HANDOUT NOTES - Imagine Communications · 2019-08-06 · HDDs are good for private or shared copy storage. SSDs are good for very low user quotas. Remember that we had to use more

Imagine Communicat ions

HANDOUT NOTES

CLOUDXTREAM™ DVR B r i n g i n g S k y - H i g h C l o u d D V R S t o r a g e C o s t s D o w n t o E a r t h

JUNE 2016

WEBINAR: 2016 CLOUDXTREAM™ DVR

JUNE 2016

PUBLICATION INFORMATION © 2016 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Imagine Communications considers this document and its contents to be proprietary and confidential. Except for making a reasonable number of copies for your own internal use, you may not reproduce this publication, or any part thereof, in any form, by any method, for any purpose, or in any language other than English without the written consent of Imagine Communications. All others uses are illegal.

This publication is designed to assist in the use of the product as it exists on the date of publication of this manual, and may not reflect the product at the current time or an unknown time in the future. This publication does not in any way warrant description accuracy or guarantee the use for the product to which it refers. Imagine Communications reserves the right, without notice to make such changes in equipment, design, specifications, components, or documentation as progress may warrant to improve the performance of the product.

TRADEMARKS

Product names and other brands (such as ADC™, D-Series™, Nexio®, Nexio® Insight, Nexio® Motion, PowerSmart®, Versio™) are trademarks or trade names of Imagine Communications or its subsidiaries. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT US

DELIVERING THE MOMENT

Imagine Communications has office locations around the world. For domestic and international location and contact information see: http://www.imaginecommunications.com/contact-us/

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/contact-us/


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Table of Contents

1. Welcome ..............................................................................................................................................................4

2. CloudXtream cDVR .............................................................................................................................................4

3. Imagine’s CloudXtream Multiscreen Ecosystem .........................................................................................4

4. Home vs. Cloud DVR ..........................................................................................................................................5

5. Value of Cloud DVR ............................................................................................................................................5

6. Features of Cloud DVR ......................................................................................................................................6

7. The “Cablevision” Ruling Problem .................................................................................................................6

8. The “Shared Copy” Problem ............................................................................................................................6

9. The “Shared Copy” Problem ............................................................................................................................7

10. Cloud Video Platform Overview .....................................................................................................................7

11. Storage Options .................................................................................................................................................7

12. Subscriber Viewing Habits ...............................................................................................................................8

13. Archiving Strategy ..............................................................................................................................................9

14. CloudXtream DVR Solution ............................................................................................................................ 10

15. CloudXtream DVR Ecosystem ....................................................................................................................... 12

16. “Private Copy” Law .......................................................................................................................................... 12

17. TELURIO JIT Packager ...................................................................................................................................... 13

18. JIT TRANSCODER .............................................................................................................................................. 13

19. Bringing it Together......................................................................................................................................... 14

20. Resources .......................................................................................................................................................... 14

21. Key Terms .......................................................................................................................................................... 15

22. APPENDIX: Imagine’s CloudXtream Multiscreen Ecosystem .................................................................... 17

23. APPENDIX: CloudXtream Video Ecosystem ................................................................................................... 18

24. APPENDIX: Cost per Subscriber ....................................................................................................................... 19

25. APPENDIX: Playback Probability and Plateau ............................................................................................... 20

26. APPENDIX: Optimal Age for Storage Needs .................................................................................................. 21

27. APPENDIX: Playback Cost .................................................................................................................................. 22

28. APPENDIX: Savings Example ............................................................................................................................. 23

29. APPENDIX: JITT Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 24

30. APPENDIX: CloudXtream DVR Ecosystem...................................................................................................... 25

31. APPENDIX: CloudXtream DVR with JITT ......................................................................................................... 26

32. APPENDIX: Selenio Next JIT Transcoder ........................................................................................................ 27

33. APPENDIX: JIT Transcoding ............................................................................................................................... 28


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1. WELCOME

Thank you for attending the CloudXtream™ Webinar (originally presented June 2016).

