July 31, 2017
By Jan Ozer Contributing Editor
Featured Articles

衡量并改进:对于视频发行商来说，QoE和QoS至关重要

大多数大型百家乐软件app最新版下载都明白，用户体验与观看时间等关键性能指标之间存在直接关联, engagement, and—in the long run— profits. 这就是为什么大多数大型订阅或广告资助的流媒体服务长期以来都部署了服务质量(QoS)和/或体验质量(QoE)监控, 以及其他有助于确保为客户提供最佳体验的技术.

As pricing for these services comes down, 现在是小型生产商和发行商加入进来的时候了, 不仅是那些直接通过视频赚钱的公司，还有那些利用视频进行营销的公司, sales, or training. After all, if your video is mission-critical, 你不能给你的观众提供不合格的体验.

In this article, 我将指出您应该考虑的软件类别, discuss some prominent players in each category, and explain how they function and what services they offer. 这将帮助您了解每个服务如何提供它们声称的好处，并为您提供比较和对比它们的产品的技术基础. This list of companies is meant to be representative, not exhaustive, and if your company isn’t mentioned, 请在这篇文章的评论中加上你的名字并解释你的公司是做什么的. 也请随时联系我，这样我就可以更了解你的产品或服务.

The 50,000-Foot View

At a high level, these tools are all massive data collectors; what varies are the source and types of data and what you can do with it. 所有系统都集中存储数据，并提供某种仪表板来访问数据. 系统在数据发布的速度和数据的粒度方面差别很大. 几乎所有的系统都可以提醒您实际的或潜在的问题, 而有些可以自动触发您的分布结构的变化，以避免, minimize, or resolve the issue, like switching from one CDN to another.

However, 您不需要成为使用多个cdn的大型组织才能从这些系统中受益, 还可以帮助您识别和调试与系统相关的问题, 在系统和玩家设计和执行过程中对你的用户体验进行基准测试. 正如彼得·德鲁克所说:“如果你不能衡量它，你就不能改进它。.“现在有多种免费或非常低成本的QoE测量方法, so do you really want to choose and configure a player, or even build your encoding ladder, without knowing the impact on the viewing experience?

Content Availability

Job No. 所有百家乐软件app最新版下载的首要任务是确保内容格式正确且可用. For this reason, 我们将简要探讨的第一类系统监视内容的可用性，以便在潜在问题成为问题之前识别它们. They also provide rough quality of service benchmarks.

TOUCHSTREAM

Touchstream 是一个基于亚马逊的SaaS，在全球拥有50个“云轮询器”. To use the service, you designate an ABR master manifest file via URL, 并确定与您的服务区域相关的云轮询器. Once turned on, 然后，这些轮询器不断检索清单文件和所有流配置文件的最新片段，以验证可用性.

Beyond availability, Touchstream记录检索片段所需的时间，并将其与片段的播放时间进行比较, 将结果显示为中所示的平均速度百分比 Figure 1. 这提出了一个粗略的代理服务质量度量，Brenton Ough, CEO and co-founder at Touchstream, says frequently correlates with pending QoE problems. 也就是说，这个百分比越接近100%，发生缓冲的可能性就越大.

qos1

Touchstream监控流的可用性和检索时间.

Ough said that by actively polling all streams, 系统通常会识别出日后可能发展为QoE问题的问题, 特别是在编码阶梯中间的流配置文件, 它们不像更常用的最低和最高质量配置文件那样频繁地缓存在CDN边缘. As an active monitoring system, 你也可以在向公众开放之前在直播流上运行Touchstream, in order to identify problems before anyone ever sees them.

Ough还谈到了系统提供的诊断信息，这些信息可以帮助Touchstream客户快速识别和解决问题. For example, when pulling data from large CDNs like Akamai, Level3, EdgeCast, and Limelight, Touchstream注入的标头会触发额外的取证信息，帮助诊断任何问题. When retrieving data from Akamai, Touchstream requests an Akamai request ID, which can further simplify problem resolution.

Touchstream customers include Sky (U.K.(德国和意大利)，Telstra, Discovery, Seven(澳大利亚)和Comcast Wholesale. 起价为每月每个流50美元，最低为20个流.

Other companies, including Tektronix and Ineoquest, 提供类似的可用性/QoS功能. Notably, Interra Systems Orion OTT是一个程序，您可以购买并安装在本地或云中，以提供与Touchstream类似的可用性和QoS检查.

