Making the Case for Government-Mandated Online Video Standards

If you have your finger on the pulse of the online video industry, then you probably already know that it’s no trivial task to start streaming content. Getting your service up and running can involve cobbling together a lot of different pieces from a very big ecosystem, 从编码到货币化再到测量. And, for the most part, scaling those kinds of solutions can be difficult. An increasing number of users can significantly strain architectures composed of components that don’t natively communicate with each other. Many of the individual services needed to stream video implement their technologies using proprietary methods, putting the onus on the service provider to link them all together.

有两种方法可以解决这个问题. 第一种是尝试像创作这样的一体化解决方案, NeuLion, 威瑞森数字媒体服务, MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media), 现在甚至是IBM. The benefits are pretty obvious: You not only receive integrated services, but you have a single vendor; you reach the market faster; and you can probably deliver a single, 跨设备的一致体验. 不过，也有缺点. 第一个, you are locked into a specific way of implementing your video streaming service that may or may not include best-in-breed technologies. 和第二, it’s nearly impossible to swap out one technology for another because they are all integrated and supported by the vendor.

The other solution is for the service provider to source the technologies individually and connect them together. But in that case, as I mentioned earlier, the tools don’t inherently interoperate. 这使得整合更加困难. 更多的 importantly, it makes providing a consistent experience for audiences difficult at best.

但潜在的问题是什么? 为什么不是所有的服务——比如测量, 交付, 编码, 以同样的方式实现发现? 答案很简单:缺乏标准.

Right now, the video streaming industry is a veritable Wild West. The broadcast industry is governed by a number of standards, making the experience of watching TV the same regardless if you are sitting on your couch or at the local bar. 然而, 视频流媒体服务没有标准, so the 交付 experience for consumers is all over the map.

但也许还有一线希望流媒体视频联盟 (上海广电). This organization formed to help the industry implement a video streaming service that scales architecturally and economically and to decide how the individual technologies should operate. If everyone in the industry conformed to the guidelines or standards put out by an organization like the SVA, building and running an online video streaming service would be simple—the tools would all work the same way and, 希望, 更容易进行互操作, ultimately providing a consistent experience regardless of service provider.

The SVA’s first step was listening to its 40-plus member companies from across the video streaming ecosystem discuss the need for standards. 但是SVA现在做的不仅仅是空谈. The SVA’s working groups are producing best practices and guidelines that help shape how a video streaming service should operate.

这是一个重要的问题:这就够了吗? In order to ensure the consistent experience that video streaming needs to deliver to audiences, perhaps standards must be developed and even mandated by government agencies. As the world of television transitions from linear broadcast to streaming, it only makes sense for legislative bodies (such as the Federal Communications Commission) to get involved. And the best way for that to happen is for the legislative bodies to support standards the industry itself defines.

现在是锻造至尊魔戒的时候了. The SVA is taking a leadership role in defining how video streaming will become a natural replacement for traditional television broadcast. 没有SVA这样的组织, 我担心视频流媒体可能仍然只是一种奇怪的怪东西, 退居二线.

本文原载于2016年6月刊 流媒体杂志 “会有一枚戒指统治一切吗??”