CDNs Offer More Than a Quick Byte

Julius Gebhard-Koenigstein, head of marketing and sales for Tulix Systems, describes a similar evolution for his company’s offerings: “Once we got our distribution network perfected customers started asking us for other services and we decided to build out ourselves.” One of those services is VOD.

“We have a content management system that customers upload to,” he says, “then we added a pay-per-view billing system. Customers can upload a video, set a price and an age gate.” Gebhard-Koenigstein says, “[C]ustomers can choose live or video on demand, we manage their subscribers. It’s a single system that works across devices.”

Lobwein says that what ultimately developed was a joint venture between NexTv and Tulix, which together with ONStv developed an app for a dongle to plug into TVs, similar to Google’s Chrome Cast. He says the ONStv dongle itself is free. After the viewer plugs it in, “the system comes up straight away and the customer just pays for what they use.” Programming is also available on Android devices.

In working with Tulix, Lobwein says the advantage has been the ability to develop the ONStv dongle and app with Tulix along with “having them integrate into our merchant facilities. ... [N]ot only do they give us the CDN capacity, they give us the billing, [to] help monetize.”

Tulix has worked with other broadcasters too. “We do satellite downlinking now,” Gebhard-Koenigstein says. “We pull a channel from a satellite and restream it.” The company can also record a satellite or live stream and record it to make individual programs available on demand. “We try to make it very easy and convenient for our customers, and to help them monetize,” he says.

Great Customer Service Is a Value-Add

Customer service is a value-add that’s easy to take for granted or overlook. Thibeault says that Limelight provides additional customer support to help customers make the transition into using their services.

According to Riley, Gaiam has been working with Akamai for “the better part of two years.” He says, “[O]ne of the nice things with Akamai is that there are a couple of key people, account managers and technical engineers,” whom he can contact directly to get a “quick resolution.” Other companies “want you to put in a ticket.” When it came to getting Gaiam’s large store of content into Akamai’s network, Riley says that “they were excellent in that process of migration.”

It is important for a customer to have a CDN meet them where they are, not the other way around. NexTv’s Lobwein says that Tulix “worked with any hurdle we threw at them. Things where my engineers would have said, ‘We haven’t got time for this.’” As the two companies worked together to get the app on the TV dongle working, he found Tulix to be very responsive. While Lobwein is satisfied with bigger CDNs for more straightforward content distribution, he liked working with Tulix on this project. “They’re a bit more dynamic, more of a tugboat than an oil tanker.”

Questions a CDN Customer Should Ask

For the CDN customer, Thibeault says the question is, “How is this going to make it easier to do what I’m doing now?” If a customer has a workflow, “[I]s what you have going to complicate how I do it? If you’re going to make it 10 times harder to get my videos out it isn’t worth it.”

Gaiam delivers protected content, so it was important for the company to find a CDN that knows what browsers support what rendition types and is able to support every platform and device used by their subscribers. Riley advises, “When shopping for a CDN, get to know their expertise in different delivery areas.” Lobwein concurs, saying the CDN you choose should “recognize what they excel at” so that you know those specialties meet your top business requirements.

Especially when making the leap from do-it-yourself, hosting your own storage and streaming servers, Thibeault says a top question should be, “Can a CDN offer me the scale, availability and performance I can’t get myself? I want to make sure that I’m handing off my DIY to someone who can provide more.”

Michel says customers need to think about where their viewers are located. “Do they have a global audience? Many customers think they have a regional audience, but it turns out their audience travels or wants to share with people globally.”

Look Beyond the Surface

These examples just scratch the surface of the value-added services that CDNs are now offering. Transcoding in the cloud is a particularly important service available from many CDNs, including Akamai, Limelight, and Tulix. Akamai and Limelight both offer a web interface for customizing bitrates and renditions for different platforms and devices. Gebhard-Koenigstein says Tulix is building such a customer-facing interface.

Monetization through ad insertion is another value-add that more CDNs are offering. For example, Limelight provides overlays, preroll, and post-roll. Akamai can insert an ad in a live broadcast at the edge server so that the ad server sends content that is customized for the viewer.

If your organization is ready to shift away from the DIY approach to serving and managing your video content, CDNs are ready to help smooth the transition and make it easier to maximize the value of your content. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about options and extras, and don’t drive off the lot with the stripped-down base model.

This article appears in the December 2013 issue of Streaming Media magazine as "More Than a Quick Byte."