Quality of Experience

QoE工具通过安装在玩家身上的“信标”直接衡量用户的实际体验，这些信标会报告缓冲比率等细节, average bitrate, video start failure, and exit before video start. 所有QoE系统都有这些信标，并且都可以报告类似的用户体验统计数据. Differences relate to how quickly they can present the data, the automated decisions you can make with the data, and the perspective the data can provide.

CONVIVA

Conviva is the 600-pound gorilla in the QoE space, with customers like HBO, Sky, ESPN, MLBAM, and Liberty Global. Conviva offers multiple components and services, starting with the Conviva Platform, 哪些处理和计算为所有客户端收集的所有数据. Conviva Experience and Ad Insight, the web-based front end into the system, make customer-specific data available to each customer.

Conviva Precision是一个百家乐软件优化工具，视频发布者可以使用它根据Conviva收集的QoE数据为不同的客户选择最佳的交付路径. 用Sky U首席流媒体架构师杰夫·韦伯(Jeff Webb)的话来说.K. (which uses four CDNs in the U.K. “如果你不能智能地在它们之间切换，那么添加更多的cdn就没有意义了.” To accomplish this, Sky implemented Conviva’s Precision, and when any viewer requests a stream, 天空的CMS询问Precision哪个CDN最适合特定的观众. Precision提供这些信息，然后检查实际观看者体验的结果，以关闭反馈循环.

Beyond day-to-day load balancing, Webb认为Precision能够在不频繁但不可避免地发生CDN中断时迅速将其影响降至最低. Figure 2 这句话来自韦伯在2017年天空技术开发者大会上的一次演讲. 两张图都显示了两个cdn的活性，一个是深绿色(CDNa)，另一个是浅绿色(CDNb)。. On the right, 你可以看到Sky主要引导用户使用CDNa, perhaps to meet volume commitments, perhaps because it’s cheaper, perhaps because it was the best-performing CDN of the two. That all changes at around 12:25 a.m., when Sky starts directing viewer attempts to CDNb, dropping traffic at CDNa almost to zero at 12:35 a.m. By 12:45 a.m., usage had reverted back to the original status quo.

qos2

当连接到CDNa的观看者开始经历显著的缓冲(左图)时，Conviva Precision自动将视频尝试从CDNa切换到CDNb(右图)。.

What happened? This is shown on the left. At around 12:20 a.m., 从CDNa中检索视频的用户开始经历显著的再缓冲比率, peaking at around 12:25 a.m. By that point, Precision started shifting traffic to CDNb, and nearly stopped all traffic to CDNa starting at 12:30 a.m. By 12:35 a.m.， CDNa运行正常，所以流量回到了原来的模式. 如图所示，Webb认为Conviva节省了4500次会话.

Returning to our Conviva product tour, Conviva提供的最后一个主要服务是Experience benchmark, 它可以按季度访问所有Conviva客户的视频质量和参与度指标, region, content type, and devices. 这些数据可以帮助客户了解他们的性能与同一地区的其他客户相比如何，并帮助他们在新地区创建服务时更好地进行规划.

我与Conviva首席营销官埃德•哈斯拉姆(Ed Haslam)聊了聊公司的主要优势. 他分享说，Conviva传感器(信标)已经部署在超过2个,100种不同的硬件和软件组合以及玩家框架, totaling about 2.5 billion video players, 所有数据都将传输回Conviva数据中心，并提供每2秒更新一次的实时视图. 这些现有的预集成简化了新客户的集成，并通过体验基准为所有Conviva客户提供无与伦比的竞争信息.

Haslam谈到了Conviva Precision的自动化决策(如上所述)，并分享了Conviva特别适合大型现场活动, like the World Cup, 它已经证明了其扩展和提供实时可视化的能力，帮助他们的客户识别和快速解决任何问题. Conviva提供三种价位，起价为每月1,000 - 1,200美元.

NICE PEOPLE AT WORK

Nice People At Work, or NPAW, YOUBORA Infinity是否提供了另一个具有核心功能的信标驱动系统, with seven optional SmartModules that handle tracking, reporting, alerts, CDN switching, optimizing advertising, churn prediction, and an industry performance indicator. Founded in 2008, the company is based in Spain, with an office in Manhattan, 并拥有令人印象深刻的客户名单，其中包括福克斯的物业, Turner, Telefonica, Rakuten, Viacom, Vodaphone, and Starz. NPAW可以将YOUBORA作为软件即服务(SaaS)交付，同时还附带一个可选的名为Houston的托管服务.

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