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As viewers worldwide gravitate towards the convenience and diversity of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, the industry continues on the quest to provide the best possible viewer experience. Conviva, a leader in the digital streaming landscape, is at the forefront of this transformation.
Our approach is driven by advanced tools like Conviva’s Time State Analytics based on our unique time-state technology, providing deep insights into user behavior, enabling streaming providers to optimize their performance, and deliver an exceptional streaming experience.
One such success story is our collaboration with Zee5, a leading streaming platform. Our partnership aimed at addressing three critical areas for enhancing their live OTT user experience – video segment size, the transition to HLS CMAF (Common Media Application Format), and fine-tuning encoding parameters.
“Conviva’s Time-State Analytics enabled us to measure the positive impact of our modifications on the Video Engineering pipeline for Zee5’s live OTT service, directly benefiting end users. These changes reduced bandwidth use by 25%, resulting in faster content loading, smoother playbacks, and an improved user experience overall. Thanks to Conviva, we’ve successfully found a balance between performance and cost in the ever-evolving streaming landscape.”
Kishore Krishnamurthy, CTO, ZEE5
Understanding the crucial role segment size plays in buffering issues, Zee5 and Conviva partnered to test various segment sizes to find an optimal balance. After extensive iterations, a 4-second segment size emerged as the optimal choice. This adjustment improved the balance between smooth streaming and bandwidth usage, reducing interruptions for viewers and offering a more fluid viewing experience.
The next significant transformation came through the adoption of HLS CMAF. In contrast to its predecessor, HLS TS (Live Streaming Transport Stream), HLS CMAF provides several benefits, such as reducing bandwidth wastage and supporting HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) encoding. This switch led to improved video and audio quality, making the streaming experience even more enjoyable for Zee5’s viewers.
Another critical aspect we addressed was encoding parameters. By adjusting and standardizing different variables, such as bitrate and GOP (Group of Pictures) length, we were able to reduce bitrates across all channels without any perceptual loss of audio-video experience.
Collectively, these changes have resulted in a dramatic enhancement of Zee5’s live OTT experience. The results? A significant reduction in bandwidth usage by 25%, a swift video start time cut to just 4 seconds, and a decrease in rebuffering ratio. These improvements resulted in a substantial increase in Zee5’s Streaming Performance Index (SPI) score by 11%, leading to greater viewer satisfaction – a key factor for success in the highly competitive OTT landscape.
In conclusion, our work with Zee5 showcases the transformative power of Conviva’s advanced technologies in the OTT industry. As we continue to innovate, our mission remains to provide streaming platforms with the insights and tools they need to deliver an unparalleled viewer experience.
To delve deeper into the specific technologies and strategies utilized in our partnership with Zee5, we invite you to read more about it here. We believe it’s a fascinating glimpse into how Conviva is shaping the future of online streaming.
