Thriving in Today’s Media and enTerTainMenT econoMyLearn how online media and entertainment providers can meet consumers’ performance and user experience expectations with a modern infrastructure

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conTenTs in brief

• Online media and entertainment companies face a

tidal wave of content demand driven by increasingly

complex codecs, virtual reality (VR), online gaming

and the advent of 5G networks.

• Legacy infrastructure — both hardware and software

— will be overwhelmed by the compute, storage and

network demands and will threaten competitiveness.

• Working with Intel, companies can make the right

investment decisions and fine-tune performance to

provide consumers with the user experience they expect.

It’s a Digital World Out There ................................................ 3

People Hate to Wait ................................................................. 3

Not an Easy Feat: Fast and Perfect .................................... 3

Foiling the Bad Guys ................................................................ 4

Game On! ...................................................................................... 4

Adding in VR ................................................................................ 4

The Big Data Side of Media and Entertainment ......... 5

Are You Ready for 5G? ............................................................ 5

Today’s Consumers Demand a Modern

Content-Delivery Experience ................................................ 6

Future-Proof Your Business by Building Your Own

Data Center ...................................................................................... 7

Teaming up with Intel in the Real World ......................... 8

Conclusion and Next Steps ..................................................... 9

Further Reading ......................................................................... 10

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iT’s a digiTal World ouT There

Streaming video, live video for eSports, and online gaming. Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) film. Social media sites with videos in every feed. One thing is clear: the demand for content is growing. More customers are streaming movies. More people are uploading videos. More sports fans and gamers are seeking the “be there” experience. Consider the following industry trends:

• Experts predict that consumer real-time video-on-demand (VoD) traffic will nearly double by 2022¹.

• By 2020, 75 percent of mobile data traffic will be video².

• Facebook* generates 8 billion video views per day³.

• Total eSport viewing exceeded six billion hours globally in 2016, up 19 percent from 2015⁴.

• 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube* every minute⁵.

• Views of branded video content have increased 99 percent on YouTube and 258 percent on Facebook between 2016 and 2017⁶.

The following sections discuss several considerations that should drive infrastructure decisions for online media and entertainment providers as they gear up for this explosion of content demand.

PeoPle haTe To WaiTConsumers don’t want to wait for their content. In fact, according to one study, waiting for content to load isn’t just a nuisance, it’s actually making people angry. The study found that more than half of consumers who watch online video have experienced “buffer rage”⁷. The same study also found that

more than 40 percent of consumers will wait only 10 seconds or less before clicking out of a buffering video, and of these, nearly 40 percent will never attempt to re-watch the video. And when viewers abandon a video, that can translate to lost revenue. The bottom line: consumers expect fast startup and minimized buffering.

noT an easy feaT: fasT and PerfecTNot only do viewers, gamers and social media network members abhor waiting, they also fully expect a high-quality viewing experience. They don’t want low resolution or jitter. Smart content providers encode their videos so that they play everywhere, on every device, with the highest quality possible. These devices include mobile over cellular, mobile over Wi-Fi, tablets, laptops, connected televisions and even automobile video screens.

As video codecs have evolved, media service providers are able to provide high-quality video with less bandwidth, and to support 4K (4096×2160) and 8K (7680×4320) ultra-high definition (UHD) video services. High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, also known as H.265), introduced in 2013, is one of the latest video codecs. The goal of HEVC is to maximize compression capability and reduce data loss.

Intel is involved with several open source projects that can help advance the next generation of codecs, specifically Scalable Video Technology (SVT) for HEVC and AV1. Additionally, Intel is contributing to the SVT-HEVC Encoder core to enable high performance, quality and scalability of HEVC video encoding under a highly permissive BSD and patent license.

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This HEVC-compliant encoder library core achieves excellent density-quality tradeoffs and is highly optimized for Intel® Xeon® Scalable and Intel® Xeon® D processors. Intel is also forming a new SVT-AV1 open source encoder project as an enhancement to the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) to provide a cleaner, easier to use codebase.

The computing complexity of H.265/HEVC codec is more than four times that of its predecessor, H.264/MPEG⁸. As a result, it requires unprecedented processing from the backend server platform. Investing in servers powered by highly parallel processors with advanced features such as Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel® AVX-512) and programmable accelerator cards (PACs) can help improve the HEVC encoding and decoding performance—resulting in a better user experience for viewers.

foiling The bad guys As hackers become better at what they do, content providers must become better at protecting both their brand reputation and IT infrastructure. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack events significantly increased in number and length in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period in 2017⁹.

