When diving into the importance of video Analytics for streaming platforms, it all links back to understanding how the user experiences the content. For platforms today, content is king, but users hold a majority of the power because “how their streaming session goes” matters a lot, especially for subscriber retention. Now, depending on the events your player triggers, having the right data points to analyze your stream’s performance is great. However, you’d most likely need to go through multiple pages on your solutions analytics dashboard or in a bigger data collector to see them all. Additionally, seeing those data points in real-time is not always possible, as many Analytics solutions typically come with a delay.
This is where real-time stream monitoring comes into play.
In this blog, I will go into what real-time stream monitoring is, why it’s important, and how Bitmovin’s Analytics empowers streaming platforms to get the complete picture of their stream’s performance.
What is real-time stream monitoring analytics and why is it important?
Real-time stream monitoring analytics refers to continuously tracking and collecting data on events triggered during playback related to the quality of experience (QoE), quality of service (QoS), and stream performance in real-time. This is crucial for dev & support teams as it enables them to understand the user’s experience when viewing their content. It involves monitoring various metrics and parameters during the stream that analyze user behavior and provide dev teams with metrics they can use to optimize content delivery, amongst other data points.
These metrics are essential for VOD and live streams but play a much more critical role in live events. This is because any disruptions, buffering, errors, or other events that may arise can have an immediate, costly, and significant impact on the viewer and their satisfaction. You and your team can proactively address issues, minimize downtime, and provide a superior streaming experience for your audience by continuously monitoring and analyzing data in real-time. This approach contributes to increased subscriber retention and positive user reviews and can significantly influence a streaming platform’s success.
Does Bitmovin’s Analytics have real-time stream monitoring?
The short answer is yes, we do! After receiving requests for the feature, we added it to our roadmap and recently released real-time stream monitoring to our Analytics solution a couple of weeks ago. Anyone can now view, test, and use it immediately on the Bitmovin dashboard.
What are the use cases and benefits of Bitmovin’s real-time stream monitoring?
Besides our in-depth metrics pages, we’ve made the essential data points you need to track live and on-demand stream performance accessible at a glance on one page. This gives you a granular view in a 15-minute window that gives you a clear picture of how your viewer’s experience is trending and helps you proactively identify any errors they may be experiencing. Additionally, you can seamlessly click through from the real-time stream monitoring page to the specific metric you’re seeing to dig deeper into that individual data point.
Showcasing how it works and what it includes, our Director of Product Management for Playback, James Varndell, recorded an explainer that goes into the feature’s details.
Any industry can utilize this, especially when streaming live events, such as through Amazon IVS, which is directly integrated with Bitmovin’s Analytics. As you saw on the video, along with the 6 data points initially shown, you can also apply over (X) filters (more if you’re using API) that enable you to access each use case and benefit from the platform.
Main Use Cases:
- Performance Metrics
- Focused on QOS, this monitors metrics such as rebuffering rate, playback errors, bitrates, and startup times to assess the overall performance of the video stream.
- User Experience Metrics
- Evaluate user-centric metrics for QoE, such as user engagement and viewer retention, to understand how viewers are experiencing the content and where you can activate them.
- Device and Platform Reach
- Analyze data to ensure compatibility and smooth playback across different devices, operating systems, and streaming platforms. Compare performance across different device types
- Geographical Insights
- Examine streaming performance in different regions to identify potential issues related to content delivery networks (CDNs) or regional variations in internet infrastructure. Use these insights to optimize playback settings.
Main benefits
- Customizable monitoring dashboard
- Set up, track, view, and filter through the vital metrics of your live and on-demand video on Bitmovin’s customizable dashboard.
- Set up, track, view, and filter through the vital metrics of your live and on-demand video on Bitmovin’s customizable dashboard.
- Maintain stream uptime and stability
- Spot issues instantly and find the root cause quickly to minimize the impact on your viewers. Understand real-time viewership and demand on your infrastructure.
- Spot issues instantly and find the root cause quickly to minimize the impact on your viewers. Understand real-time viewership and demand on your infrastructure.
- Monitoring dashboard for the operations room
- Display essential data points across your command center and keep your operations team aware of your stream’s performance.
The Wrap Up
Real-time stream monitoring can be applied to any use case and industry that streams video online. It will continue to be essential for all development and support teams as it enables platforms to guarantee the playback experience for audiences. With our latest feature, streaming platforms can now keep up to date with what is happening with their streams.
Check out our real-time stream monitoring feature for yourself by accessing your account or signing up.
