The 411 on OVPs
Of course, just because the OVP can adaptively stream to one platform—like Flash—doesn’t mean it can adaptively stream to all supported platforms—like iOS or Android—so ask that question as well. Also ask how much control you have over the number of adaptive streams and their respective resolutions and data rates; these configuration options can be critical to smooth and effective stream switching.
If you’re adaptively streaming to iDevices, you have to use Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming technology, which is HTTP-based, as is Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming, the only option for Silverlight. With Flash, however, there are two options: RTMP-based adaptive streaming with Flash Media Server 3.5 or later and HTTP-based Dynamic Streaming, code-named Zeri, via Flash Media Server 4.0.
While RTMP-based adaptive streaming is more proven, there seems to be a growing consensus that HTTP-based streaming provides a superior high-bitrate experience, with smoother stream switching in particular. I wouldn’t recommend one over the other at this point, but if you do have a preference, ask which protocol the OVP supports.
Flash Media Server 4 also debuted both multicasting and peer-to-peer delivery on the Flash Platform, with multicasting being key for efficient enterprise delivery and peer-to-peer being a huge potential bandwidth saver in and out of the enterprise. While I’m unaware of any OVP offering these capabilities today (in 1Q 2011), I’m sure they’ll be available from larger CDNs by mid- to late 2011. If enterprise delivery is important to your plans, and/or bandwidth costs a major expense, ask if and when these delivery techniques will be available.
From What Sources?
Version 1.0 of virtually all OVPs included single or multiple file upload to the OVP, which encoded the file(s) for distribution. The next step for many was enabling third-party upload for user-generated content (UGC) applications.
Then, smartphones with video cameras became available. General-purpose web-based uploaders for these devices are cumbersome. If uploading and managing videos from these devices is important to your strategy, check to make sure that your OVP candidates supply software development kits that provide this functionality.
And Which Player Features?
Virtually all OVPs offer player templates with multiple levels of branding, links to social media sites, and perhaps ratings and comments. The last three are critical to viewer engagement, as is the ability for viewers to embed the player in their blogs and websites, and all are essential.
Most OVPs can also create playlists of related videos, usually presented adjacent to the video that’s currently playing. If this feature is important to you, make sure that you can both hard code playlists and create them dynamically, based upon tags and other criteria.
Again, determine whether the player supports arbitrary resolutions or whether you’ll be locked into specific sizes. If you’ll be distributing 16:9 and 4:3 video, determine if the player can dynamically adjust to each aspect ratio, eliminating black bars.
More importantly, if you’re a government or education site, or any site subject to Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, be sure that your OVP candidates supply a player with closed captions and other aspects of a fully accessible player. With closed captions, ascertain how the feature will integrate into your current workflow. For example, be sure the OVP can accept caption files in the format that you’re currently producing and note how it handles multiple languages, if applicable.
Beyond these generalities are specific features that will appeal to narrow subsets of potential OVP customers. For example, Viddler lets you tag specific hot spots in your video file so viewers can click over to sections that appeal specifically to them—a great feature that should be more generally available.
Veeple’s mantra is interactivity, provided by hot spots in the video that let viewers click to access webpages, PDFs, and the like. Case studies on the Veeple website claim engagement rates as high as 63%, which is great when you’re using streaming video to close sales or to otherwise move prospects through the sales cycle.
Related Articles
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