Equal access legislation in the UK, US and other countries has led to widespread captions and subtitles for broadcast services. However, despite the efforts of a number of lobbying groups, availability of captions on video-on-demand services, including those streamed via the internet, have been slow to take off. This article argues that VOD providers should act now to make captions and subtitles available as part of their offering.
Dedicated hardware servers running fully integrated software have long formed the preferred technical solution for broadcasters’ playout. Easy to install, configure and operate, they continue to be the preferred choice for any new broadcast channel. They are highly compact, easy to maintain and extremely cost-efficient. Additional channels can be added almost overnight.
Broadcasters and content owners tend to look at the world of television and advertising as divided into linear and non-linear. The two models do have much in common; content, monetization, tracking, and invoicing, for example. However, there are clear differences between broadcast and targeted-delivery models; the use of indirect versus qualified and specific viewer data. And, of course the distribution platforms are different.
With the advent of rapidly changing consumer viewing habits and literally billions of portable devices accessible around the world, media companies are being challenged like never before to meet the demand or be left behind. Expanding a content provider’s reach is what all the fuss is about. The primary technology that is broadening this reach is the Internet Protocol (IP) for delivery of video.
This is the second in the series and here we will begin to get into a more granular discussion of the IP addresses and network transmission protocols. It is important to understand the different transmission and addressing protocols as devices, applications and systems each have specific requirements based on their role in the IP architecture.
Stone, papyrus, paper.. the history of recorded information suggests that a physical medium has the best chance of long term survival. It’s a problem that Hollywood studios continues to grapple with by retaining archival film prints of movies in the knowledge that, contrary to digital, optical or cloud-based formats, it will safely last a century. The BFI’s Master Film Store in Warwickshire is a giant fridge capable of housing 450,00 film canisters – the sum of UK film heritage. Most film releases also receive a digital back-up, usually on LTO, from which the data requires periodical migration to new tapes. While LTO could feasibly last several decades, work is afoot to find a longer lasting format which doesn’t require human intervention, potential technical read/write obsolescence or run the risk of data decay.
In the world of mobile television production trucks, most companies offer two basic types of vehicles: sports and entertainment. If you inquire about renting a truck, most companies will send you a list of the equipment on board and a flat price.
Forensic watermarking is the key to combating OTT stream piracy. Anyone who has attended a seminar on video security over the last year cannot fail to have noticed that content redistribution over the Internet is set to overtake traditional control word sharing as the biggest single piracy threat to premium content. This has been borne out by events, with some OTT premium sports services finding that as much as 50% of their “customers” do not have a legitimate subscription. Instead they have either bypassed security controls directly or accessed a pirated stream that they may have paid for, or that may instead carry advertising.
