Streaming Video Blog

The default mental image of video compression involves unwanted video artifacts, like pixelation and blockiness in the image. This sells short, though, the complexity that actually goes into compressing video content. In particular, it overlooks a fascinating process called interframe, which involves keyframes and delta frames to intelligently compress content in a manner that is intended to go unnoticed.

This article describes this process in detail, while also giving best practices and ideal encoder settings that you can apply for use with your live streaming platform.

• Understanding video frames
• An opportunity to compress: interframe
• What is a keyframe?
• How do p-frames work?
• What are b-frames and how do they differ from p-frames?
• How do you set a keyframe?
• Choosing a keyframe interval at the encoder Level
• Relationship between keyframes and bitrates
• What’s the best setting for a keyframe Interval?
• What’s an IDR-frame?
• Should someone use an “auto” keyframe setting?
• Perfecting a keyframe strategy

2020 was very much the year of virtual events, as previously physical venues began offering an online version of their event. Often times this would include interactivity among viewers or participants, letting them feel more involved. With people staying remote due to the pandemic, these types of events skyrocketed in adoption. As outlined in our 2021 video trends webinar, we have reason to believe that this year will also tremendous use of virtual events with high usage and evolution of the concept.

So what types of virtual events are out there? Which ones are right for you, and what might your goal or goals be? We outline 8 different use cases for your virtual events platform and possible goals to help your event be a successful one.

Back in the 1950’s and 60’s, much (if not most) early broadcast radio and television programming was produced and broadcasted live.

The skills of producing a live broadcast were refined and improved through the years. Early radio broadcasters like Alan Freed and Dick Clark, TV soap operas like As The World Turns and The Edge Of Night, most US News coverage, sporting events like the Superbowl and of course shows such as Saturday Night Live all have also used live television as a device to gain viewers by making their programs more (or atleast appear) exciting.

But the skills these producers used, whether for the 1969 Landing on the Moon, the 1996 Dallas Cowboys Superbowl victory or the live episode of ER in 1997, are no different than for a live streaming show or event.

Running virtual or hybrid events? Need some advice to help boost virtual event registration?

These six steps will help you increase your virtual event attendance. They assume you are already using a virtual event platform to run the conference, as they focus more on promotion. If you need a more in-depth guide that includes executing the event, check out this definitive guide to running virtual events.

• Highlight speakers and have them promote
• Tease or share pre-event content
• Promote your agenda
• Lean on testimonials
• Make your main event page accessible… very accessible
• Offer an on demand experience

Video streaming and delivery is a resource intensive process. This is attributed to the various networks a video stream must pass through as well as the quality of the video, as higher bitrates and resolutions require more information related to that stream to be sent to the end viewer. As a result of this requirement, it’s not recommended to broadcast video using your own server. For companies, this can result in bottlenecks from the servers hosting or unnecessary costs to scale a server infrastructure.

One solution to avoid both, though, is through utilizing a CDN (content delivery network). This article talks about the basics of delivering content over the Internet before why it’s important to have a CDN when streaming video content.

• The delivery process
• Latency
• The streaming video process and the delivery hurdle
• The solution: content delivery networks (CDNs)
• What is a CDN?
• Going beyond a CDN

If you are already familiar with CDNs and would rather learn more about how IBM Watson Media offers a more robust solution for video streaming, read our live video scalability white paper.