The following hand out / supplementary documentation is presented for your reference to the original slide and audio webinar.

2. CLOUDXTREAM CDVR

The Media Landscape is Evolving… CloudXtream CloudDVR (cDVR) is a video recording service that saves TV shows in a cloud or network, rather than on a DVR set-top box in the home.

Operator- or user-scheduled recordings through Middleware

Support for Catch-up TV, Time-shift, Restart TV

Utilizes Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) video distribution for optimized playback on multi-screen devices

Supports encryption for security

cDVR is used by Service Provides offering DVR services to subscribers’ multi-screen devices

3. IMAGINE’S CLOUDXTREAM MULTISCREEN ECOSYSTEM

*see appendix for the complete diagrams


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4. HOME VS. CLOUD DVR

Transformation from cable, satellite and In home DVR, where the recorder and storage is located in the customers home.

It’s called a CPE – customer premises equipment. In contrast, in Cloud DVR, the storage and recorder are aggregated at the video service provider. It becomes accessible by subscribers on multiple playback devices.

5. VALUE OF CLOUD DVR

Issues with Home DVR

Limited simultaneous and limited channel recordings

1:1 ratio of recorders to devices

Expensive CPE and no reutilization of unused storage

cDVR Advantages over Home DVR

Multi device support as there is no local hardware connection required, content can be played back over any device that’s network connected anywhere.

No more limitations to the number of channels / programs that can be recorded, no more storage limitations

If the CPE fails, recordings are lost, but in cDVR cloud backup can provide more reliable storage.

Cloud storage provides much more freedom to the subscribers


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6. FEATURES OF CLOUD DVR

Unlimited simultaneous recordings. CPE limitations means that customers can only record some fixed maximum number of channels. In cDVR there is no such limitation.

Reutilization of more economical centralized storage. If the CPE fails, recordings are lost, but in cDVR cloud backup can provide more reliable storage.

Issues with the CPE may require expensive visits to the customer by technicians. cDVR means fewer customer support visits and more controlled hardware environments.

The cost of the CPE is multiplied by the number of subscribers. But with cDVR the aggregated cost of storage and recording is lower and some resources can be shared between different users.

With cDVR there is an opportunity to monetize the content through ad sales.

Lastly, cDVR is “sticky”. It reduces customer churn because people are loath to leave their

libraries behind if they leave the service provider.

7. THE “CABLEVISION” RULING PROBLEM

The cablevision ruling mandates the use of a lot of storage. For example, a million users who all want to record a program for later viewing would each require a separate physical copy of the program. An operator who allocated 30 hours of recorded quota per subscriber would require 120 PB of storage.

8. THE “SHARED COPY” PROBLEM

Even in shared copy use-cases, where the same physical copy can be streamed to all users, operators typically want to keep content around for a long time. A year’s worth of content for 500 channels is 20PB of storage, which is, again, a major capital expense.


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9. THE “SHARED COPY” PROBLEM

And worse, because there are multiple delivery formats, storing the assets in multiple formats can require 4 to 6 times the amount of storage needed to store the contents in just one format.

10. CLOUD V IDEO PLATFORM OVERVIEW

*see appendix for the complete chart

Let’s examine the costs associated with private copy DVR in more detail.

We assume three models: Spartan, Medium, and Large - with three sets of assumptions on cost and capacity.

In these models, we use reasonable values for the cost of storage, quota, aggregate bitrate stored, etc. We can see that the cost per subscriber varies wildly from an almost inconsequential $4 to a hard to manage $1,215

Note that in fact the $4 isn’t right. When quotas are very low, you need more disks to support the private copy throughput than are needed just to store the aggregate capacity for all the users’ quotas. Thus the actual cost is a still manageable $27 per subscriber.

11. STORAGE OPTIONS

11.1 WHAT ARE THE STORAGE OPTIONS

AVAILABLE?

