In many ways, the streaming video industry is very siloed. While the technology stack is seemingly connected together (sometimes with a bit of tape and bubblegum), it is often disconnected from other aspects of the video workflow, such as content production. But without that content, there would be no streaming video workflow and, what’s more, there are many operational and technology choices made downstream from where content is created (or the technology of content is developed). So why are these two things, content and distribution (as the streaming workflow is really about distribution), not connected better together?
That’s exactly the epiphany we had at the SVTA when the Ultra High Def Forum (UHDF) approached us about merging into our organization.
Regardless of how content is delivered, whether that’s through a fiber optic cable or over the air or from a satellite, the content influences a lot of the decision making within the streaming video tech stack. The content quality (4K, HDR, etc.) and the type of content (lots of motion, no motion) affects choices around encoding and packaging. It affects bitrate ladders. It can even impact security choices (4K or high-value, premium content may require additional security measures). In the initial conversations with the UHDF, we began to see this connection. Although the UHDF historically has been more “broadcast focused”, we know that the two worlds of broadcast and streaming are really one world of content distribution. And while content distribution has been moving steadily towards IP (which is just cheaper to move around) many of the means for broadcast are not going away anytime soon. That’s because there are still many hundreds of millions of people around the globe who can only access video content when it’s distributed through a television signal. In fact, if you look at live video (which is arguably the type of video which has grown exponentially and, quite honestly, is responsible for much of the innovation over the past decade), you can see where broadcast and streaming are melded together which has resulted in workflows that are more interconnected.
Content, then, weaves together all of the activities and technologies across traditional broadcast and streaming. And that is precisely why we decided to bring the UHDF into the SVTA. While the exact type of integration is yet to be determined (we imagine there will be some kind of top-level Working Group, something like “Content Quality and Production”, under which the UHDF, and perhaps other existing SVTA Working Groups, will be situated), the proverbial train has left the station.
At an annual UHDF breakfast on Saturday at IBC, we revealed the plan to merge UHDF into SVTA which was very positively received by the UHDF audience, an audience that has historically been very broadcast heavy. But as you also probably know, many broadcasters have already embraced streaming (or “digital distribution” as they like to call it) and there are even national efforts, such as in the U.K., to mandate that all video be delivered via streaming. Despite the rumblings of “us” (broadcasters) versus “them” (streamers), there is a natural synergy that has been forming between the two groups for years, simmering under the surface and quietly reshaping how our collective industry, video content, has been evolving. Of course, there will always be bumps in the road and obstacles to overcome, but, in the end, there is only content distribution regardless of how that content gets to the viewer.
Much as when DASH-IF joined the SVTA, there is a lot of work ahead of us to connect the UHDF activities into the larger SVTA mission of solving the technical challenges of securely streaming high-quality video at scale. Interoperability has long plagued our industry and is something that we, at the SVTA, are also seeking to improve. With the UHDF guidelines now part of the SVTA, we can leverage the larger SVTA member pool (which has many companies that live in both the broadcast and streaming world but were not members of the UHDF) to bring more technical expertise and insight to solving new technical challenges of content quality and production. We see the UHDF collaborating with other Working Groups in an effort to improve that interoperability and reduce the siloing which has been hurting our industry the past decades.
The transaction isn’t done but our two boards have agreed to do this and we already have a set of terms that are pretty much finalized. We expect things to move forward quickly but this will definitely happen by the end of the year. Fingers crossed then, that this decision continues, and maybe even intensifies, the slow merging of broadcast and streaming into a single industry, a single workflow, and a single mission—to deliver the best possible video experience to viewers…on whatever device they want to watch, wherever they are.
Jason Thibeault
Jason is the CEO of the Streaming Video Technology Alliance, the international technical association for streaming video which brings companies from across the streaming ecosystem together to collaborate on technical solutions to delivering high-quality video at scale. In this role, he runs day-to-day operations, finances, member recruitment, strategy, and evangelizes the organization at events around the world. He is also the co-founder of a big data startup, datazoom.io. Jason is a contributing editor at Streaming Media Magazine and has written several books.