Online video platform
An online video platform (OVP) is a productized-service that enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, scalable solution that can be monetized.
Online video platforms can be a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution model, a DIY (Do It Yourself) model or UGC (User Generated Content) model solution. The OVP comes with an end-to-end tool set to upload, encode, manage, playback, style, deliver, distribute, download, publish and measure quality (QoS) or audience engagement (QoE) of online video content for both on-demand and live delivery. This is usually manifested as a User Interface with log-in credentials. OVPs also include providing a custom video player or a third-party video player that can be embedded in a website. Modern online video platforms are often coupled up with embedded video analytics providing video publishers with detailed insights into video performance: the total number of video views, impressions, and unique views; video watch time, stats on user location, visits, and behavior on the site. Video heatmaps allow to see how an average user engagement rate changes through the viewing process in order to measure audience interaction[1] and to create compelling video content. OVPs are synonymous with the OTT (Over-the-top) video industry although there are many OVP providers that are also present in broadcast markets, serving Video On Demand set-top boxes.
OVP product models vary in scale and feature-set, ranging from ready-made solutions that individuals can use, to white label models that can be customized by enterprise clients or media/content aggregators and integrated with their traditional broadcast workflows. The former example is YouTube. The latter example is predominantly found in FTA (Free-To-Air) or Pay-TV broadcasters who seek to provide an OTT service that extends the availability of their content on desktops or multiple mobility devices.
In general, the User Interface accessed by operational users of the OVP service is SaaS-based. Revenue is derived from the monthly subscription based on the number of users it is licensed to and the complexity of the workflow. Some workflows require encryption of content with DRM and this increases the cost of using the service. When videos need to be transcoded from their original source format/resolution to a mezzanine format (suitable for management and mass-delivery), the solution is either via onsite transcoders or cloud-based ones. The latter would be where PaaS or Platform as a Service, is provided as an additional cost.
It is feasible, but rare, for large broadcasters to develop their own proprietary OVP. However, this can require complex development and maintenance costs and diverts attention to 'building' as opposed to distributing/curating content.
Third Party Features
OVPs increasingly maintain an open platform and 'plug into' specialized third-party service providers. These include cloud transcoders, recommendation engines, search engines, metadata libraries and analytics providers.
Video and content delivery protocols used
The vast majority of OVP solutions today use industry-standard HTTP streaming or HTTP progressive download protocols. With HTTP streaming, the de facto standard is to use adaptive streaming where multiple files of a video are created at different bit rates, but only one of these is sent to the end-user during playback, depending on available bandwidth or device CPU constraints. This can be switched dynamically and near-seamlessly at any time during the video viewing. The main protocols for adaptive HTTP streaming include Smooth Streaming (by Microsoft), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) (by Apple) and Flash Video (by Adobe). Flash is still in use but is declining due to the huge popularity of HLS and Smooth Stream in mobile devices and desktops, respectively. Each is a proprietary protocol in its own right and due to this fragmentation, there have been efforts to create one standardized protocol known as MPEG-DASH. However, OVPs can easily configure the choices made by the end user and update the protocol settings as and when needed.
There are many OVPs available on the Internet.[2][3][4]