Traditional Disk Drives

Solid State drives, which are (roughly speaking) 10 times more expensive and offer 10 times the throughput of traditional disk hard drives.

Tape drives, which offers about a tenth of

the throughput but at a tempting one

tenth the cost.


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11.2 HOW SHOULD WE UTILIZE THESE OPTIONS?

HDDs are good for private or shared copy storage.

SSDs are good for very low user quotas. Remember that we had to use more disks than necessary for storage in the low-quota example previously. We wouldn’t have that problem with SSDs, which can reach much higher throughput. SSDs are also good for temporary buffers, for example a short-term buffer for storage content before private copies are made.

Tape is good for archiving. It is useful when you need to store a lot of content but not access it

often, because tape doesn’t support egress well.

12. SUBSCRIBER V IEWING HABITS

Amazingly, viewing of DVR content is very well modelled by a very simple function. It turns out that half the content is viewed in the first 24 hours in which it was recorded. Half of the remaining is viewed in the next 24 hours, etc. And most content is viewed once.

So if an asset is old, it’s not likely to be viewed. In fact the probability that an asset that’s N days old is viewed is 1/(1+N), as the graph shows, based on real DVR data.

12.1 PLAYBACK



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13. ARCHIVING STRATEGY

*see appendix for the complete charts

13.1 OPTIMAL AGE

The amount of archive storage needed depends on how old assets are when they are archived. If all assets are immediately archived, more tape storage is needed but no HDDs are needed. If assets are only archived when they are very old, very little tape storage is needed but more HDD storage is needed. In the graph we see how each cost varies with the asset archive age.

13.2 PLAYBACK COSTS

The tape streaming cost, however, depends on the probability of an asset being played back. When more assets are played back, more tape streaming capacity is needed. So, for example, if assets are archived immediately, a lot of tape capacity is needed just to be able to play assets back.

As the age at which assets are archived grows, the tape streaming cost decreases. So the total of storage and streaming costs has a minimum value, as shown.

13.3 SAVINGS EXAMPLE

Using (realistic) assumptions in the table, we can compare archiving cost ($30) compared to no archiving ($60).


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13.4 OTHER OPTIMIZATIONS FOR ABR

Just in Time Packaging

Depends on number of streaming formats.

Just in Time Transcoding

Keep only top level and reconstruct others.

13.5 JIT ANALYSIS

*see appendix for the complete charts

We traded off a streaming cost against storage cost in the archive analysis, but using JITT has the same properties. Storage costs are traded against streaming costs which rise as the probability of asset playback increases.

In this example, we see that JITT saves costs when assets are storage optimized when they are about 4 days old.

14. CLOUDXTREAM DVR SOLUTION

14.1 OVERVIEW

As the world’s first fully capable, end-to-end Cloud DVR offering from a single vendor, Imagine Communications’ solution not only provides business-transforming opportunities for content distributors and service providers — it completely redefines the video consumption experience.

14.2 FEATURES

Live-to-file video capture for Multiscreen

Shared or private copy with Event-based and Continuous record

Operator- or user-scheduled recordings through Middleware

Support for Catch-up TV, Time-shift, Restart TV

Just-in-time Packaging and Origin of all ABR formats


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14.3 . BENEFITS

End-to-End Network DVR solution

Big cost savings vs. MVPD’s premises DVR

Limits Truck Rolls, Turn-up, Reduced Training Cost, Limited Returns

Unlimited storage; Multiple pricing tiers

Anytime, Anywhere delivery of content

Minimizes storage to a single format but delivers all ABR formats

14.4 . KEY D IFFERENTIATORS

Shared/Private Copy Future-Proofing

Adapt to changing legal and negotiated landscape for private copy using Asset Lifecycle Management.

Continuous Recording Mode

Optimal approach to stream-to-file recording, affording flexibility and copyright conformance.

Optimize Storage

Reduce storage with JITP and JITT, creating lower profiles and additional formats on-the-fly.

