50: The Most Important Companies in Online Video Tech

Our annual Streaming Media 50 rounds up the most important, most interesting, and most innovative solutions providers in online video. You'll find names both familiar and unfamiliar here, as newer entrants join market veterans. So who made the list? Read on ...

The 2021 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards Finalists

Nearly 2,000 readers voted in 22 categories. We'll announce the winners later this month, but here's a tease—the top three vote-getters in each category. And you just might be surprised at the names you see.

Beyond Software: Hardware Processing for Streaming at Scale

Whether you use the cloud or a hybrid solution to encode your live or on-demand streaming content, high-efficiency hardware-based encoding has come of age. This article explores the math and science behind these at-scale solutions that are not only good for business, but also good for the environment.

Why Should Broadcasters Make the Switch to the Cloud?

Broadcasting has been behind streaming in its embrace of the cloud, but the rewards of making the switch can be significant. We talk to executives from American Public Television, WarnerMedia, Paramount+, and Streaming Global to get their take on why you should make the change if you haven't already.

The Algorithm Series: QUIC Ways to Stream

Will 2022 be the year UDP finally shows its streaming mettle? The Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC) protocol might make the difference. First, though, OTT platforms need to make technical decisions about HTTP/3 that could further fragment the market.

The Streaming Toolbox: GrayMeta Iris Anywhere, Vimond VIA Live, and StreamClick

The latest installment of the Streaming Toolbox looks at a remote production tool for creating interactive content, a scheduling tool for delivering live and live linear programming, and a collaborative quality-control (QC) tool for source file analysis.

Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards Nomination Deadline Extended Until August 20

We've got two new categories this year—Best Streaming Innovation and Best New Streaming Company—along with 23 other categories from analytics to webcasting and everything in between. We've extended the nomination deadline to August 20, so don't delay.

The Past, Present, and Future of Per-Title Encoding

Video encoding began as a one-dimensional data rate adjustment that reflected the simple reality that all videos encode differently is now a complex analysis that incorporates frame rate, resolution, color gamut, and dynamic ranges, as well as delivery network and device-related data, along with video quality metrics.

Multi-CDN is Firmly Established; Edge Compute Has Yet to Take Hold

The findings of the Content Delivery and Edge Compute Trends survey, in partnership with StackPath, reveal an industry in transition.

Review: Moscow State University Video Quality Measurement Tool

If you're serious about experimenting with different codecs and/or encoding parameters, MSU's Video Quality Measurement Tool is an essential tool, and version 13 brings some welcome improvements.