FEED Issue 12

50 ROUND TABLE Viewer Experience

HANK THE CUSTOMER: I’m Hank! And I’m an angry video consumer! Angry, angry, angry! Why so angry? I’m not getting the video service I deserve! I’ve gathered you experts together because I want answers! And no one leaves this room until I get them! First, I keep hearing this term ‘quality of experience’ (or QoE). What exactly is quality of experience? How is it different from quality of service (or QoS)? FABIO MURRA: Quality of experience is your overall satisfaction with your video service, and refers to everything from whether you feel like you’re getting value for money to how much you like the content. Quality of service is a narrower, more technical term that refers to how well the video and audio streams reach you over your internet connection. The two cross over, of course. For example, a quality of service measurement would assess the amount of jitter and buffering in your network connection as the video plays back. This is most often because the network is so busy there is not enough bandwidth to deliver your video. Sadly, this is still quite common, and you’d have every right to feel annoyed your quality of experience has been affected as a result. SCOTT PUOPOLO: Essentially, quality of experience is what you, the video consumer, are viewing. Factors that might influence your experience include buffering and drop-outs in the video feed.

QOS?... Or QOE? ...Or...?

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