The Generative AI Industrial Revolution

Generative AI may prove even more divisive to society than the Indus­trial Revolution. There are many questions well worth examining re­garding gen AI's impact on the streaming in­dustry, the media and entertainment world, and more. In this article, I'm going to focus on a few streaming use cases in the hope of pro­viding a broader perspective on the changes happening in our world now and those we can expect going forward.

Review: DVEO Brutus V

This review will highlight Brutus V, DVEO's IP-to-IP multichannel AV1, H.264, and H.265 transcoder for IPTV or OTT. I will touch on Brutus V's options for delivering streams over H.264 and cover streaming delivery over various streaming protocols such as HLS, LL-HLS, Smooth Streaming, and MPEG-DASH. I will also dive into transcoding using H.264 and HEVC.

Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft’s Worldwide Media and Entertainment Strategy Director, Talks Gen AI

In this expansive interview with Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft's worldwide media and entertainment strategy director, we discuss how Microsoft customers are leveraging generative AI in all stages of the streaming workflow and how they're using it in content delivery and to enhance user experiences in a range of use cases. Crownshaw also digs deep into how Microsoft is building asset management architecture and the critical role metadata plays in effective large-language models (LLMs), maximizing the value of available data.

How AI Is Transforming the Video Production Landscape

The evolution of AI extends from prepro­duction planning to postproduction enhance­ments, offering tools that augment creativity, efficiency, and precision. It is difficult to ignore all of the buzz about AI these days, but here is what streaming pros can expect from this ear­ly stage of AI technology.

Managing Teleprompter Scrolling Speed with Elgato Stream Deck and Pedal

One of the most challenging aspects of reading from a teleprompter has always been speed control. Unless you get the speed just right, you either have to rush or slow down your narration, and either adjustment adds stress to your delivery that can force a glitch and another retake. Fortunately, Elgato has two hardware options you can use to control scrolling speed; the Stream Deck+ ($199.99) and Stream Deck Pedal ($89.99). Elgato was kind enough to send both options for me to try, and I'll briefly recount my experience here.

Review: Elgato Prompter

The $279 Elgato Prompter is a unique product that performs well in its namesake role but offers a range of functionality that extends far beyond script reading. You'll find Prompter highly useful if you're a frequent video conference participant, if you create screencams or recorded product demonstrations, and even if you produce webinars.

Tutorial: Quick Export with Adobe Premiere Pro

In this quick overview of Adobe Premiere Pro's Quick Export feature, Stjepan Alaupovic of Clear Online Video explains how producers can improve postproduction efficiency for quickturn projects by exporting a video in just a few clicks.

Review: Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4K G2

The Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 has nice upgrades, great capability with the USB-C, and high-quality recording to external SSDs. The HDMI out is a welcome feature as well in terms of monitoring and being able to change settings wherever the camera might be used.

Review: AirenSoft OvenMediaEngine

This review will highlight OvenMedia­Engine, the open source streaming ser­ver from AirenSoft, and explore its fea­tures for providing sub-­second latency for live streaming. The article will also touch on OvenMediaEngine's options for LL-­HLS and WebRTC. Finally, we'll dive into testing SRT and RTMP ingest options.

AI and Streaming Media

This article explores the current state of AI in the streaming encoding, delivery, playback, and monetization ecosystems. By understanding the developments and considering key questions when evaluating AI-powered solutions, streaming professionals can make informed decisions about incorporating AI into their video processing pipelines and prepare for the future of AI-driven video technologies.

Multicurrency, Personalization, and Consumer Privacy in the CTV Ecosystem

As CTV is pulling in more advertising dollars and viewers than ever before, it's crucial for advertisers to ensure that they are optimizing their reach with the best-targeted data to represent audiences and outcomes, all while respecting data privacy laws and individual rights. What are the most significant challenges surrounding data identity and the privacy economy in today's CTV advertising ecosystem? How can content owners and platform providers supply advertisers with the user data that will maximize growth without violating personal privacy or privacy laws? And how might the idea of "TV" itself be redefined in an era when multiscreen use beyond the living room is so prevalent?

Q&A: NBCUniversal SVP Monica Williams Talks Streaming the Olympics, Cross-Platform CX, and the Power of Metadata

In this wide-ranging interview with Monica Williams, NBCUniversal's SVP of digital products and operations for the company's content distribution business, we discuss how the proliferation of digital platforms across the OTT, CTV, and online ecosystems has brought new content distribution challenges, the boon of metadata for improving customer experiences, and the 17-day everything-must-go-perfectly marathon of distributing the Olympics.

Q&A: Wurl’s Ria Madrid Discusses BrandDiscovery's Groundbreaking Generative AI for CTV Ads

A Q&A with Ria Madrid of Wurl - she discusses BrandDiscovery, their new tech that makes it possible for marketers to precisely match CTV ads with the emotion and context of what viewers are watching to create positive attention, using Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions. Partners like Media.Monks are already driving impressive results for their clients through Wurl's solution, which uses scene-level contextual targeting to help advertisers align the emotional sentiment of their campaign creatives with content closest to the ad break.

Pay TV Gets Serious About Free Streaming

When it comes to free streaming, U.S. growth has been fueled by pure players like Pluto TV and Tubi and connected TV platforms like Roku and Samsung looking to feed cord-shavers and cord-cutters in need of a linear viewing experience. These companies have had a head start and a clear path to test and learn for years. However, in the past 18 months, pay TV players have decided that they too have a role to play in free streaming.

Tutorial: How to Nail Your First LinkedIn Live Event

If you make it to the end, you'll learn why it's so hard to start your LinkedIn Live event smoothly (it's not your fault) and some thoughts on how to start like a pro in the future.

Q&A: Google Cloud's Anil Jain Explains How Generative AI Is Driving Digital Transformation for M&E and DTC

For Anil Jain, leading the Strategic Consumer Industries team for Google Cloud has meant helping traditional media companies embrace cloud and AI, move to an OpEx-centric business model, and adapt to a more development-oriented mindset in engineering and product management. In this interview, Jain discusses the global shift to cloud-based operations in the media industry, the ways generative AI is disrupting everything from production to packaging to all aspects of the user experience, and what media companies should be afraid of if they're not already.

Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2024

A detailed guide to Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2024.

How to Add Zoom Participants in vMix as Clean Inputs

With the release of vMix 27, Windows producers can now get clean Zoom Meeting inputs in vMix. The best part is that there are no additional upfront or monthly subscription costs to vMix 27users with an HD, 4K, Pro, or Max license. All that is required is to download the Zoom Plugin for vMix. Here's how it works.

Review: JW Player

This review will highlight the JW Player online video platform and explore its on-demand streaming, captioning, web player capabilities, and other features. It will walk viewers through using the platform, including the core features like uploading videos, importing streams, and creating playlists in the Media Library and configuring the media player, as well as more advanced features. It will also discuss testing done using the platform.

Decoding the Landscape: Recent Developments in Video Codec Licensing

Navigating the ever-changing world of video codec licensing can be complex. This article breaks down major IP-related events from the past 18 months, including the new European SEP licensing rules, Avanci's new video patent pool, and the Sisvel-RPX deal. Explore who's making deals, what technologies are involved, and the implications for royalty-free models