At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] you will hear the latest updates on DASH, HLS, and MPEG-CMAF. A lot of recent changes are going on in the area of online streaming formats. Apple announced at WWDC 2016 the support of fragmented MP4, a key feature of CMAF, and others have demonstrated its usage on all major browser platforms. Video players now support HLS in HTML5 via re-multiplexing in JavaScript, so that HLS can be played using the HTML Media Source Extensions.

In parallel, MPEG-DASH got a lot of traction for DRM-protected premium content, as all major Web browsers support now the HTML5 Encrypted Media Extensions. This panel will provide an overview about MPEG-CMAF, and discuss whether it is an opportunity to actually harmonize deployments that currently have to support both (and separate from each) DASH and HLS. It will also discuss potential threats on existing deployments having its clear focus on MPEG-DASH and DASH-IF. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Stefan Lederer, CEO, Bitmovin
  
• Will Law, Chief Architect, Media Cloud Engineering, Akamai
  
• Iraj Sodagar, Multimedia Architect, Microsoft
  
• Jeff Tapper, SVP, Engineering, Viacom
  
• Rustam Khashimkhodjaev, VIPER Player Platform Engineering, Comcast

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

LinkedIn is one of the first online broadcasters to use YouTube’s recently added support for CEA-708, the standard for closed captioning for ATSC digital television (DTV) streams in the United States and Canada. At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] Heather Hurford, Live Video Producer at LinkedIn will moderate a session on the Best Practices For Captioning Live Video On The Web. The session will talk specifically about the encoders and signal flow, voice writing/respeaking method for generating captions & best practices to improve the quality of captions. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Heather Hurford, Live Video Producer, LinkedIn
  
• Matthew Szatmary, Senior Video Encoding Engineer, Twitch
  
• Rob Dillon, Manager, Digital Operations, Tribune Media
  
• Ben Cruz, YouTube Video Accessibility Evangelist, Google
  
• Jake Dozier, Access Services Manager, SDI Media

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) is an excellent path for content providers and distributors to a better user experience, higher overall video consumption, and providing less obtrusive ad delivery. At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] Julian Sitkevich, VP of Technology at Viacom will explain the differences between SSAI and Client Side Ad Insertion. Learn how SSAI works, its limitations, architecture readiness for migration, ad preparation considerations and possible changes to existing workflows. This presentation will also cover planning for target devices, platforms and video delivery methods and will highlight real-world use cases.

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

The next meetup of streaming media professionals will take place on Tuesday October 25th, starting at 6pm at www.barcadenewyork.com – 148 West 24th Street between 6th/7th in NYC. Come network, drink and play videos games for free thanks to sponsors Cedexis and Varnish)

Barcade has over 50 old school video games, 25 beers on tap and some great food. There is no RSVP needed or list at the door. Just show up with a business card and you are in! You will need a wristband to drink, so introduce yourself to me when you show up.

These meetups are a great way to network with others tied to the online video ecosystem. We get a great mix of attendees from companies including AOL, NFL, Showtime, Omnicom, NBC, NBA, Time, HBO, Viacom, CBS, Twitter, WPP, Google, Nielsen, Facebook, FOX, R/GA, Twitch, Riot Games, American Express, Comcast, wall street money managers, government agencies, VR production companies and vendors from all facets of the video ecosystem.

I’ll keep organizing these every month so if you want to be notified via email when the next one is taking place, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.

Tastemade is a video network built for the mobile generation that enables people to come together to discover and share their passion for great food and travel. At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] Jay Holzer, Head of Production at Tastemade.com will outline how they went from using YouTube as their primary distribution source to building their own global video platform and applications, which connect with over 100M monthly users around the globe.

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] Eric Zawolkow, Media Systems Engineer at Facebook and James Broberg, Founder and CEO of MetaCDN will present best practices around reliable live streaming of critical, high importance global events with multiple redundant signal pathways. Learn how to overcome challenging on-site environments like flakey internet, failing encoders, faulty cables and failing CDNs. Learn some best practice tips covering the gamut of on-site challenges (cameras, switchers, signal paths, ingest/uplink) to reliable end-user playback (transcoding/transmuxing, reliable playback engines, CDN selection). Find out how you can implement backups and redundancy at every possible level of your live workflow.

The presenters will also cover best practices (and caveats) around successful leveraging Facebook Live – Facebook’s native new entry into the live streaming category that is gaining enormous traction and engagement right now. Learn from their experiences (and the odd failure) to make sure your next event is a resounding success.

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place November 1-2 in Huntington Beach, CA] we have a session that will discuss how analytics tools can be used to produce more engaging video content. Learn the metrics content owners use to identify if content is sufficiently engaging an audience and how insights gathered impacts content owners creation and acquisition strategies. The session will also cover what efforts are being made to personalize experiences, reviewing the tactics used to create segmented user groups and target individual users. Speakers will have an open discussion about the gaps that must be bridged on the technology side in order to do better content personalization, prediction and the positive impact for content publishers. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Diane Strutner, VP, Sales, Business Development, Nice People At Work (@NicePeopleAW)
  
• Jeremy Stern, Analytics Architect, WillowTree (@willowtreeapps)
  
• Mike Flynn, CTO, Studio71 (@Studio71US)
  
• Brian Selander, EVP, Whistle Sports Network (@WhistleSports)
  
• Christopher Roselli, President, Founder, HOLLYWOODLAND

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.