In our latest major release of the Bitmovin Adaptive Streaming Player we have introduced interactive video ads using VPAID 2.0, enhanced our VR and 360° video support to cover all major browsers and further improved performance relating to startup and switching times.
Interactive Advertising with VPAID 2.0
Besides conventional playback, handling of advertisements is one of the most important parts of a web player in many online video scenarios. After introducing the support for VAST based advertising in player version 4.1, enhancing the player with interactive ad capabilities, using VPAID, was the next logical step.
In contrast to VAST, which is limited in regard to the extent of interaction, allowing in-stream video ad formats, VPAID allows rich user interaction. VPAID enables compliant video players to display interactive media ads (sometimes also called executable ads), which enhances the user’s experience. Furthermore, VPAID captures and reports how the user interacts with the ad, which can be used to improve creatives and therefore engagement.
VR and 360° Video in all Major Browsers
We are proud to say, that by using Bitmovin’s v6.0 Adaptive Streaming Player, VR and 360° video playback is possible on all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge and Safari (Mac OS + iOS). Another prominent change with regard to our VR and 360° video plugin is the new icon in our default skin. It enables the user to easily toggle between the rendering modes for VR headsets and desktop/mobile usage. But there is lots more that has been improved!
We have also added the support of 180 degrees and side-by-side 3D content, as well as improving the detection capabilities of such videos and error handling to the cross-platform enhancements.
Improved Performance While Reducing File Size
Within v6.0 we have been able to further reduce the startup time – the time between hitting the play button and when the first frame of the video is displayed. You can read about why this is of major importance to your streaming application and how it can help you keep your subscribers in our post 3 reasons users leave a video website. We also performed an extensive re-factoring of our Flash based fallback player, (which is now only used as a rendering engine) and major parts of our JavaScript code base. It resulted in a significant reduction (approx. 65%) in the entire player size.
As well as that, we have enhanced the player with additional analytics capabilities, improved error handling, and introduced the possibility to setup the player without a source stream. A detailed migration guide from v5.x to v6.0 can be found in our support section.
What’s Next?
For our next release, we have already started working on the support for MPEG-DASH Multi Period and HLS discontinuities, which can be used for scenes or chapters, or to separate ads from program content. Stay tuned.
All the best,
Reinhard & the Bitmovin Team
