In this special keynote presentation,Streaming Media’s Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen and Tim Siglin will be joined by research partner Harmonic’s Robert Gambino  to present the findings of original research into the streaming video market, followed by a livelyand provocative discussion about the survey results and a question-and-answer session with our audience.

As consumers’ consumption of OTT content has skyrocketed, so has their demand for a viewing experience that competes with or exceeds that offered by pay TV. We’ll approach the quality discussion from multiple angles—quality of experience (QoE), quality of service (QoS), user interface (UI), and search & discovery—to provide a holistic view of how OTT services can leverage data and analytics to maximize quality and retain customers.

Many streaming producers transitioned to remote and distanced production in 2020 out of necessity, and discovered a new way of working and a new set of challenges. Even as 2021 brings hope of a return to some normalcy, remote production will remain an important part of the new normal, and an approach that everyone who wants to stay in the game will need to master. In this all Q&A session, Streaming Media Producer Contributing Editor Anthony Burokas takes your questions on how to refine your remote production chops and meet the challenges you face out in the field--especially when "in the field" means working in-studio with multiple far-flung remote contributors.

Per-title encoding has been on most streaming producer’s radar screens since Netflix announced the technique in December 2015. Now, almost every encoder and encoding service has per-title capabilities. In this session, Jan Ozer will walk you through the various approaches on the market today, then discuss what the future holds for per-title encoding with SSIMWAVE’s Dr. Abdul Rehman. Bring your questions!

There have never been more codecs on the market, and most streaming platforms and publishers end up using more than one in order to maximize reach and minimize costs. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of both established codecs (H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9) and emerging technologies (VVC, LCEVC, EVC), examining the costs and benefits of each one.

Leading technology and service providers share their insights into the crucial challenges facing the streaming industry and how best to solve them. No sales pitches—just real talk about what works and what doesn’t.

In 2020, the number of consumers willing to pay for news has jumped by 30 percent. This increased willingness to pay comes as news consumption has skyrocketed during COVID-19 and cable TV ratings are setting all-time records. But is this growth sustainable as we enter an expected less volatile period for the economy, public health, and politics? And, as more news consumers gravitate to online sources, how do traditional news outlets and new streaming/OTT players compete in an evolving market? Exploring new data from Altman Solon's Global Sports & News Survey, industry experts will discuss trends on news viewing, payment and subscription models, and trust in news and advertising.

The last year has seen explosive growth in AVOD, and the technology that makes it tick is evolving just as rapidly. Don’t let new technical challenges and regulatory requirement ruin your AVOD business. This panel of industry leaders will help you make sense of it all, from universal ad IDs and resettable device IDs to holistic measurement and changing privacy requirements, and everything in between.

In 2020, evolutionary trends in live streaming became revolutionary changes in 2020. The pandemic forced producers to embrace remote production and cloud workflows by necessity, those same producers turned adversity to their advantage, and there’s no going back to the way things were before. Our panel will discuss how the lessons learned in the last year will affect the shape of live productions for years to come.

ATSC 3.0, which combines over-the-air (OTA) with broadband, began rolling out in major TV markets in 2020, allowing local broadcasters to expand their reach and create new live streaming services for news, sports, weather, and on-demand programming. Combine that with ATSC 3.0’s ability to deliver UHD and HDR, improved audio, and better user interfaces, and it truly lives up to its nickname, Next-Gen TV. We’ll discuss how ATSC 3.0 will impact the streaming market, how to build ATSC 3.0-compliant apps, the consumer device landscape, and how the standard might compete with 5G.

Leading technology and service providers share their insights into the crucial challenges facing the streaming industry and how best to solve them. No sales pitches—just real talk about what works and what doesn’t.

While stadiums and arenas were empty, sports and esports streamers explored new ways to engage viewers at home. Whatever happens in the stands in 2021, sports will remain premium content, and esports has never been hotter. This panel will discuss the ways leading OTT platforms, sports and esports leagues, and social media-based sports content creators have leveraged new technologies and strategies to deliver fan experiences like never before.

We've seen it before: The industry pivots, and everyone jumps to fill in the gaps. The latest pivot is to free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels like Pluto, Tubi, Xumo, STIRR … and the list goes on. Is there really room for all these offerings when the dust settles? And who seems to be nailing it? Will this window of opportunity close? What’s the secret to surviving and thriving? Our expert panel will give you some answers.

What will the OTT landscape look like 5 years from now? Which business models will dominate? Which technologies will be driving the industry? What role will ATSC 3.0 and 5G play? This wide-ranging, no-holds-barred discussion will gather a group of industry luminaries to help attendees understand the trends they need to watch, the roadblocks that stand in the way, and the strategic decisions they can make now to make sure they’re prepared for whatever the future brings.

Streaming Media Bootcamp, a 6-hour course held over two days on Monday, February 22 and Tuesday, February 23, is designed to provide the necessary technical background for in-house professionals who are new to streaming media and to teach critical skills for on-demand and live streaming. Attendees can register for both parts or just one, depending on their needs.

