January/February 2023

Magazine Features

Adventures in the Movieverse: Web3, Blockchain, Eluvio, and the Future of Streaming

The movie-watching experience has entered an unprecedented and thrilling new era of full-immersion entertainment with the arrival of a pioneering, living NFT and Web3 offering from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Extended Edition. This Web3 movie event is fueled by Eluvio, a developer of blockchain-based 4K streaming and ticketing technology and the self-described "blockchain home for crypto content."

Advertising, Bundling, and the Future of Premium Streaming

With the arrival of lower-priced ad tiers for premium streaming services, increasing aggregation and shape-shifting bundling options, ongoing changes to the streaming landscape are transforming consumer behaviour and adoption of pay TV and streaming services. But what do the numbers say about emerging market trends? How are platform providers interpreting evident shifts, and does that translate into user experience innovation? And is there really a "Great Rebundling" afoot, as so many pundits have claimed over the last 6 months?

Preserving Our Intergenerational Legacy (or Streaming Media's Feet of Clay)

So considering streaming, file transfer, or even leaving the long tail simply unused and archived as the storage media changes around it over years, there's much to think about for anyone wanting to leave a video as an intergenerational legacy.

Review: Netgear M4250 Network Switch

As streaming producers, we are already expected to provide expertise in video cameras, switchers, live streaming, audio, and wrapping cables using the over-under method. How are we now going to master the advanced network management requirements of NDI? Start with the Netgear M4250 AV line of switches.

Review: Videon EdgeCaster EZ (w/ LiveEdge Core 8.5)

This review will highlight Videon's EdgeCaster video encoding appliance and explore its unique LiveEdge Compute technology for encoding and delivery, as well as how it works with popular video streaming platforms. I'll also discuss why many video production and remote production teams will likely move to a tool such as this in the future for streaming delivery.

Winning the Data War: Accessing and Leveraging Streaming Analytics

This article explores the topic of data rights versus technology capabilities as it impacts media companies' ability to leverage accrued data and analytics to target relevant audiences, expand their reach, and monetize their content offerings. If the intersection of data rights ownership and technology capabilities access were captured in a Venn diagram, the space in between would be very small for some media companies.

Editor's Note

Predicting a FAST-Approaching Future

In the last month of 2022, my inbox filled with predictions for 2023 from industry soothsayers of every variety, a phenomenon I found so fascinating that I gathered up the most interesting and posted them. Of course, the very nature of making predictions is sharing information you don't really have and guessing at a future you can't possibly see.

The Video Doctor

5 Ways to Future-Proof Your Streaming Role with AI on the Rise

How do you keep your skills relevant and useful regardless of developments in AI, Machine Learning (ML), or more advanced automation in any process related to your role in streaming media? Whether you are a seasoned veteran or just starting out with your career, I recommend setting five goals for the coming year.

Future in Focus

What the Growth of FAST Really Tells Us About Viewers

The popularity and growth of FAST show us that viewing behavior, despite the rise of streaming, hasn't really changed much at all. People want choice, but they want it in a way that meets their needs. FAST doesn't scrap the broadcast experience with which so many are familiar; it is evolving it in a way that broadcast could never do to improve upon the viewer experience.

Spotlights

Magewell Executive Predictions: Nick Ma

From medical applications to the metaverse, one of the hottest streaming-related topics today is achieving ultra-low latency for near real-time interactivity. Of course, latency has been a key issue for many years, but as streaming became viable for more use cases, the desire to go from seconds to milliseconds has only increased.

Tulix Executive Predictions: George Bokuchava

The industry had a very fruitful and interesting 2022. In 2023 we will see continuations and finalizations of some popular initiatives.

The Producer's View

Cloud-Based Streaming Production and the Sound of Inevitability

The production and communication tools we use are ever-more tied to the cloud, and to take advantage of it is to open a door of possibility and additional capability. Where do you want to go today?

Class Act

Learning on YouTube

YouTube Player for Education is something to keep an eye on as it matures in 2023. I don't expect it to be a particularly disruptive technology, but it will prove a welcome way for teachers who are exceptionally on camera to augment their teaching salaries.