Jennifer Zaino over at Semantic Web has posted an article discussing the future of online video and makes a special point to discuss how connection speeds effect video quality.
For example, for a long-form piece of video, it’s possible that the connection degrades during the play time, especially for consumers using WiFi connections which ebb and flow in terms of quality, or for those using cable modems, where increasing neighborhood online traffic may disturb connection quality. “So our system has to be a lot smarter about what bit rate to use in any given time. We need an infrastructure on the back end to create many different versions of a piece of video, splice it up and have the intelligence that says, based on the quality of the connection, what to send down the pipe for a smooth video experience.”
Now where have I heard this before? Perhaps it is ClickStreamTV, which has a back-end built around detecting system settings and delivering not only the correct file format, but a bit rate that is tailored to fit the speed of the user.
Video producers and video streamers have to realize that every users is essentially on a unique system. Optimizing video content for one setup while ignoring users on older machines or even different operating systems is an easily avoidable mistake. As internet video is pushed into the future, know that not all your viewers are also leaping into the future. HD video and Windows Media delivery may seem professional, but it won’t matter if less than half your audience can actually view the content.
Sometimes it isn’t a bad idea to look back while you’re moving forward.
The Next Generation of Video [Semantic Web]
Posted by clickstreamtv 