Defending against DDoS attacks requires a modern network architecture that can deal with spikes in traffic and that effectively filters and analyzes network traffic to stop unauthorized network activity. It also helps to have hardware-based security built into the processors running your servers and fast encryption everywhere — exactly what the latest generation of Intel® Xeon® processors provide.

gaMe on!Online gaming has evolved significantly over several years. Online gaming can take several forms, including social gaming, mobile gaming, free-to-play gaming and pay-to-play massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming. Together, the latter two categories generated revenue of roughly USD 19.9 billion in 2016, while data traffic associated with online gaming is forecasted to grow from 126 PB in 2016 to 568 PB in 202010.

With online gaming becoming ever more popular, forward-thinking media and entertainment companies should be considering how their infrastructure is going to handle the increased network traffic, intense video transcoding and storage.

adding in vrRemember when VR was just an idea? Then it evolved to the point where it was a cool oddity. But today, VR is taking the media and entertainment industry by storm. For example, to promote the next installment of a popular film series, one producer offered a live panel in VR where participants could interact with the cast from the film. Attendees of the virtual session were able to speak directly to the cast or even participate in VR games with their favorite character11. One gaming company has added VR technology to their offerings, taking the gaming experience to a whole new level12. Some media and entertainment companies are already offering VR-based “shorts”13.

VR is enjoying great popularity and is only going to become more popular — the market size of virtual reality hardware and software is projected to increase from USD 2.2 billion in 2017 to more than USD 19 billion by 202014. Like online gaming and more complex codecs, VR will add to the network, storage and compute burdens of online media and entertainment providers.

The big daTa side of Media and enTerTainMenTContent providers can collect information from gamers, watchers and listeners to better understand consumer desires and provide targeted promotions. For example, a gaming company can gather data that indicates when gamers are more or less engaged and use that information to offer personalized advertising as well as to improve future game development. A streaming video provider can analyze abandon rates to tailor offerings to consumers.

As with many industries, the big data opportunity is—well, big. But to store and analyze the data to generate insights, your infrastructure must support artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and fast analysis and visualization.

Intel offers a wide variety of hardware and software libraries that facilitate advanced analytics. Visit www.intel.com/analytics to learn more.

are you ready for 5g?

According to the newly released “5G Economics of Entertainment Report” commissioned by Intel and conducted by Ovum, it is forecast that over the next decade (2019-2028) media and entertainment companies will be competing to win a share of a nearly USD 3 trillion cumulative wireless revenue opportunity15. Experiences enabled by 5G networks will account for nearly half of this revenue opportunity (close to $1.3 trillion)16.

According to Forbes, 5G download speeds will be at least tenfold faster than 4G17. That means that a HD movie that takes six minutes to download over a 4G network could take only a few seconds over a 5G network. Also, in this era of user-generated content, photo and video upload speeds will improve, fueling additional social media content18 .

Intel is uniquely positioned to power the entire 5G tech ecosystem to support this flood of new data. Intel is no longer just “inside” your computer; Intel’s technological innovation is expanding to 5G network, consumer and industrial applications and the cloud.

“5G will inevitably shake up the media and entertainment landscape. It will be a major competitive asset if companies adapt. If not, they risk failure or even extinction.”

Jonathan Wood, General Manager

Business Development & Partnerships 5G Next Generation and Standards at Intel

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Today’s consuMers deMand a Modern conTenT-delivery exPerience

Outdated infrastructure that was built to support legacy video codecs cannot meet consumers’ expectations for a smooth, responsive viewing or gaming experience. Nor can it handle the heavy burden of VR and 5G traffic. Achieving fast, high-quality media and entertainment delivery is possible only by investing in transformational hardware and software throughout the media delivery chain (see Figure 1).

Incorporating Intel® technology into their content-delivery infrastructure provides online media and entertainment companies with multiple business benefits. These include improved density, efficiency, and quality, as-well as reduced cost of delivery and better viewing experiences.

Figure 1. Intel® technologies offer business value at every step of the media delivery chain.

