State the following sentences as true or false.

1. The Mobile Video Trends Report series were created because the volume of video traffic changes quickly.

2. Half of all video traffic consists to a large extent from the clips viewed.

3. IOS devices (iPhone, iPad) even if they do not support Flash can provide video on mobile.

4. The volume of HD video is growing quickly nowadays.

6.3. Video on demand (VOD)

or audio and video on demand (AVOD) are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand. IPTV technology is often used to bring video on demand to televisions and personal computers Catch up TV is a form of video on demand.

Television VOD systems either stream content through a set-top box, a computer or other device, allowing viewing in real time, or download it to a device such as a computer, digital video recorder, also called a personal video recorder or portable media player for viewing at any time. The majority of cable- and telco-based television providers offer both VOD streaming, including pay-per-view and free content, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the television set almost instantaneously, or downloading to a DVR rented from the provider, or downloaded onto a PC, for viewing in the future. Internet television, using theInternet, is an increasingly popular form of video on demand.

Some airlines offer AVOD as in-flight entertainment to passengers through individually controlled video screens embedded in seatbacks or armrests or offered via portable media players. Airline AVOD systems offer passengers the opportunity to select specific stored video or audio content and play it on demand including pause, fast forward, and rewind.

Download and streaming video on demand systems provide the user with a large subset of VCR functionality including pause, fast forward, fast rewind, slow forward, slow rewind, jump to previous/future frame etc. These functions are called 'trick modes'. For disk-based streaming systems which store and stream programs from hard disk drive, trick modes require additional processing and storage on the part of the server, because separate files for fast forward and rewind must be stored. Memory-based VOD streaming systems have the advantage of being able to perform trick modes directly from RAM, which requires no additional storage on the part of the processor.

It is possible to put video servers on LANs, in which case they can provide very rapid response to users. Streaming video servers can also serve a wider community via a WAN. Download VOD services are practical to homes equipped with cable modems or DSL connections. Servers for traditional cable and telco VOD services are usually placed at the cable head-end serving a particular market as well as cable hubs in larger markets. In the telco world, they are placed in either the central office, or a newly created location called a Video Head-End Office (VHO)

Push video on demand is a technique used by a number of broadcasters on systems that lack connectivity to provide true video on demand or by broadcasters who want to optimize their video streaming infrastructure by pre-loading the most popular contents to the consumer device. A push VOD system uses a personal video recorder (PVR) to store a selection of content, often transmitted in spare capacity overnight or all day long at low bandwidth. Users can watch the downloaded content at the time they desire, immediately and without any buffering issue. As content occupies space on the PVR hard drive, downloaded content is usually deleted after a week to make way for newer programs. The limited space on a PVR hard drive means that the selection of programs is usually restricted to most popular content. A new generation of Push VOD solution recently appeared on the market which, by using efficient error correction mechanisms, can free significant amount of bandwidth and that can deliver more than video e.g. magazines, interactive applications.

Near video on demand (NVOD) is a pay-per-view consumer video technique used by multi-channel broadcasters using high-bandwidth distribution mechanisms such as satellite and cable television. Multiple copies of a program are broadcast at short time intervals (typically 10–20 minutes) providing convenience for viewers, who can watch the program without needing to tune in at a scheduled point in time. This form is bandwidth intensive and is generally provided only by large operators with a great deal of redundant capacity and has been reduced in popularity as video on demand is implemented.

 

Answer the questions:

 

1. What can VOD and AVOD do?

2. 'What do ‘trick modes' include?

3. In which case do video servers provide a very rapid response to users?

4. What is NVOD?

 

Mobile video

Mobile video also comes in the form of streaming TV over the mobile network, which must be a 2.5G or 3G network. This mimics a television station in that the user cannot elect to see what they wish but must watch whatever is on the channel at the time.

There is also mobile broadcast TV, which operates like a traditional television station and broadcasts the content over a different spectrum. This frees up the mobile network to handle calls and other data usage, and because of the "one-to-many" nature of mobile broadcast TV the video quality is a lot better than that streamed over the mobile networks, which is a " one-to-one" system.

The problem is that broadcast technologies don't have a natural uplink, so for users to interact with the TV stream the service has to be closely integrated to the carriers mobile network. The main technologies for broadcast TV are DVB-H, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) and MediaFLO.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), an alliance of broadcasters dedicated to accelerating the development and rollout of mobile television, has recently integrated functions with the National Association of Broadcasters.

