Latin America. 2018 was an eventful year for the video streaming industry in general and especially for us here at Bitmovin! We introduced many new cutting-edge features, including the release of one of the first publicly released commercial AV1 encoders, title coding, three-pass encoding, a new modular player, and more.
There is no doubt that 2019 will see even more demand for video streaming innovation. Driven by growing trends such as live sports streaming, direct to fans, and studios launching direct-to-consumer online streaming services, video streaming is poised for continued exponential growth. The role that technology must play within this process is to enable content owners to improve and differentiate the experience of their consumers.
2019 is going to be an exciting year in our industry, with a couple of major advancements in technology to really impact the way we experience online video. Here are our top 6 choices of top trends in video streaming that we believe will help shape the next 12 months:
1. Coding by title is adopted on a large scale
Netflix-style VOD with high-quality adaptive streaming will reach the masses, leveling the playing field for consumer expectations. Title coding, where encoding parameters are automatically determined by content type, was once only available to big names in the industry.
In 2019, we expect to see it increasingly used by everyone to optimize the quality of each piece of content. Finally, we see it replacing fixed bitrate ladder configurations across the board. With widespread adoption comes the need to implement new use cases with advertising and new standards to support them.
2. Low latency transmission becomes a priority.
Our industry has always been very focused on video quality. Tackling latency will become a higher priority in 2019, driven by higher expectations of live sports experiences. We expect low-latency streaming over HTTP to get its first major implementations and start seeing support for major CDNs.
So far, we haven't seen large-scale implementations of low latency due to limitations in support. Each individual component within the delivery chain (encoder, CDN, player) must be optimized for low latency to ensure a strong experience. Analytics will play a crucial role in the process, as real-time configuration adjustments are required to keep latency times as low as possible.
For viewers, low-latency streaming will serve to provide an even more immersive viewing experience, especially for live sports, games, and interactive streaming apps. With the technology in place, we expect to see exciting new use cases emerge in no time.
3. Widespread access to AV1 in multi-codec scenarios
Now that virtually every major browser vendor has started supporting AV1 in their stable releases, we expect to see it change in full swing. The biggest players of online video will take the lead, with premium VOD services as precursors, as they can spread the cost of computing resources.
With the improvements introduced continuously, the required coding times will continue to decrease, making the codec a completely viable option for most usage scenarios. The shift to AV1 comes with the trend towards multi-codec environments, which we will see accelerate in 2019. Content providers will look to apply the best solution for each specific scenario and the multiple codec is an excellent answer to this challenge.
4. Switch to hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Hybrid and multi-cloud cloud environments have been a key trend in recent years, as the move toward SaaS has continued to impact most industries. In the world of video content delivery, which is naturally heavy on the consumption of computing resources, cloud-based coding has become a widely used practice.
With the emergence of highly capable orchestration services like Kubernetes, the use of technology is becoming easier for IT departments and we are quickly seeing that containerization is becoming a large part of IT infrastructures.
Container-based coding solutions benefit from this general trend and there is no doubt that we will see it continue in 2019. By using resources more efficiently, content owners will be able to provide higher quality service without losing costs.
5. AI applications that increase the quality and efficiency of coding.
Increasing coding through the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is likely to be done some more important steps in 2019. Bitmovin has already demonstrated what AI-enabled coding can do, with the implementation of ML in the three-step encoding procedure.
Content analysis during the different stages of delivery is one of the key applications, where AI can help streamline the coding process and unlock new levels of quality and efficiency. As super-high-resolution content becomes increasingly important, efficiency will play a crucial role and we see the intelligent implementation of AI as an important driver to prepare for mass-market realization.
6. The growing importance of developer influence.
We love the new term "devsumer" coined by technology investor Elad Gil introduced in his recent blog post. We see the market growing to expand to all sorts of diverse "manufacturers" who are replacing what used to be expensive consulting services to bring together developer tools.
These devsumers are growing in number and are smarter than being able to put things together on their own. They don't need pretty GUIs, instead they look for reliable, well-documented tools. We are eager to expand our own resources and documentation to support this growing group of technology manufacturers, stay informed.
Text written by Stefan Lederer, CEO of Bitmovin
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