Open Ecosystem

Integrated with 3rd party transcoders, schedulers, DRM, storage and CDNs with open API

Monetization via Dynamic Ad Insertion

Add Imagine’s targeted ad insertion solution for live and recorded content.

Innovative Market Leadership

First to Market with: Continuous Record, JIT Packaging , JIT Transcoding, ABR Ad Insertion, OpenStack Deployed System.


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15. CLOUDXTREAM DVR ECOSYSTEM

*see appendix for the complete chart

The Imagine cDVR ecosystem consists of a recorder, private copy engine, JIT Packager and Recording manager. The recorder creates recorded assets from linear streams captured from a linear ABR transcoder which can feed a live delivery workflow. The Copy Engine makes sure that each user has a private copy, per the so-called CableVision ruling. The JIT Packager converts the stored recordings into the delivery format used by the users’ devices. The Recording Manager manages the storage and other components, as well as serving as an interface point to an external scheduler that converts EPG-based user recording requests to asset creation requests in the cDVR system.

16. “PRIVATE COPY” LAW

16.1 CABLEVISION RULING

“… each RS-DVR playback transmission is made to a single subscriber using a single unique copy produced by that subscriber, we conclude that such transmissions are not performances “to the public,” and therefore do not infringe any exclusive right of public performance.”

2nd Circuit Court of Appeals: Cablevision Ruling , August 4, 2008. (Pg. 43)

16.2 INTERPRETATIONS

Each service provider (in North America) may interpret the ruling differently.

Strict Private Copy

Shared Copy

Private URL but Shared Physical Copy

Service Providers may have different rights for different content sources, which may change over time.

Interpretations and/or laws may change over time.

In addition, Service Providers want flexibility in optimizing storage costs.


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17. TELURIO JIT PACKAGER

Supports all leading DRM solutions

Supports all leading packaging formats and variants: DASH, HLS, MSS

Enables single format storage for DVR and VOD

Reduces storage requirements – 50-80%

Future proof DRM – change DRM’s without changing mezzanine storage

Integrated with third party DVR recorders

Clustered for scaling/redundancy with optional new load balancer

Integrated with Imagine Selenio™ and third party transcoders

Supports Imagine’s xG AIM™ for dynamic ad insertion

18. JIT TRANSCODER


18.1 CLOUDXTREAM DVR WITH JITT

Just-in-Time Transcoding of HLSv4 mezzanine

Used to reduce storage requirements by as much as 50%

Faster than real time transcode of top profile into lower profiles

Feeds JIT-Packager to deliver content in any format

18.2 SELENIO NEXT JIT TRANSCODER

Optional component, allows storage of fewer profiles and transcode additional ABR bitrates needed on-the-fly when requested.


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19. BRINGING IT TOGETHER

Careful use of JIT Technology and Storage Management saves a lot of money.

20. RESOURCES

Distribution Data Sheets

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/resources/type?f[0]=im_field_resource_type%3A58&f[1]=im_field_cat_product%3A533&solrsort=sort_label%20asc

CloudXtream DVR Website

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/solutions/multiscreen-delivery/cloudxtream-dvr

White Paper: Bringing Sky-High Cloud DVR Storage Costs Down to Earth

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/white-paper-cloud-dvr-storage-costs

*links provided are valid at time of publication

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/resources/type?f%5b0%5d=im_field_resource_type%3A58&f%5b1%5d=im_field_cat_product%3A533&solrsort=sort_label%20asc

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/resources/type?f%5b0%5d=im_field_resource_type%3A58&f%5b1%5d=im_field_cat_product%3A533&solrsort=sort_label%20asc

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/solutions/multiscreen-delivery/cloudxtream-dvr

http://www.imaginecommunications.com/white-paper-cloud-dvr-storage-costs


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21. KEY TERMS Many names, minor differences in function…

cDVR Cloud DVR

nDVR Network DVR

nPVR Network Personal VR

RS-DVR Remote Storage DVR

Pause TV / Time-Shift -pause live, resume, optional fast-forward back to live

Start-over TV / Re-Start TV -watching a live broadcast shortly after its start time

