July 2021 Member Spotlight
Making Streaming Video Better
Streaming video is exploding in popularity. Consumers are watching more video online across a myriad of devices. But, the streaming experiences, across providers, can be wildly different from each other which ultimately hurts adoption. The problem is a lack of collaboration within the industry. All of the streaming providers and broadcasters are building their online video solutions with no guidance. They are doing what they have to do to make it work for their subscribers. The Streaming Video Alliance provides a forum for collaboration to improve interoperability among operators, providers, and vendors. Together, companies from across the video ecosystem work to build best practices and specifications that ensure a more consistent end-user experience and promote further adoption of online video.
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Published Technical Documents
Below are some recent technical publications produced by our Working Groups. You can see the full list here.
Draft Technical Documents
Below are some documents currently under development by Streaming Video Alliance working groups.
(DRAFT) Metadata Landscape
The evolution of content distribution models over the past decades has introduced a tremendous amount of flexibility for content processing and delivery. The availability of …
(DRAFT) Home Storage Open Caching Node
The Home Storage Open Caching Node (HS-OCN) project adds functionality to the open caching system to further improve quality of experience (QoE) on networks with …
(DRAFT) 5G and the Edge Cloud for Streaming Video
As mobile networks evolved, became faster and offered more and more bandwidth, consumer habits also changed. Users began to adopt data-hungry activities like streaming video, …
(DRAFT) Open Caching Capacity Interface
This document defines the specification for an API to retrieve capacity metrics from an Open Caching Node.
Our Technical Groups
The Streaming Video Alliance has a number of different technical groups to solve critical challenges across the streaming video ecosystem. Click on one to find out more.
Advertising
The Advertising Working Group works to define and develop best practices around the integration and operational processes for ad-supported streaming services.
Edge Storage
The Edge Storage Working Group (a sub-group of Open Caching) works to define how storage in the home and at the network edge can be employed to improve the viewer experience.
Geo
The Geo Working Group (a sub-group of Network and Transport) works to define specifications and best practices for how geographical data can be used in streaming video.
Live Streaming
The Live Streaming Working Group works to define industry best practices that address the technical challenges involved in streaming high quality at global scale.
Metadata
The Metadata Working Group will propose metadata definitions and enhancements to existing standards to provide better interoperability and scale for the streaming industry.
Measurement/QoE
The Measurement/QoE Working Group works to identify metrics, establish guidelines on how to calculate them, and to create best practices on implementing a system to capture QoE and other measurement data.
Network & Transport
The Network and Transport Working Group works to identify the characteristics of audience growth that would require rapid scaling and establish architecture guidelines to meet them.
Open Caching
The Open Caching Working Group works to identify the critical components of a non-proprietary caching system and establish basic architectural guidelines for implementation.
Player and Playback
The Player and Playback Study Group works to understand the technical challenges facing player implementation and optimization across the device ecosystem.
Privacy & Protection
The Privacy and Protection Working Group focuses on identifying critical data elements to collect and to describe the different methods by which to safeguard this data during storage and usage.
Virtual Reality
The VR/360-Degree Video Study Group works to understand the VR market and how it is impacting traditional video experiences while capturing the state of VR technologies, the players, and use-cases.
As consumer demand rises for online video and more platforms, devices, and experiences enter the market, video streaming continues its rapid trajectory. Through the Alliance, we are able to engage in significant discussions about what this means for the future of our industry and how to best work together to bring optimal viewing experiences to our customers around the globe.
The Streaming Video Alliance plays a valuable role in evolving an online video ecosystem that is stable, scalable and capable of delivering world-class experiences to consumers. We greatly value the work of the Alliance and its commitment to convening leaders in this space to tackle challenges of global scale.
ViacomCBS is excited to join the Streaming Video Alliance and collaborate with its member technology companies, programmers, and distributors to promote standards around video quality of service measurement and improved streaming efficiency that will benefit us all and our audiences.
The biggest movement we see in the CDN market is exponential growth in the OTT space. Consumers today are taking control of the viewing experience. They’re deciding what to watch, when to watch it, and they expect it to be delivered at broadcast quality to any device. Working alongside Alliance members to develop best practices and industry standards will help our customers take full advantage of direct-to-consumer services.
