协作是减少在线视频延迟的关键

When we think about what’s happening in the video space—the gradual transition from broadcast to online distribution—one comparison between TV and online video always comes to mind: “broadcast quality.” I know that I write and talk about this comparison until I’m blue in the face, but here it is again: Online video needs to meet the expectations people have developed for the video experience by watching broadcast television over the past 30 years. 但我们通常把广播质量等同于终端用户. 所以内容所有者的焦点, 分销商, 网络运营商, over-the-top (OTT) providers has been on improving buffer rates, 减少流内故障, 消除游戏失败, making engagement (like how long a user watches a video) better. 技术提供商，例如 Conviva, IneoQuest, 工作中的好人 are all making their living by focusing on this aspect of the problem.

But that focus has left a host of inefficiencies and latency in other parts of the value chain— encoding, 包装, 保护, 交付, 和更多的. 整个工作流程, things are slower than they probably need to be as content moves from acquisition to playback. Some of that slowness is a consequence of the physical hardware (routers, 交换机)和公共互联网, while other degradation is a result of poorly cobbled-together solutions.

想想看. 电视产业已经成熟了几十年, to build workflows that work seamlessly and employ technology that is based on ratified standards mandated by governmental agencies. Online video, on the contrary, is only a fraction of the age and has no guidance. Companies will solve technical streaming problems with duct tape and bubble gum if necessary, focusing more on just getting the workflow (with all its disparate components) to work together in some fashion rather than worrying if it’s the best way to accomplish the end task.

我们可以把这种丑陋称为广播质量的“后端”. 未能优化它意味着, 最终, failing to provide consumers with the kind of experience they expect because the back end impacts the front end. Whether a user has to wait a few extra seconds for just-in-time 包装 or an extra hour for content to become available because of workflow inefficiencies, latency in the workflow and value chain have adverse effects on the entirety of the experience. 人们不必等着看电视.

为了从工作流程中挤出延迟, online video technology companies need to rally around collaboration. Failing to expose APIs or enable third-party companies to work with platforms and technologies just promises to slow down the video value chain even more. Instead of focusing on how to optimize front-end key performance indicators, perhaps OTT providers should look at how to optimize the interoperability between the different vendor technologies that comprise its publishing and 交付 processes. By turning attention away from the front end and toward the back end, content 分销商 can probably squeeze a considerable amount of wait time out of the system while also improving the overall integrity, 弹性, 以及他们平台的运营.

我们需要标准这一论点并不难提出. The online video industry needs guidance, clarity, best practices. But collaboration is just as important as the documentation to build high-quality, 一致的流媒体服务. 在流媒体视频联盟, 例如, competitors come together in an effort to optimize the value chain, balancing their own needs against the much broader needs of the industry as a whole. This kind of collaboration is critical to reducing that latency because without the intention by technology companies to work together, content 分销商 will be left with Frankenstein systems woefully in need of optimization. And that will mean more latency in the back end of broadcast quality.

For the good of the industry, vendors must collaborate better. 当这种情况发生时, there’s a far better chance that online video will provide the broadcast-quality experience that consumers expect.

[本文发表于2016年10月号。 流媒体杂志 “合作至关重要”."]