Broadcasters are excited about the possibilities of mobile TV, which is already available in 130 markets reaching half the nation. Mobile TV is your favorite local content when and where you want it – on your smartphone or tablet – so you don't have to miss the weather report, the big game or your favorite show if you're on the go!

With mobile TV, viewers can tune in to live, local news, traffic information, weather, sporting events and entertainment programs from the convenience of their car, at the beach – wherever they may be, using a variety of mobile and video devices. And because the technology uses the broadcast airwaves – not the Internet – no WiFi is needed and you won't experience buffering.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ASTC) approved the A /153 ATSC mobile TV standard on October 15, 2009. This technology offers local broadcasters significant opportunities to provide consumers with new services in their over-the-air digital channel. The ATSC mobile TV standard is the result of an intense development effort involving participants from all over the world and across television and mobile device industries. The ATSC mobile TV system achieves the robustness necessary for mobile reception by adding extra training sequences and forward error correction. The mobile TV system converts the current 8-VSB emission into a dual-stream system without altering the emitted spectral characteristics. It does this by selecting some of the MPEG-2 segments (corresponding to MPEG-2 Transport packets in the current system) and allocating the payloads in those segments to carry the mobile TV data in a manner that existing legacy receivers ignore.

 

Geolocation videos are videos with geolocation features. It is achieved by synchronizing user generated videos with the data related to the location and the navigation path of the user, highlighted on the maps, so that the viewer of the video gets more information apart from the video feed. A geolocation video may be used in several ways such as for grouping geographically similar videos or geotagged relevant videos, geotagging of videos by the user or the viewer, augmented reality during video chat, creating maps of nearby friends during video chat, 3-dimensional realization of triangular disaster or crisis spots using multiple video feeds, video-check-in feature, video tourism, health and fitness, GPRS navigation etc

State the following sentences as true or false:

1. Mobile video coming in the form of streaming TV over the mobile network must be a 2.5G or 3G network.
2. Mobile broadcast TV doesn’t operate like a traditional television station.
3. Mobile broadcast TV has a better quality than that streamed over the mobile networks thanks to the "one-to-many" nature.
4. The Open Mobile Video Coalition works separately from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Answer the questions:

 

1. What are the main technologies for broadcast TV?
2. What does ASTC offer?

 

 

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Ilan Daniel is a Video Technology Expert. He and his team are the people at Mobixell who look into the future and track emerging trends and technologies in order to recommend what Mobixell video optimization products should do.

Q: What’s so special about HTML5, and what are some new features it offers?
A: HTML has not been updated since 2000. So a long list of improvements has built up over that time. The most interesting of those improvements to us – and probably to everyone who’s following the development of HTML5 – are the implementation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and video elements as part of the HTML language rather than by use of players/plugins as done previously. SVG is meant to help developers make Adobe Flash-like animations, which are supported by HTML5 with no need for add-ons. HTML5 video also means built-in video streaming support rather than the need to make use of an embedded Flash player. FLV is still the dominant format when it comes to streaming video and there are only a handful of sites that use HTML5 applications, we are certain that HTML5 video and SVG are going to be big.

Q: If HTML5 already exists, why don’t we see any HTML5 video or sites yet?
A: Most Web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari already have versions that support HTML5 at least partially. According to arstechnica.com, about 90% of mobile browsers support HTML5. But as many as 60% of desktop users still use browser versions that do not support HTML5 at all. It’s the classic chicken and egg story; There is little content because there is not enough support to justify the development, and there’s not enough support because there is not enough content to justify it. Companies like Adobe are working toward breaking the standoff by creating tools for developers to support HTML5. And although mobile operators are generally not demanding it yet, Mobixell has already included support for HTML5 video optimization in its Seamless Access Mobile Internet Platform, and will continue adding support as HTML5 evolves.

Q: So all we need for HTML5 videos to work is a browser that supports HTML5?
A: It is actually not that simple; There are three native file formats supported in HTML5. OGG with Theora/Vorbis (video/audio) codecs came first, and was replaced almost completely by two newer formats: MP4 and WebM. MP4 H264/AAC is currently the most common format, which is supported both by Apple iOS and Android. WebM MKV VP8/Vorbis is the newest format, and is supported by Android devices as well. Being an open source format, I believe WebM is certain to grow and become dominant. YouTube, for example, have already converted more than 80 percent of their content to WebM format, and new YouTube content is automatically stored as WebM alongside the FLV files. So the plain answer to your question is – No. While HTML5 is a standard wrapper to the video, the video format embedded in it may still have compatibility constraints through different end-devices.