OTT continues to be a key growth driver and we’re intently focused on delivering high-quality streaming experiences and content to our customers. As a Streaming Video Alliance member, we continue to support the Alliance mission of improved network efficiency, scalability and customer experience.
The Streaming Video Alliance has become a critical voice in the industry, enabling organizations from across the online video ecosystem, even competitors, to come together and collaborate on architecture, specifications and best practices that allow us to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape. As founding members, Qwilt is wholeheartedly committed to the mission of the Alliance and will continue to contribute to the on-going work.
We have over 22.5 million customers across seven European territories, and have just launched two new streaming services in Spain and Switzerland, further strengthening our position as the leading provider of streaming services in Europe. As consumer demand continues to grow, the Alliance is an excellent forum for us to contribute, collaborate and share learnings with other leading streaming services.
As we revealed in our 2017 OTT Video Services Study, OTT video is poised to overtake TV within five years, and yet bandwidth limitation challenges are giving way to concerns around quality of service and quality of experience. There is no better time for us to come together as a united industry alliance to address these potentially show-stopping issues.
As one of the founding members of the Alliance, we have been intimately involved in the industry discussion and working groups that are helping to bring issues to light and work toward solutions. There is a lot of uncharted territory ahead in the OTT market and we are confident that through the work of the Alliance members, including ourselves, we can make positive, long term impact in moving this market forward.
Embracing online streaming is the next big step in the evolution of cable TV and keeping our audience engaged while doing so is critical. Our broadband subscriber numbers continue to rise, representing a growing portion of our business and clearly a sign of the times. Working closely with the other members of the Alliance helps us keep a pulse on the OTT space and problem solve the broader industry challenges.
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Questions About the Alliance?
Below are some common questions people have about the Streaming Video Alliance. You can find more here, or ask your own question!
No. The Alliance will submit any draft specifications created to the appropriate standards body (e.g. IETF, CTA, etc.) for ratification. We have formed a number of liaisons with other industry bodies and we will continue to do so as we create a network.
The Streaming Video Alliance has two primary membership levels. The first level, supporting, is designed for companies that want to listen and observe but can’t commit to contributing. This means they can attend meetings and working group sessions but can’t contribute to documents (such as reviewing or writing sections), can’t lead projects, can’t chair working groups, etc. The second level, principal, is designed for companies seeking to actively participate in one or more working groups. They can lead projects, act as working group chairs, vote on publications, be voted to the board (two board seats are reserved for principal members), and contribute to documents.
The Streaming Video Alliance has three primary goals. First, is to educate the industry on the challenges of delivering the highest-quality possible viewer experience for streaming video at scale. Second, is to provide a forum for streaming video industry companies to collaborate. Third, is to define solutions to those technical challenges through best practices, guidelines, specifications, and more.
The Alliance is a non-profit, non-equity, 501 (c)(6) organization incorporated in the state of Delaware. The Alliance is governed by the Board of Directors and managed by an experienced team.
From the Blog
Alliance Responds to New HLS Content Steering Proposal
Earlier this year, a new proposal was submitted by Apple to the HLS specification which addressed CDN switching. The proposal, HLS Content Steering Proposal 1.1b1, was posted to the IETF hls-interest mailing list for comment, where it received considerable feedback regarding the proposal’s lack of compatibility with typical CDN tokenization schemes. An ad-hoc group from
Jason Thibeault
April 13, 2021
Exposing the Inner Workings of Streaming Video
Exposing the Inner Workings of Streaming Video What many people outside of the industry don’t understand is how complicated it is to deliver streaming video. Unlike broadcast television, which is based on standardized, interoperable technology, much of the streaming video stack needs to be connected together in an ad-hoc fashion through APIs or customer integrations.
Jason Thibeault
March 30, 2021
Congratulations to Our Emmy Award-Winning Members!
As an organization devoted to providing a collaborative forum for companies to solve critical technology challenges in the streaming video industry, we are overjoyed to see so many of our member companies achieve such a pinnacle of technical achievement by winning a 2021 Emmy Award. It will be amazing to see how we can incorporate
Jason Thibeault
February 3, 2021