How Amdocs & Compira Labs are bringing the video streaming your customers expect
There are still too many glitches and delays in today’s streaming experiences. The key is to personalize content delivery sending rates to the environment and requirements of each streaming event.
Many of us can probably relate. The service provider has just finished setting up our fiber connection and we can’t wait. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to start streaming our favorite movies, shows, and sporting events in 4K and without all the glitches.
Today we’re going to put it to the test. It’s the big showdown between our home team and their archrival. So, we switch on our TV, we’ve got your buddies over, and then a few minutes into the game . . . the picture quality isn’t as sharp as we expected and we hear our neighbors shouting “goal!!!!” with excitement, only to see the actual goal on our screen a few seconds later.
It really couldn’t be more frustrating. And this is why it’s no surprise that in a recent report the churn rate for OTT video services is at a whopping 47%, which is more than double the 22% for telecoms overall.
We’re simply not getting the streaming experience we expect. There are still too many glitches and delays, and even premium-tier subscribers are only getting full HD quality at less than half of the time.
So, while video streaming certainly has the power to differentiate the service provider’s offering, there are still some major buffering and other quality issues that need to be resolved.
The challenge of a superior streaming experiences
Streaming services that can secure customer loyalty, delay CapEx, and fuel growth require the ability to deliver interruption-free, high quality viewing experiences.
However, for many service providers this can be prohibitively challenging. This is because the last mile – the path between the CDN edge node and the end user's device – is still fraught with obstacles.
A superior streaming experience is one that requires content delivery to continuously adapt in real time to:
- The performance requirements of different services, such as live sports, VoD, live events, and more
- Different networks, including fiber, cable to home, public WiFi, LTE, and 5G
- The varying connectivity specifications of different OEMs and their devices, such as TVs and laptop
This is the only way to ensure seamless quality experiences, such as the following:
Imagine you’re watching a movie on your TV through your home WiFi. But then you get a craving for the special Colombian blend at your local café. You leave home with your mobile device and connect to the café’s public WiFi so you can continue watching the movie. You expect to be able to continue your streaming and viewing where you left off and to enjoy the same quality of experience, don’t you?
The key to this kind of experience with minimal delays and reduced buffering rates is to continually adapt content delivery in real time to the service, network, and device.
And this is why we at Amdocs are so excited about our partnership with Compira Labs, bringer of personalized, QoE (Quality of Experience) oriented content delivery.
How Amdocs & Compira Labs bring the streaming promise to life
The video streaming promise is a great one, both for service providers and for their customers. With revenues for the market projected to reach $95.3 billion in 2023, the value for service providers is clear. And the value for consumers is likewise tremendous, in that it provides them with the ability to choose from a wide variety of contents that resonate with their unique tastes and preferences, and which can be consumed whenever and wherever they want.
Assuming the streaming is done right.
And this is where Compira Labs and Amdocs come into play.
Personalized & adaptive QoE from Compira Labs
So, what does Compira Labs bring to the table? This agile innovator has developed a patented software solution that optimizes the utilization of available bandwidth in consideration of the streaming service type, the traffic source, network, and the consumer’s device.
It recognizes in real time all the relevant details of each streaming event and personalizes content delivery, automatically adapting sending rates to the requirements.
The solution does this through two components, the Compira Edge (CE) and the Compira Cloud (CC). The CE is incorporated into the server-side network stack at edge nodes, operators, service providers, and CDNs. It performs online learning rate selection by employing performance-oriented congestion control (PCC), so QoE can be continuously optimized for subscribers.
"The video streaming promise is a great one, both for service providers and for their customers...assuming the streaming is done right. And this is where Compira Labs and Amdocs come into play."
Compira Cloud is a machine learning-powered, cloud-based analytics engine. It receives a continuous stream of network statistics from CEs to customize them to real time QoE requirements. Moreover, it provides visibility into network behavior through an intuitive, multi-tenant SaaS dashboard.
The result is maximized content delivery rates, with minimized data loss and network delays, and a reduction in rebuffering rates at up to 40%.
So next time there’s a big game – you will be seeing it in full HD and you won’t be hearing the goal from your neighbors’ shouting before you actually see it on your screen.
Flawless operations for amazing streaming experiences from Amdocs
To maximize the time to market and value of smart, personalized, and QoE-driven video streaming, Amdocs SI Services brings an extensive range of system integration and managed services.
With deep domain expertise in the service provider’s business, operational, and technology ecosystems, as well as a global presence and extensive experience with telco customer needs and market dynamics – we bring amazing solutions to life.
Our end-to-end services, custom developments, and AI-driven test automation drive seamless integration with systems and applications. What’s more, during the integration phase and also later in production, we aggregate and leverage data from the existing BSS and OSS environment to provide AI-driven insights. And with predictive analytics we detect potential issues, applying automated remediation to ensure continuous operation with zero downtime and flawless experiences.
And the results? Well, the numbers speak for themselves. Amdocs and Compira Labs are delivering a reduction in rebuffering rates at more than 30% for wired, over 40% for LTE, and above 55% for 5G, with more than 30% of sessions having no resolution issues.
In conclusion
While streaming video is indeed a revolution for media and entertainment, the streaming experience itself also warrants a revolution of its own. To realize the promise of streaming, buffering, resolution, and other QoE issues need to be resolved today.
The key is content delivery with sending rates that are personalized to the environment and requirements of each streaming event, and which is continually optimized by AI and delivered with the insights and knowhow of the industry’s premier experts.
This is what the Compira Labs and Amdocs collaboration is all about, bringing an end-to-end solution with cutting-edge technology and industry leading services that resolve QoE issues without the need to update the service provider’s infrastructure. And I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this team.
So, if you want to know what we can do for you, and how we can help you take video streaming QoE to where it was meant to be, I invite you to reach out to me at paul.saunders@amdocs.com.
