Can you afford not to be energy efficient
S05E11: Game of Streams (Can you afford not to be energy efficient)
Our Media Solution Specialist, Magnus Svensson, is sharing his reflections on the online streaming industry in this post. This is part of a monthly series so make sure to follow us here if you do not want to miss an episode.
Making things more efficient will not only reduce the energy consumption of your business, it will save money and, in most cases, also improve quality. Making relatively small changes to your workflows you could reduce the energy use of the distribution and viewing of video content and at the same time improve your business.
According to “Carbon impact of video streaming” a study made by Carbon Trust and DIMPACT, network transmission (core and access) accounts for 10% of total emissions and energy from video streaming. So, to improve this would be an easy choice and no-brainer you could think. But still many companies do not prioritize these changes, for varied reasons.
One example of such efficiency improvement is to ensure that the bitrate ladder of the video distribution is as efficient as possible. In many cases you could save the bandwidth in the range of 20 to 50 percent and still maintain, or even improve, the perceived quality of the video. Such improvement would save storage and distribution and at the same time make the content available to more viewers in the best possible quality.
Majority of the efficiency improvements of the bitrate ladders can be done without advanced measures such as per scene encoding or using more efficient codecs. The first step should be to make the best possible ladder for the specific content by measuring the perceived quality and ensure that the bitrate is kept as optimal as possible. In many cases the selected quality no not motivate the bandwidth used. Using for example VMAF you could in a methodical way ensure the optimal bandwidth usage.
Even if the distribution capacity is not the bottleneck, you should still ensure an efficient video distribution. You will reach more viewers with better quality, and more importantly, reduce electricity usage and contribute to a more sustainable world.
It is not only about the bits distributed
Bandwidth reduction could be the easy win towards more environmentally friendly streaming. Next step would be to look at other parts of the workflow to see how things could be done in a different way. By innovating thinking you could adapt the workflows and technical solutions and create a better experience for both the viewers and the environment.
The majority of today’s linear TV channels each use transcoding capacity, sometimes multiple transcodes for each distributor and network. And for most channels only a very small part of the content is live, most is recorded content. Recorded content that in most of the cases already exists in a transcoded format stored on the origin servers.
By using technology to create a linear stream using already transcoded content you do not need to transcode the recorded content again, still having the possibility to mix in live content when applicable. This would not only make the creation of linear channels more efficient, but it also opens for personalization and by that a better user experience. Possibilities are endless as the creation and distribution is only activated when someone is watching the stream.
The examples mentioned in this post prove that you could make your streaming workflows more energy efficient and at the same time improve the quality and user experience. You could reduce electricity usage, improve the service, and save money, all at the same time.
Can you afford not to be energy efficient?
To watch out for the coming months…
ViacomCBS has joined forces with the Scandinavian streaming company Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) to launch a new Pluto TV service across Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. A powerful partnership and a game changer model that can redefine the free streaming business in the European market. Expect to see a more aggressive push for FAST services in the Nordics and Europe.
Christmas is coming soon, but prior to Santa the month of December will be filled with product announcements, press releases, webinars, and virtual product presentations. Announcements that were planned for IBC will be pushed digitally during the first weeks of December. On my wish-list I hope to see some innovative product announcements that will create a more engaging user experience for streaming services.
I also wish to see more usage-based business models that better reflect the modern cloud service technologies. This would make it easier for new services to reach the market, and for established services to take the next step.
Finally, I expect to see announcements of cooperation as well as mergers and acquisitions. Economy of scale is important and by cooperating, or by acquisitions, you would create new opportunities.
Magnus Svensson is a Media Solution Specialist and partner at Eyevinn Technology. Eyevinn Technology is the leading independent consulting company specializing in video technology and media distribution.
Follow me on Twitter (@svensson00) and LinkedIn for regular updates and news.