Rewind TV -replay of a scene just broadcast

Catch-up TV / Replay TV / Backward EPG -previously broadcast content available on-demand

Video-on-Demand -access to a large catalog of movies or other content

Terms Definition

Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) HTTP protocol for transmitting video and audio segments

ALM (Imagine) Asset Lifecycle Management enables users to define rules to handle their interpretations of private copy regulations and optimize storage management

API Application programing interface; in this context, an interface between the middleware and Recording Manager to define programs to be recorded and deleted

BJM (Imagine) Background Job Manager. Software application that handles copying of TS segments for each private copy requested by the RM

Cache Miss Rate

Percent of time when a requested asset is not in the CDN and must be pulled thru JITP.

(Pure private copy environments – 100%; for shared copy environments – typically 20%)

CDN Content Delivery Network. Delivers content to the end clients; and caches content.

Client Playback devices (such as Roku, H-NAV, iOS, Android, Xbox)

CMS Content Management system; used to manage VOD library

Continuous Record Nonstop recording of mezzanine-encrypted chunks for use in later JITP operations


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DRM Digital Rights Management; a third party server that provides keys for content encryption

Hot Record playback View content that is in the process of being recorded

JITP, Just in time Packaging

Converts to different packaging formats to save storage

JITT, Just in time Transcoding

Re-creates lower bit rate profiles on the fly; saves storage

Middleware Backoffice and client device apps from companies like Tivo, Ericsson, Minerva, SeaChange, aioTV, Kaltura, etc.

Multichannel Video Program Distributor (MVPD)

Typically a cable or mobile / fixed / satellite telecom company that provides multichannel video services over its networks, and charges the end user for the service; often synonymous with PayTV operator

Oversubscription rate Percentage of over-provisioning of storage (assumption is not all users need 100% of allocated storage)

Packager Package to Internet formats such as Dash, Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming or Adobe HDS. Sometimes performs encryption.

PCE (Imagine) Private Copy Engine provides fan to record unique copy of each asset for each subscriber

PLLB (Imagine) Playlist Load Balancer. S/W module that assigns JITP playout to appropriate node.

Private Copy Copy for each user. U.S. legal requirement states each subscriber must have his own version of a recorded program. (Cannot share from a common copy.)

Profile Specific bit rate & resolution within a Multi-bit Rate stream

Scheduler Orchestrates recordings and resources, providing subscription, channel and program management

Shared Copy Where allowed, multiple subscribers who record the same content can view from a single, common recording

Streaming VOD or IP Streaming

Video delivered over unmanaged networks (Internet) directly from the content provider (e.g., Netflix) to consumer; alternatively, an on-demand video service provided by an operator over managed & unmanaged networks via authentication.

TV Everywhere / Multi-screen

The delivery of television content, including live and on-demand programming, from a pay-TV provider to connected consumer devices capable of displaying video, including computers, tablets, mobile phones, and smart TVs

More terms available at www.imaginecommunications.com/glossary


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22. IMAGINE’S CLOUDXTREAM MULTISCREEN ECOSYSTEM


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23. CLOUDXTREAM V IDEO ECOSYSTEM


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24. COST PER SUBSCRIBER


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25. PLAYBACK PROBABILITY AND PLATEAU


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26. OPTIMAL AGE FOR STORAGE NEEDS


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27. PLAYBACK COST


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28. SAVINGS EXAMPLE


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29. JITT ANALYSIS


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30. CLOUDXTREAM DVR ECOSYSTEM


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31. CLOUDXTREAM DVR WITH JITT


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32. SELENIO NEXT JIT TRANSCODER


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33. JIT TRANSCODING

Documents

HANDOUT NOTES - Imagine Communications · 2019-08-06 · HDDs are good for private or shared copy storage. SSDs are good for very low user quotas. Remember that we had to use more