Review: BirdDog X1 20X PTZ Cam

Anthony Burokas introduces streaming producers to a brand new BirdDog in the new X1 PTZ cam, which departs from past models with a new design featuring a Wi-Fi antenna, Halo Tally, AI Tracking, an industry-first e-ink display for confidence monitoring.

The State of Live Sports Streaming 2024

Live content is led by sports, and fan appetite—much like bidding for rights—shows no sign of slowing down as the calendar turns to 2024.

The State of Video Monetization 2024

What does the future of streaming monetization look like? This post-Peak TV media ecosystem is a brave new world, and being able to find the content you want, with the price you want to pay, will likely keep consumers on their toes for years to come.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Mergers & Acquisitions of 2023

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions in the streaming industry and M&E marketplace in 2023 and an accounting of the year's most consequential deals, it makes the most sense to open at the close: Disney's early-November announcement that it would fully subsume Hulu into its empire with a buyout that completed an acquisition initiated in pre-pandemic 2019.

The State of Video Codecs 2024

It's been 3-plus years since the MPEG codec explosion that brought us VVC, LCEVC, and EVC. Rather than breathlessly trumpet every single-digit quality improvement or design win, I'll quickly get you up-to-speed on quality, playability, and usage of the most commonly utilized video codecs and then explore new codec-related advancements in business and technology.

Buyers' Guide: Field Monitors, Monitor/Recorders, and Recorders

Strange as it seems, there are other essential production tools used in the field besides camcorders, microphones, and the switchers and encoders for live-switched streams. Historically, field monitors were luxuries that most crews didn't use except on higher-end shoots. One reason for field monitors' former scarcity was that portable CRT monitors that could be hooked up to cameras were expensive and too bulky for run-and-gun productions. Until about 20 years ago, even the idea of a color viewfinder or color flip-out viewscreen on professional gear was fan­tasy.

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

Q&A: Adtaxi's Murry Woronoff Says Streaming TV Levels Have Surpassed 80% of U.S. Adults in 2024

A new report by Adtaxi, one of the nation's fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, has revealed that more Americans than ever are now defaulting to streaming as their primary viewing content source. Murry Woronoff, Agency Director - Marketing Research and Consumer Insights at Adtaxi, spoke with Streaming Media's Tyler Nesler about many specific aspects of the report and what the findings reveal about the current state of streaming as the industry continues to evolve rapidly.

Buyers' Guide: Live Streaming Software

This article takes a look at 12 options you can pick from when looking to produce live-switched video: Boinx mimoLive, Broadcast Pix ChurchPix, Ecamm Live, ManyCam, OBS Studio, PRISM Live Studio, Vizrt TriCaster, Telestream Wirecast, vMix, Vimeo Livestream Studio, and XSplit Broadcaster

The State of Streaming Sustainability 2024

How do others see us, and how do we measure our progress? New data on streaming power consumption will al­low the industry to target further reductions in power consumption while working toward longer-term solu­tions that reuse old technologies alongside current best practices as a way to extend the life of streaming tech for years to come.

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.

Welcome to FAST Times

2023 got everyone on the same page: FAST should be part of the me­dia mix whether you are a content provider, a broadcaster, or a distribution platform.

The State of Education Video 2024

Is the state of education video in 2024 the quiet before or after the storm? With a pandemic in the rearview mirror, we approach a crossroads where it will be determined whether enterprise-scale video hosting and management services will remain profitable at the prices that schools are willing to carry in the new normal. It's unlikely that we'll cross a point of no return this year, but I recommend keep­ing an eye out for signs that will either allay or am­plify concerns about the long-term future of schools having a degree of ownership and control of the vid­eo services they rely on.

The State of Enterprise Video 2024

Pricing, parity, and protection are three key themes in 2024's enterprise video market

The State of Edge Compute and Delivery 2024

In this year's State of Edge Compute and Delivery, I'm going to explore the three edges that seem to matter most for streaming: aggregation, on-prem, and regional.

How to Meet the Challenges of Cloud-Based Media Creation

Nadine Krefetz writes about the ways of how to best meet the challenges of cloud media creation.

Michael Cerda, CPO for Streaming at TelevisaUnivision, Talks Building and Growing the World’s Largest Spanish-Language Streaming Service

Nadine Krefetz interviews Michael Cerda, CPO for streaming at TelevisaUnivision. He discusses the from-the-ground-up rebuild he implemented when he arrived at the company. He describes how—in just 9 months—his team assembled and scaled the tech stack dri­ving ViX, the world's largest Spanish-language streaming service, which haslive-streaming, AVOD, SVOD, and FAST offerings.

OBSBOT Tail Air AI-Powered PTZ Streaming Camera

This review will look at an interesting suite of products built around the innovative OBSBOT Tail Air PTZ cam, which has entered the NDI ecosystem. The individual cameras retail for $499, and OBSBOT lent Streaming Media three of them for this review, as well as a couple of accessories to show off how they can work together in a studio or field production.

Monetizing FAST and OTT with Metadata and User Data

Nothing makes recommendation engines—and every other means of profit-making leverage—go, go, go like data in its many varieties. Metadata in particular is the key to personalizing viewer experiences and optimizing content portfolios. AI plays an ever-greater role in enhancing the metadata quality and improving recommendations. As analysts focused on the M&E industry and insiders at major media companies playing critical strategic roles agree, data is also essential to understanding customer journeys and making informed decisions on how to reach and retain subscribers and, on the ad-supported side, deliver the right ads to audiences and the right audiences to brands.

Review: Magewell Director Mini

Magewell's new Director Mini is a mini marvel. This 5.5" "all-in-one" production tool with a $1,299 street price can mix multiple inputs and do picture-in-picture graphics, audio mixing, recording, streaming, and more, as IEBA's Anthony Burokas explains in this in-depth review.