Content Capture Content production Content storage and distribution Consumption

Origination“Capture, Encode, Edit”

High-Performance Compute with Intel® Xeon Processors, Intel® FPGAs and Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator

High Throughput and Low Latency with Intel® OptaneTM Technology

Simplified Access to Codes with Intel® Media Server Studio

Consumption “Decode, Display”

Intel® Technology Benefits the Entire Media Value Chain

Production, Storage and Distribution “Store, Transcode, Protect, Distribute”

• Workstation• Contribution

• Public Cloud Servers• Private Cloud Infrastructure• Edge Servers• Cloud Storage• Networking

• PC• SmartTV• Mobile/Tablet• Set-top Box• Media Stick/Box• Cameras

• Cloud Storage• Networking

Encoder

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fuTure-Proof your business by building your oWn daTa cenTerOnline media and entertainment companies can use Intel® hardware and software building blocks to create cutting edge, disruptive, profitable and highly effective platforms for media delivery. This approach offers greater control over total costs, customer experience, and more security than using a third-party infrastructure provider. Intel offers a deep understanding of the changing nature of video processing with the core competency that comes from the company’s rich and long history with digital media technologies.

Intel® Media Server Studio SDK 2018 offers developer-focused HEVC solutions that offer an excellent tradeoff between quality and performance. Intel Media Server Studio for Linux* Professional Edition and Intel® Media SDK for Windows* are both available, and implement standards-based, highly optimized decoders, corresponding efficient and highly optimized encoders, file/stream formatting, and pre- and postprocessing tools that support efficient coding.

Intel’s hardware acceleration provides a dramatic improvement in discrete graphics processing throughput over pure-software approaches, while also reducing cost and permitting higher flexibility as compared to customized hardware solutions. A Visual

“The distinctions between print and digital, video games and sports, wireless and fixed Internet access, pay-TV and OTT, and social and traditional media are blurring… To succeed in the future, companies must re-envision every aspect of what they do and how they do it. That means having, or having access to, the right technology and premium content, delivered in a cost-effective manner to an audience that is engaged with the brand.”

Mark McCaffrey, U.S. Technology, Media, and

Telecommunications Leader, PwC19

Cloud platform built on Intel® architecture offers scalable performance with hardware-accelerated codecs and a comprehensive set of SDKs and APIs.

Here are just a few benefits of such a platform:

• Accelerated platform driven by powerful Intel® processors, the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card, Intel® FPGAs and Intel® Smart Network Interface Cards (NICs).

• High-performance video streaming with Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel® AVX-512).

• High storage throughput and low latency enabled by Intel® Optane™ technology, such as Intel® Optane™ Solid State Drives and Intel® Optane™ DC Persistent Memory.

• Simplified access to hardware-accelerated codecs and programmable graphics through optimized software such as Intel Media Server Studio and the SVT-HEVC codec.

• Advanced security features from the silicon to the platform, including Intel® Advanced Encryption Standard – New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) and Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX).

Intel can work closely with online media and entertainment companies to extract the best possible value from their investments in technology. Collaborating together, the company and Intel can fine-tune compute, network and storage performance. Here are three examples of how online media and entertainment companies have used Intel® products and expertise to improve their bottom line as well as their consumers’ user experience:

• 360 VR experiences. Intel, Wowza Media Systems*, and Rivet Media* teamed up to deliver real-time streaming 4K, 360-degree VR video to multiple devices by using the Intel Xeon processor’s hardware-assisted graphics capability20.

• Sports video replays. Slomo.tv*, a producer of instant replay servers, innovated a family of videoReferee* systems that provide instant high-quality video replays from up to 18 cameras direct to referee viewing systems21.

TeaMing uP WiTh inTel in The real World

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conclusion and nexT sTePsContent providers using legacy hardware and software will struggle to deliver the media and entertainment experiences consumers expect. Intel processors, accelerators, and media SDKs can help modernize infrastructure so that it can keep up with the exploding demand for more and more complex content.

Here are some next steps for online media and entertainment companies looking to improve customer experience, security and total cost of ownership (TCO) through technology.

With the growth of demand for content and new exciting technologies such as VR and 5G, there is huge opportunity to grow your business. Providing consumers with a fantastic, secure customer experience can help you stand out from the crowd and attract and retain customers.

Discover more resources for media and entertainment delivery. Visit intel.com/csp

1. research 2. build your TeaM 3. evaluaTe your exisTing infrasTrucTure

Gather inspiration and find out what your customers and competitors are doing.

Hire personnel who are familiar and skilled with high-performance hardware and software. Alternatively, use webinars, conferences and other resources to upskill existing personnel.

Whether you’re using third-party infrastructure or already have your own data center, use this eGuide as a starting point for establishing the suitability of your infrastructure and processes and identifying candidates for upgrade or improvement.

