The video viewing landscape is broader than ever, and is constantly shifting under the feet of content developers and providers. This session will discuss major trends in video viewing, including pay TV subscribership, OTT services, TV Everywhere, multitasking, content discovery and device viewing. Learn about new topic areas, like measuring the impact of "skinny bundles" and "virtual MVPDs," that have the potential to shake-up the TV industry. In the session, experts in video content and distribution will discuss detailed data from Altman Vilandrie & Company's latest survey of U.S. consumer video viewing habits and debate the current state of video – and where it's going in the future.

This session discusses how analytics tools can be used to produce more engaging video content. Learn the metrics content owners use to identify if content is sufficiently engaging an audience and how insights gathered impacts content owners creation and acquisition strategies. The session also covers what efforts are being made to personalize experiences, reviewing the tactics used to create segmented user groups and target individual users. Speakers have an open discussion about the gaps that must be bridged on the technology side to do better content personalization, prediction and the positive impact to content publishers.

Google has announced that Chrome will be “HTML5 By Default” as of Q4 this calendar year, meaning that users will need to click to allow Flash content to be played. This is obviously a major concern for the streaming industry, as Flash remains the dominant player technology today. There are native HTML5 solutions available for streaming video, but so far, the adoption has been low. This session reviews the state of the video player industry and compares a few open source and off-the-shelf solutions that can help keep those videos streaming.

As the content ecosystem prepares for HDR, 4K/UHD, and even 8K at scale in an on-demand, any device world, the risk of high-quality pirated content rises in tandem, putting the evolving business models and infrastructure investments at immediate risk. Forensic watermarking is positioned as a requirement in Movielabs' Enhanced Content Protection Guidelines to mitigate the ravaging effects of un-monetized distribution. However, getting the technology widely deployed is challenging due to misaligned priorities among the many players in the value chain who must implement or enable the technology and related services and policies. On this panel, we bring together key experts from leading companies in the forensic watermarking ecosystem to discuss the technical, business and practical challenges of implementing such a system at scale.

As the OTT market continues to experience dramatic growth, it’s also become incredibly crowded and competitive. Content owners are under more pressure than ever to get to market quickly and having the right business model is crucial. This session will discuss the different strategies for going OTT; a templated, turnkey service that enables faster time-to-market or a more customized, highly differentiated offering and the pros and cons of each. Speakers will deliberate on how to best address the growing challenge of device fragmentation in an increasingly complex OTT ecosystem and how content owners are successfully monetizing content via advertising or subscription models.

The way that people watch television is changing. As the broadcast industry gradually transitions to IP and consumers adopt more online video, it’s clear that a transformation is underway. But what will TV look like in 5 years? This session explores the future of television and how the gradual, generational shift from linear broadcast to online will fundamentally change not only consumption but the underlying business models as well. Attendees learn about the long-term vision for the television experience and how they can prepare (and plan) to take advantage of the evolution in video consumption that is happening today.

Building a great Roku channel has never been easier. In this session, Roku will unveil new methods to quickly publish on the Roku platform and monetize with video advertising. The presenter will discuss these new tools and some of the ways that developers and content creators can build their audiences on the Roku platform.

Tastemade is a video network built for the mobile generation that enables people to come together to discover and share their passion for great food and travel. In this case study presentation, Tastemade will outline how they went from using YouTube as their primary distribution source to building their own global video platform and applications, which connect with over 100M monthly users around the globe.

Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) is an excellent path for content providers and distributors to a better user experience, higher overall video consumption, and providing less obtrusive ad delivery. This presentation will explain the differences between SSAI and Client Side Ad Insertion. Learn how SSAI works, its limitations, architecture readiness for migration, ad preparation considerations and possible changes to existing workflows. This presentation will also cover planning for target devices, platforms and video delivery methods and will highlight real-world use cases.

This session will explore why publishers need a holistic view of consumers' Quality of Experience (QoE) in today’s open and unpredictable Internet environment. Learn how companies are using data to adapt to the changing entertainment landscape and how correlations can be made across the video delivery spectrum to understand the impact of experience as it pertains to the engagement of your audience. In this session, you'll hear from leading OTT providers, about the holistic and comprehensive picture QoE data provides that enables their services to ensure successful video delivery, engaged audiences, and exceptional viewer experiences.

Check back soon for details regarding this Discovery Track session.

In this session you will learn how easy it can be to create and customize your offer and then build native applications for deployment on all app stores for personal devices, streaming players, smart TVs, and games platforms with Cisco’s cloud-hosted Infinite Video Platform.

Attend this session for your chance to win: Beats SOLO2 wireless headphones ($200 value)

Virtual Reality (VR) and 360-degree are emerging as two of the most innovative live streaming trends, powering events such as sporting events, concerts, corporate meetings, education, medicine, military applications, and many other areas. In this interactive session, you’ll get to try live demos and get more familiar with the technology as we walk through some common 360-degree live streaming workflows, including the Lollapalooza Berlin 2015 music festival that allowed virtual attendees to attend the live concert series and be immersed with the band on stage. Most VR technologies use industry-standard streaming protocols that can be implemented with common streaming servers and platforms. We’ll show a few examples of 360-degree camera examples, and also review how playback is achieved using common player apps.