Introduction
There are many technologies which streaming media industry is using to reduce the delivery bandwidth consumption. Which will be good for service providers and content consumers too.
Because data charges are still high which are not bearable for large number of subscribers yet. These data charges are still very big problem for OTT Service Providers (where subscriber’s demand is 4K Streaming ).
Explain Me How 4K Streaming Works In Brief ?
Now the solution is either you develop or implement the new technology to reduce bandwidth consumption or wait for internet prices go down.
Where developing or implementing a new technology is good solution for OTT service providers. Where a Harmonic’s EyeQ Technology to reduce the bandwidth consumption can be good example for that.
Let me Know What Is Harmonic EyeQ Technology To reduce Bandwidth Consumption ?
Lets now discuss about how QBR Technology of media melon works to reduce the bandwidth consumption.
What Is QBR Technology ?
QBR stands for Quality Bitrate ABR. It can also be known as Quality Aware ABR. These two are the different terms but referring to same function.
QBR is Enchanced Version of ABR which increases the efficiency of ABR.
QBR is used to reduce the data consumption with increasing the video quality. Which results better quality in limited bandwidth consumption.
How QBR do it ?
Answer is , QBR intelligently reduces the bandwidth of segments for simple scenes. Means those scenes which can be delivered in low bitrate while maintaining the same quality are delivered to subscribers. Which results saving of our bandwidth.
Also it utilizes this saved bandwidth for the segments of complex scenes. Which increases the video quality at delivery end.
Thus there are two benefits of QBR. It saves the bandwidth of 35% in the network. If you want to know more about it then click below,
Explain me how Quality Aware ABR or QBR works in brief ?
Now how can we implement this QBR in our streaming media network ? lets discuss about it.
How To Implement QBR In Streaming Network ?
(1) Encoder Side QBR Implementation
The main advantage of QBR is that it can be added to existing streaming media network easily with ABR (Adaptive Bitrate).
As shown above in the figure we need to include here a QBR analyzer at the output of encoder. This is used to analyse the stream and optimize it according to QBR technology as explained.
It reduce the bitrate from the segments of simple scenes by maintaining the same video quality.
Then it gives the output to packager and DRM (Digital Rights Management). After that it goes into the CDN Network for delivery via server.
Let Me Know What Is DRM In Brief ?
We have also used a QBR dashboard to show the analytics. It let us know how QBR is performing and how much it is efficient for us.
So encoder side QBR implementation is good for you if you do not want to have any changes in your player configuration. Also it is easy to use.
(2) Server & Player Side QBR Implementation
If you are conferrable to make some changes in your media player app then you can go this solution. Where you just need to add a plug in only.
As shown above in the figure, A QBR plug in is added at the encoder output. This plug in measure the bitrate and generate the required metadata for streaming.
This metadata is called the QBR Metadata. Which goes into the server. After that it is send to the player at subscriber side via CDN Network. Where we have already implemented a QBR plug in the App.
I Want To Know What Is CDN Network In Brief ?
Now this player gets the metadata for streaming. Then use it to reduce the bitrate for segments of simple scenes as explained. Which reduces the required bandwidth and increases the video quality according to metadata received from QBR Analyzer.
A QBR monitoring system is used to show the status of bandwidth consumption.
Conclusion
The beauty of QBR Technology is that you need not to do major changes in your existing streaming media network. Some changes in your system can reduce the bandwidth consumption with greater picture quality.
Which is good for reducing the delivery charges of CDN Networks.
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What Is Quality Aware ABR In Brief ?
reference : mediamelon