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- Visual Cloud Computing

- Intel® Media Server Studio

- Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors

- Intel® Optane™ technology

- Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card

- Intel® FPGA Acceleration Hub

- 5G: The Next Generation of Communications to Disrupt and Reshape Entire Industries

furTher reading¹ Cisco, November 2018, “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Trends, 2017–2022.” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white-

paper-c11-741490.html

² Cisco, “VNI Global Fixed and Mobile Internet Traffic Forecasts.” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/index.html

³ Business Insider, November 2015, “Facebook is now generating 8 billion video views per day from just 500 million people — here’s how that’s possible.” http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-now-generating-8-billion-video-views-per-day-2015-11

⁴ Broadband TV News, May 2017, “Global market for e-sports video is booming.” https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2017/05/09/global-market-for-e-sports-video-is-booming/

⁵ Statista, “Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute as of July 2015.” https://www.statista.com/statistics/259477/hours-of-video-uploaded-to-youtube-every-minute/

⁶ Wyzowl.com, “Why Video is Exploding on Social Media in 2018.” https://www.wyzowl.com/video-social-media-2018/

⁷ BroadcastingCable.com, March 2016, “Study: Consumers Have No Patience for Buffering.” https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/study-consumers-have-no-patience-buffering-154730

⁸ Intel Developer Zone, January 2014, “Real-Time CPU Based H.265/HEVC Encoding Solution with Intel® Platform Technology.” https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/real-time-cpu-based-h265hevc-encoding-solution-with-intel-platform-technology-1

⁹ Security Intelligence, May 2018, “DDoS Attacks Increase in Volume and Duration in Q1 2018.” https://securityintelligence.com/news/ddos-attacks-increase-in-volume-and-duration-in-q1-2018/

10 Statista, “U.S. Online Gaming Industry - Statistics & Facts.” https://www.statista.com/topics/1551/online-gaming/

11 UploadVR.com, March 2017, “Chat With The Cast In A Unique VR Experience For The Power Rangers.” https://uploadvr.com/chat-with-the-cast-unique-vr-experience-for-power-rangers/

12 News BTC, September 2018, “Alive Casino Offers VR Online Gambling Experience on Blockchain, Launches Exclusive Private Sale.” https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/09/12/alive-play-casino-offers-vr-online-gambling-experience-on-blockchain-launches-exclusive-private-sale/

13 Pocket-lint, March 2016, “New Sky VR Studio kicks off with Team Williams F1 VR experience you can watch online.” https://www.pocket-lint.com/ar-vr/news/sky/137077-new-sky-vr-studio-kicks-off-with-team-williams-f1-vr-experience-you-can-watch-online

14 Statista, “Virtual Reality (VR) - Statistics & Facts.” https://www.statista.com/topics/2532/virtual-reality-vr/

15 MarketWatch, October 2018, “Intel Study Finds 5G will Drive $1.3 Trillion in New Revenues in Media and Entertainment Industry by 2028.” https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/intel-study-finds-5g-will-drive-13-trillion-in-new-revenues-in-media-and-entertainment-industry-by-2028-2018-10-11

16 See footnote 15

17 Forbes, July 2017, “5G: The Next Tech Disruption In Media And Entertainment Is Coming.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelsongranados/2017/07/17/5g-the-next-tech-disruption-in-media-and-entertainment-is-coming/#486fb1d07026

18 See footnote 17.

19 CMO.com, July 2018, “5 Trends Shaping The Future Of Media And Entertainment.” https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2018/6/12/5-industry-trends-shaping-the-future-of-media-and-entertainment.html#gs.eBhhVkU

20 YouTube, June 2016, “Intel, Wowza, and Rivet Deliver Immersive Video Experiences.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgXsePX0ZOI

21 Intel Developer Zone, October 2016, “Amazing Video Experiences Enable Game-changing Sports Calls.” https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/amazing-video-experiences-make-game-changing-calls-in-sports

Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer or learn more at intel.com/csp

Intel does not control or audit third-party data. You should review this content, consult other sources, and confirm whether referenced data are accurate.

All information provided here is subject to change without notice. Contact your Intel representative to obtain the latest Intel product specifications and roadmaps.

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Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more complete information visit www.intel.com/benchmarks.

Cost reduction scenarios described are intended as examples of how a given Intel- based product, in the specified circumstances and configurations, may affect future costs and provide cost savings. Circumstances will vary. Intel does not guarantee any costs or cost reduction.

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