March/April 2023 - Sourcebook

Magazine Features

Buyers' Guide: Wireless Microphones

If issues arise with the video you capture, high-quality audio will go a long way to compensate for it. Viewers will often tolerate subpar video, but no one in the world will watch video with absent or poor audio. My advice to any streaming producer is to get the best audio setup you can afford for your video rig. It's always worth the investment.

Buyers’ Guide: Cellular Bonding Solutions

Thanks to bonding and some of the other technologies discussed in this guide, the days of sending glitchy, buffering video to viewers should be behind us. Read on to learn about the many options available, at a wide variety of price points, to ensure that streaming professionals can deliver the best video possible.

Buyers’ Guide: Podcast Mixers for Live Streaming Production

Today's video producers are now able to leverage new technologies that can really help with the live streaming production—especially on-location. By utilizing what are commonly called "podcast mixers," streaming producers can deliver a bit more polish, while also gaining better flexibility in production.

How to Produce VVC With FFmpeg

Anytime you start working with a new codec, there are some fundamental tests that you should run to achieve optimal performance/quality optimization. In this article, I'll take you through those tests while encoding VVC using a version of FFmpeg that includes the Fraunhofer VVC codec.

How to Script for FFmpeg Using PowerShell and BASH

FFmpeg was designed as a cross-platform solution for video and audio recording, conversion, and streaming using simple static command lines. Using variables and "for loops" in a command string simplifies the reuse of existing scripts and helps automate their operation. While you can't use these scripts in the Windows Command window, you can use Microsoft PowerShell in Windows and Bash on Linux and the Mac. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create and run such scripts with PowerShell and Bash.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Media Mergers & Acquisitions of 2022

A look at the streaming industry's most notable mergers and acquisitions of 2022, from WarnerBros-Discovery to Microsoft/Activision to Limelight/Edgecast to Dolby/Millicast to Telestream/Encoding.com and more

The State of Education Video

Video's role in schools is taken for granted entering 2023, although we should expect to see changes, potentially disruptive, in the educational video market as schools continue to adapt to the aftermath of the COVID-19 state of emergency phase. Despite the widely held belief that video is essential to school operations, expect to see schools roll back their investments in video services, while educators seek out ways to go beyond the basics of video delivery, finding better ways to engage students both with synchronous and asynchronous video.

The State of Enterprise Video 2023

From road warriors to remote-only companies, enterprise video is shifting. It is, to put it mildly, in a state of flux. At the same time, though, so is the state of business. Given those two facts, the question I'll attempt to answer in this year's State of Enterprise Video is whether these coexistent movements will occur in lockstep or as polar opposites.

The State of Live Streaming 2023

2022 was the year in which sports, the appointment-to-view genre with massive audiences and revenues, moved to the center of major streaming provider strategies.

The State of Media Technology Financing 2023

The formula for business funding and investment typically looks something like this: Identify a problem, and address it with a profitable solution, a great team, and the potential for huge growth. But in media technology, there's something else most companies are fighting against: moving customers to a SaaS model and winning over media companies that want to build everything in-house. Given these inherent challenges, what are the areas where investment looks like a good idea for companies in this industry?

The State of OTT 2023

Netflix may have pioneered online pay TV on-demand with a model that every other SVOD chased. From April 2022, a pivot was required of every player, Netflix included.

The State of Real-Time Streaming 2023

In this article, we'll look at the state of real-time streaming a few months into 2023, including several use cases that hold longer-term promises. But before we do so, here's a baseline definition of real-time streaming, as used in the survey: Real-time streaming is "device-synchronized delivery to hundreds of thousands of viewers at less than 500 milli­seconds per user."

The State of Streaming Monetization 2023

Streaming media business and monetization models expanded and diversified in 2022 and sent a clear message: Paid subscription models were a necessary gateway to widespread streaming adoption, but now ad-supported viewing has a chance to flourish.

The State of Video Codecs 2023

Welcome to your codec update for 2023. I'm here to help you decide whether it's time to go all in on AV1, VVC, LCEVC, or EVC or whether it's better to stick with H.264, VP9, and HEVC. Along the way, I'll include 2022-2023 updates to identify significant changes that have occurred since last year.

Editor's Note

Let a Good Chatbot Answer That Question

If the recoiling-in-fear "Is AI coming for our jobs?" question is premature, it's also far from the most interesting topic these experiments raise. Rather, it's how can we get better answers by asking better questions?

Spotlights

Survey Says: Video QC and Monitoring Are Essential for Streaming Quality, QoE, and Customer Retention

Interra Systems and streaming media industry expert Dan Rayburn conducted a survey in 2022 to better understand the steps media companies are taking to quality control (QC) and monitor their content. The survey collected data from media industry decision makers. This white paper digs into the 155 participants' responses and explores key findings, including why companies are implementing QC and monitoring, the extent to which they're doing so, and the key challenges they're facing.

TV doesn’t need to be complicated

MWareTV's Cees van Versendaal explains why a one-stop shop managed IPTV service is the key to reducing churn and driving revenue.