January/February 2022

Magazine Features

The Building Blocks of the Metaverse

The most important aspects of the entire metaverse project are the interchange standards and the tools, protocols, formats, and services that enable persistent and ubiquitous virtual simulations. Without them, there will be no metaverse.

Tutorial: Automated ABR With AWS Elemental MediaConvert

In a recent survey, two-thirds of respondents said they weren't using per-title encoding, possibly because of the general perception that its challenges outweigh its benefits. In this tutorial, I'll demonstrate how simple it is to produce per-title output using AWS Elemental's Automated ABR (adaptive bitrate) function.

ATSC 3.0: NextGen TV Has Finally Arrived

Bringing together the best of OTT and the best of OTA, ATSC 3.0 is finally available out in the wild. Here's why you should care.

Review: Teradek Wave

Anthony Burokas reviews the new Teradek Wave, which combines bonding, encoding, streaming, recording, and monitoring in a single compact devices that users control using Teradek's handy streaming app on its 7" touchscreen.

Editor's Note

Get Back: Peter Jackson's 8-Hour Movie Suggests OTT Attention Spans Might Be Longer Than We Thought

Today, binge-watching is many people's favored mode of viewing. That's entirely our industry's doing (some might say fault), and it stands as a compelling counterpoint to the notion that we've devolved to the point where we're incapable of paying sustained attention to stories and storytellers.

Spotlights

Executive Predictions 2022: What's Shiny?

The streaming media industry will thrive in 2022, responding to myriad technical issues and business opportunities. Streaming Media's research reports can help you get ahead of the curve.

DVEO Executive Predictions: NEXTGEN TV and AVOD/FAST Continue to Grow in 2022

ATSC 3.0 and ad-supported streaming services will lead the way this year, while blockchain, NFTs, and the Metaverse will take a more significant role in the broadcast and media industry.

Firstlight Media Executive Predictions: Metadata and the Cloud

Providers who found it easy to gain an audience over the last two years will have to work harder to keep them as the pandemic wanes, and OTT services will embrace fully cloud-based workflows

Live Sports TV Executive Predictions: Cloud-Based Production Is the Future

The pandemic accelerated trends that were already in motion, and now cloud workflows with distributed workers are here to stay.

Magewell Executive Predictions: 5G, the Cloud, and GPU-Powered AI

As beneficial as 5G can be itself, we believe a combination of 5G, the cloud, and GPU-powered AI will enable revolutionary advances in streaming production.

nanocosmos Executive Predictions: Interactive Live Streaming is More Important Than Ever

Even as physical events return, at least hybrid approaches are required to connect audiences virtually, with the highest Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS).

The Producer's View

The Greenest Codec: LCEVC

There's no doubt that LCEVC is a more efficient codec. But is it really going to make much of a difference in energy savings compared to other sustainability solutions?

Class Act

Online Video Learning: Just as Good as In Person?

There's been a lot written about online educational video since the beginning of the pandemic, and the results are surprising, though far from conclusive.