The first session, Streaming Media Bootcamp, Part 1: Encoding, Packaging, and Delivery for VOD, on Monday, February 22 starts with a review of fundamental video and streaming concepts and then covers encoding for on-demand delivery (VOD), including the following topics:

Click here to register for this workshop!

Streaming Media Bootcamp, a 6-hour course held over two days on Monday, February 22 and Tuesday, February 23, is designed to provide the necessary technical background for in-house professionals who are new to streaming media and to teach critical skills for on-demand and live streaming. Attendees can register for both parts or just one, depending on their needs.

Streaming Media Bootcamp, Part 2: Encoding, Packaging, and Delivery for Live Streaming on Tuesday, February 23 is the live streaming component and covers the knowledge and skills necessary to produce live events and optimize audio and video quality for those who are on webcam or camera within your organization:

Click here to register for this workshop!

vMix is one of the most popular and powerful video switching, streaming, and recording solutions for both remote and in-the-field production pros. This 3-hour course is designed to help new and experienced video producers gain new skills and level up their existing knowledge base. The course will start with an overview of vMix basics and then will dive deep into workflow considerations for a wide variety of productions. Special emphasis will be placed on live multi-camera and multi-source remote productions.

Topics Covered:

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Join us for this three-part workshop.

Flexible Live Remote At-Home Production for the New Abnormal

Produce, Transmit, and Distribute Live Video from any Mobile or Fixed Location

Quickly deliver your live video content simultaneously across multiple social networks, including Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and more.

17 Costly Mistakes to Avoid Deploying Enterprise & Remote (Off-Campus) IPTV & Digital Signage

1. Overcome the limitations of live broadcast-quality video communications due to COVID-19.
2. Limitations expanding your enterprise IPTV and digital signage system off-campus to employees working remotely.
3. Avoid limitations keeping your video content secure while streaming live video off-campus via the public Internet.
4. No support for distribution to a desktop, laptop, smartphone, and tablet.
5. Getting stuck with one content provider (CATV/SAT) or without open architecture.
6. No support for Digital Rights Management or DRM.
7. Non-Friendly User Interface.
8. Not allowing the integration of your own VOD content with your providers.
9. Not allowing for Your Own Live Video Distribution.
10. Limited or No Video Conferencing Functions.
11. Lacking Scalability, Security, and Flexibility.
12. No Support for Digital Signage and Advertising.
13. Plus 6 more Mistakes to Avoid.

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Join Dolby to learn how companies like Sony Pictures, HBO, and Showtime use Dolby’s Cloud Media Processing to deliver the world’s most compelling content. Learn how you can scale your media workflow — and save money — with the most efficient transcoding engine and automated QC solution available. Don’t miss this chance to see a live demo and ask questions about how you can:

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The streaming gear market is exploding! But how do you figure out which tools are right for you?

This interactive workshop gives attendees an opportunity to see some of the latest and greatest streaming tools, with an emphasis on scalability, flexibility, reliability, and ease of use. We’ll look at remote and studio gear for production teams of of any size—even if it’s a one-person show.

Bring your questions and prepare to be blown away by this free, interactive workshop. Register today—seats are limited!

This workshop is designed for broadcast and streaming professionals who need to build real-time streaming solutions that support reliable, professional, high-quality live content with less than a second of end-to-end latency.

Flash is dead, and the streaming industry is still struggling to replace it. This 3-part workshop will show you how to use Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) and standards-based web technology to allows publishers of live content to reach all modern browsers and devices without the need for any plugin or custom player, reducing the latency from publisher to viewer to less than 500 milliseconds, globally, at-scale.

Part 1: The Past

The W3C and IETF are currently reviewing the proposed recommendation to make Web Real-Time Communications an official web standard, bringing audio and video communications to every internet connected device, everywhere. Part 1 will introduce the WebRTC framework that provides the building blocks from which users can seamlessly add real-time video to many use cases, including: broadcast, post-production, auctions, education, tele-health, enterprise, gaming, and more.

Part 2: The Present

WebRTC is massively deployed as a communications platform and powers video conferences and collaboration systems across all major browsers, both on desktop and mobile. Part 2 will show how you can create your own solution leveraging commercial products and open source projects, to build your own web native broadcaster and player, as well as capture NDI, SDI or HDMI through professional software and hardware encoders like OBS, BirdDog, Videon Edgecaster and Teradek Cube.

Part 3: The (Near) Future

The use of WebRTC has expanded beyond the initial core design to power video conferences and collaboration systems in web browsers, native apps and other ecosystems. Part 3 will focus on how this has led to the need for more advanced broadcast-quality features: Real-time AV1 encoding, Hardware acceleration, HDR, 10-bit & 4:4:4 colour, Surround Sound and True end-to-end encryption in WebRTC.

Click here to register for this workshop!