17 YOUR TAKE OTT
powerful tools to deliver it. However, too often the approach one takes to adopting streaming media or OTT services chokes all its potential before it gets started.
for any good streaming media or OTT service. This approach is also true of the underlying content and metadata distribution, eg content formatting, encoding, storage, CDN, content protection and rights management. It is ideal if they work in a media workflow process designed to fit in with the centralised cloud managed services. If it forms part of a multi-tenant architecture, so much the better, as most of the software driving your service will have been used by other clients, constantly exercised and tested at scale, providing a strong degree of reassurance in its robustness. THE APPS Though it might seem counterintuitive, the apps come last. Of course, this doesn’t stop the subsequent commissioning of device apps, to work with this perfect cloud hub, being complex and expensive. Unless, of course, these were also designed to be added as a coherent part of an overall framework. A plug-in philosophy applied to a set of device-optimised media players, with
established APIs for the central service hub, reaps multiple rewards to the ‘service first’ approach; quicker time to market, lower cost multi-device rollout and exercised reusable software for reliance and quality of service. All too often, people start by commissioning a stand-alone app to test the market. If the service takes off, the disparately adopted back-end services needed to support the app now have to be either stubbornly matured or replaced. The answer is to take a ‘service first’ approach, and architect it so that adding apps is by design, not by commission. At Easel TV, we create a cohesive set of cloud services. This is then designed to work with an Azure and AWS media pipeline for global scaling and distribution. And finally, we’ve created a set of device-optimised players to slot into this framework. We see device apps as intrinsic components designed to slot into the architecture of a cloud core. You might think of it as analogous to adding a speaker to your Sonos home entertainment hub. None of this implies starting again. Existing apps and legacy systems can continue to stand a service in good stead. Rather, as new devices or services are added, opportunities will present themselves to migrate towards a ‘service first’ approach. This strategic approach plays to the emerging market; more engaging content on more devices globally, allowing consumers to get deeper, more immersive media and entertainment services, anywhere, anytime, whatever their vice.
CLOUDY START The most significant aspect of the
enormous potential laid out above is that it is derived from (and feeds) a central, cloud-based nerve centre. Even if you only want one app, or start with a single app, many of these central services are still required, and the rest will almost certainly be desired going forward. Having these central facilities working together as one cohesive service is key, because getting these right dictates the quality, capability and cost of the service you end up with. Look at it like a neatly fitting puzzle. If you’re gathering data from content publishing, consumer registrations and marketing, it doesn’t make sense to do these in isolation. If you’re publishing content, granting entitlements or garnering analytics on isolated device apps, then you’re losing the big picture. A cohesive set of central service tools designed to work together is fundamental strategic planning
OFTEN, THE APPROACH ONE TAKES TO ADOPTING STREAMING MEDIA OR OTT SERVICES CHOKES ALL ITS POTENTIAL BEFORE IT GETS STARTED
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