In the early days of this blog, I shared in deep detail the technical and project landscape of PayTV systems for the traditional broadcast headend and set-top-box (STB) software platforms and projects as subject matter expert in this area.
In this post, I will provide a high level overview of the core differences and challenges between broadcast DTH/SetTopBox systems versus OTT platforms. OTT has become a hot topic, with the nascent rise of OTT (Over-the-Top) internet streaming platforms that many a traditional PayTV operator is now transitioning to, in light of the growing competition for eyeballs & cord-cutters driven by the likes of primarily SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) players like Netflix, Amazon & the like. The challenge though, is that these PayTV operators tend to trip up by bringing PayTV/DTH thinking into the OTT-world, which is why I felt the need to write about this, because I have, and still am currently experiencing these challenges. Suffice to say, it becomes very tricky to disagree can call out a high level broadcast TV executive's assertions (expecting like-for-like DTH & OTT experience) as not completely accurate when it comes to OTT engineering...
The main aim of this post is thus targeted at senior executives who come from a broadcast world, and may not fully grasp the nuances of an online streaming world, specifically pointing out the spectrum of control of the end-to-end platform that PayTV operators generally enjoyed much comfort in that world, in contrast to the new world of online, where it becomes impractical to expect the level of control previously enjoyed - basically you can't control all the components of the internet, unless you invest in owning a large part of the network, which some operators have attempted & haven't really succeeded!! Simply put, the internet was not designed for Live TV streaming unlike traditional broadcast TV - the internet is somewhat chaotic & messy to say the least. In addition to this level of infrastructure control & lack thereof, an OTT platform is largely software systems designed for internet-scale (i.e. massively distributed server-side backend components) which requires a different skillset and experiences traditionally enjoyed in the closed ecosystem of broadcast & set top box device software development teams.
Another point of this post responds to the standpoint from traditional PayTV executives who may have spent a large part of their work in building broadcast systems with an engineering mindset anchored to a past era that is no longer relevant in the OTT world. Expressing opinions such as "engineering systems either work or they don't, it's either a 1 or 0, no in between states..with an expectation of 100% always-on availability..." in my view is somewhat misinformed & borders on belittling the engineering challenges faced in the online world. Whist every responsible engineer understands such demands and expectations of any system, a key point to remember is that broadcast TV has benefited from many years of refinement, standardisation, systems & processes specialised for the domain of TV - and when it comes to the internet - well, it was never really designed for video consumption, the speed of innovation has outpaced the development of standards & so is a much more messy world compared to traditional broadcast TV (satellite/terrestrial).
Disclaimer: This post is not about downplaying the broadcast engineering world, in fact, a lot of OTT operations highly depend on the upstream capabilities from PayTV operator's existing broadcast engineering infrastructure. Broadcast engineering systems are a marvel of engineering in its own respects, systems are highly complicated & superior engineering. OTT systems, and the point of my post, is to show the extension of the value chain, highlighting the new software & systems engineering challenges that present itself in the OTT world, that will be new concepts for existing broadcast engineering teams to learn & appreciate.
In this post, I will provide a high level overview of the core differences and challenges between broadcast DTH/SetTopBox systems versus OTT platforms. OTT has become a hot topic, with the nascent rise of OTT (Over-the-Top) internet streaming platforms that many a traditional PayTV operator is now transitioning to, in light of the growing competition for eyeballs & cord-cutters driven by the likes of primarily SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) players like Netflix, Amazon & the like. The challenge though, is that these PayTV operators tend to trip up by bringing PayTV/DTH thinking into the OTT-world, which is why I felt the need to write about this, because I have, and still am currently experiencing these challenges. Suffice to say, it becomes very tricky to disagree can call out a high level broadcast TV executive's assertions (expecting like-for-like DTH & OTT experience) as not completely accurate when it comes to OTT engineering...
The main aim of this post is thus targeted at senior executives who come from a broadcast world, and may not fully grasp the nuances of an online streaming world, specifically pointing out the spectrum of control of the end-to-end platform that PayTV operators generally enjoyed much comfort in that world, in contrast to the new world of online, where it becomes impractical to expect the level of control previously enjoyed - basically you can't control all the components of the internet, unless you invest in owning a large part of the network, which some operators have attempted & haven't really succeeded!! Simply put, the internet was not designed for Live TV streaming unlike traditional broadcast TV - the internet is somewhat chaotic & messy to say the least. In addition to this level of infrastructure control & lack thereof, an OTT platform is largely software systems designed for internet-scale (i.e. massively distributed server-side backend components) which requires a different skillset and experiences traditionally enjoyed in the closed ecosystem of broadcast & set top box device software development teams.
Another point of this post responds to the standpoint from traditional PayTV executives who may have spent a large part of their work in building broadcast systems with an engineering mindset anchored to a past era that is no longer relevant in the OTT world. Expressing opinions such as "engineering systems either work or they don't, it's either a 1 or 0, no in between states..with an expectation of 100% always-on availability..." in my view is somewhat misinformed & borders on belittling the engineering challenges faced in the online world. Whist every responsible engineer understands such demands and expectations of any system, a key point to remember is that broadcast TV has benefited from many years of refinement, standardisation, systems & processes specialised for the domain of TV - and when it comes to the internet - well, it was never really designed for video consumption, the speed of innovation has outpaced the development of standards & so is a much more messy world compared to traditional broadcast TV (satellite/terrestrial).
Disclaimer: This post is not about downplaying the broadcast engineering world, in fact, a lot of OTT operations highly depend on the upstream capabilities from PayTV operator's existing broadcast engineering infrastructure. Broadcast engineering systems are a marvel of engineering in its own respects, systems are highly complicated & superior engineering. OTT systems, and the point of my post, is to show the extension of the value chain, highlighting the new software & systems engineering challenges that present itself in the OTT world, that will be new concepts for existing broadcast engineering teams to learn & appreciate.
Key points for TL;DR folks (especially the PayTV Exec CXOs)
- It's not a simple thing to compare OTT platforms wearing hat of a traditional DTH broadcast guy, it is not simply a like-for-like comparison.
- Don't be naive and pass value-judgements just because you were an engineer in the broadcast TV world (Headend or Set Top Box) does not necessarily make you qualified to understand OTT engineering domain. You can't bring broadcast/STB-thinking-mindset to the world of OTT.
- PayTV operators have historically enjoyed a high level of end-to-end control, not so in OTT world. The internet is outside the PayTV operator's control.
- There are far more components in the value chain of OTT than broadcast (backend, frontend and device software stack is more complicated in OTT than STB software).
- High level of device & platform fragmentation in OTT that a traditional PayTV operator must consider.
- The internet was never designed for TV consumption & has innovated at a much faster pace than traditional broadcast TV, the internet is a messy place, broadcast TV is somewhat cleaner and more determinstic.
- OTT engineering teams have different challenges compared to traditional broadcast & set top box engineering.
- PayTV operators need to plan carefully the convergence (DTH & OTT) of engineering teams and be prepared for a "clash of worlds".
- Set Top Box software systems enjoy far more security control & protection than its OTT sibling.
- Peak events & load challenges are unique to OTT platforms compared to broadcast DTH STB (scaling challenges don't really exist in DTH/STB).
- Redundancy, Fast Rollbacks, Failover & Disaster Recovery are easier to achieve in OTT than in broadcast DTH/STB systems.
