This review will highlight Media Excel's HERO 6000 and walk readers through the process of configuring streaming using the HERO platform. You'll learn how to deliver live streams, create encoding presets, add audio presets, create channels, and add outputs for playback. The article will also cover how to add roles and play streams.
15 Dec 2025
Identifying which phones can handle AV1 decode is the goal of Meta's new VCAT testing tool, for Video Codec Acid Test, which is both the brainchild and the swan song of encoding legend David Ronca. In short, VCAT is an Android app for benchmarking battery drain and system health during HW/SW video decode operations on Android devices.
11 Jul 2025
This article examines recent data on efficiency and power usage for hardware and software decoding and explores how this data shapes the value proposition for publishers opting for software decoding and viewers that wittingly, or unwittingly, watch services that deploy it. It concludes with two short surveys for publishers and consumers that ask for your perspective on and experience with software decoding. Be sure to take the surveys!
29 May 2025
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.
28 May 2025
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.
08 May 2025
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.
28 Mar 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.
28 Mar 2025
Media Over QUIC aspires to streamline the entire streaming process by bringing both contribution and distribution into a single protocol again, reducing the need for intermediary transformations. Since MoQ is still in the early stages of development, it will take some time to see it deliver on this promise.
05 Dec 2024
In this exclusive interview, Streaming Media's Jan Ozer speaks with Ville-Veikko Mattila, Head of Multimedia Technologies at Nokia, about Nokia's collaboration with Ericsson and Fraunhofer Institute on a new codec development and its implications for the next decade of video compression.
31 Oct 2025
Candidates for H.267 already significantly outperform VVC as the hunt for a new video compression standard gets underway
17 Oct 2025
As video producers, we all agree on one thing: we want to serve content in whatever format the viewer prefers. Until now, for live streaming in landscape or portrait, it's been a one-or-the-other proposition. That's changing. At TwitchCon Europe, amid the usual fanfare and cosplay, Twitch quietly announced a feature that could reshape the future of live streaming: dual-layout live streaming.
16 Jun 2025
In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Narayanan "Raj" Rajan, CEO of Media Excel, reflects on his first year at the helm of one of the most established names in the encoding industry. Rajan discusses how Media Excel is reasserting its relevance with the Hero platform—an encoder/transcoder/packager suite—and why live streaming, low latency, and AI-optimized encoding remain at the heart of the company's strategy.
15 Apr 2025
A mobile device with the right software is now a tool that can replace some of the traditional live production equipment such as low- and mid-tier cameras and encoders. This reduces both upfront capital expenses, like equipment purchases, and operational costs for live content creators.
26 Mar 2025
With such a broad range of streaming content at our fingertips, delivering a standout stream requires attention to quality, latency, and so much more. AJA director of product management Paul Turner reveals the secrets to using AJA's HELO Plus H.264 streamer/recorder to deliver live streams and recordings that impress and engage.
26 Aug 2024
OBSBOT's flagship Tail Air AI-powered PTZ streaming camera delivers 4K video at 30 frames per second or 1080p HD at 60 fps with crystal-clear visual quality. Its large 2-micron pixel size, 1/1.8" CMOS sensor and advanced camera components enable higher quality, brighter frames and finer details with less video noise even in challenging, dimly lit environments.
05 Apr 2024
Dipping your toe into custom live media workflows is an extremely complex task, and Norsk is all about that--now more than ever, with the impending launch of the no-code Norsk Studio.
29 Feb 2024
While innovation is good at the outset of a transformation (such as analog to digital video), it can become counterproductive to building sustainable businesses. Continuous innovation means taking away resources from making existing technologies more scalable, resilient, and reliable—three traits that are critical to the success of something like a streaming platform.
19 May 2025
There's a lot more imperfect gear on the market than ever before—gear we can't count on from gig to gig. Gear that can't deliver reliable video. Features that work and then don't. Devices that connect and then don't. We've lost core reliability. Bulletproof needs to be a feature.
01 Aug 2023
The past 18 months have seen no shortage of mergers and acquisitions, and it has me wondering if all this consolidation will lead toward innovation. My gut says no, and plenty of industry pundits agree, but it could bring improvements to the customer experience.
02 Dec 2021
Looking for insights into exactly how YouTube encodes billions of videos? Jan Ozer went down the rabbit hole and shares what he discovered about AV1, VP9, and resolutions.
19 Nov 2021
The changes streaming producers have made in the last 18 months are going to come in handy for a future where hybrid events are the norm.
09 Sep 2021
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.
09 Jul 2021
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.
17 May 2021
The game has changed for new codecs entering the market.
09 Mar 2021
While VMAF has been a valuable tool for assessing video quality, its limitations highlight the need for complementary metrics or the development of new assessment methods. These new metrics should address VMAF's shortcomings, especially in the context of modern video encoding scenarios that incorporate AI and other advanced techniques. For the best outcomes, a combination of VMAF and other metrics, both full-reference and no-reference, might be necessary to achieve a comprehensive and accurate assessment of video quality in various applications.
05 Nov 2024
Viewer demand for high-quality 4K video content has skyrocketed, and there is an expectation that 8K video will also surge in the coming years. However, with increased resolution comes much larger file sizes, which is challenging for media providers because of the increased storage and processing power needed. Naturally, media companies are seeking ways to process video more efficiently. Frank Schönberger of MainConcept explores how content providers and video services leverage technological developments in video compression and AI to improve efficiency at every stage of the broadcast workflow, from the point of capture to delivery to the end user.
18 Jun 2024
John C. Simmons, Principal Engineer at John Simmons Consulting, LLC, discusses patent licensing for streaming, which is especially relevant now in light of the recent German court decision in the Broadcom v. Netflix case and Avanci's announced launch of a video streaming patent pool.
23 Oct 2023
Anupama Anantharaman of Interra Systems explores the crucial role that media content QC and monitoring plays in delivering live sports content to viewers and the significance of media content QC and monitoring as the final step in assuring high-quality streaming for live sports events.
06 Sep 2023
Jan Ozer will lead workshops, presentations, and panels covering advanced codecs, gear for remote productions, WebRTC, low latency, and reducing bandwidth and storage costs at Streaming Media East in Boston May 23-25.
05 May 2022
H.264 still leads the pack, says JW Player's CTO Dave LaPalomento, but for more sophisticated publishers, VP9 offers benefits including bandwidth savings.
21 Oct 2021
Demos and conversations at Streaming Media East showed that HEVC is an excellent technology, and there's real anger around its disfunctional royalty policies.
22 May 2019
Advances in video codec technology driven by the explosion in video over IP are creating heated competition and a fragmented market. Will one winner emerge or is this the new normal?
04 Apr 2019