• Tubi outperformed cable broadcast on multiple devices. According to our tests, the closest to real-time large-screen experience was delivered by Tubi on Fire TV, streaming 2.6 seconds ahead of Spectrum, chosen as the broadcast time reference for our study.
  Additionally, during the event, Tubi on iOS over 5G was an additional second ahead. However, since our study focused on large-screen performance, this result was not included in the overall findings.
• Tubi on Apple TVshowed slightly more delay, likely due to differences in streaming protocols, or packager configuration choices, with MPEG-DASH potentially offering an advantage over HLS.
• Tubi on Samsung TV did not achieve real-time performance, highlighting discrepancies in application behavior across different devices and operating systems. As native smart TV applications gain more users, more Witbe customers are prioritizing testing on these platforms, which were historically considered lower priority. However, this has changed significantly in the past two years.

This analysis underscores the significant variation in latency across distributors, reinforcing the need for real-time monitoring and optimization to ensure the best live-streaming experience.

Contact us to receive the full comprehensive results.

TAG’s platform is designed to deliver an unparalleled viewer experience by combining advanced Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) tools. Based on Content Matching Technology, TAG now supports straightforward, reference-based QoE measures like Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM), an industry-leading algorithm that mimics human visual perception to assess video quality in real time. SSIM is seamlessly integrated with TAG’s Content Matching technology allowing for precise comparisons between reference (e.g., source at acquisition) and other points along the workflow (e.g, before/after encoders/packagers). This standardized evaluation simplifies quality assurance across workflows, ensuring a consistent and high-quality viewer experience.

Why Hybrid Is Winning

Adoption of cloud-based solutions involves numerous considerations across a media organization, and the hybrid approach allows each business to balance those considerations and pursue a strategic path toward more efficient and agile operations.

Employing Existing Resources

One reason hybrid environments will dominate going forward is that media organizations worldwide have already invested in on-prem hardware and infrastructure, both SDI and IP, that currently support familiar and functional workflows. And, when processes or workflows are migrated to the cloud, it is typically an incremental undertaking, not a wholesale replacement of existing systems. In many cases, the business will identify an ideal or opportune use case for a cloud-based solution and begin the shift there.

Minimizing Risk and Reducing Impact

When the time comes to integrate and implement a cloud-based solution, some businesses choose to begin with an on-premises deployment. To maintain control, minimize risk, optimize the system, and provide time and opportunity for internal teams to learn, they may test or even maintain the cloud-based system within a private cloud run on their own infrastructure.

Further requirements that might affect the decision to take a process or service to the cloud include augmenting staff and tools to support this transition, dedicating time and resources to training, investing resources in integration of existing systems with cloud-based solutions, and potentially re-architecting existing applications for the cloud environment. For some applications, it’s simply more desirable to maintain audio and video locally rather than in a remote virtual environment.

Businesses that choose to run software-centric solutions in the public cloud rather than on premises can eliminate hardware infrastructure and associated maintenance costs while reducing administrative costs. Working with a major cloud provider, they also gain access to robust data security measures, such as data encryption, access controls, and built-in redundancy, that protect both content and customer data.

Tapping Into Cloud Strengths

The cloud commonly brings advantages such as improved productivity and the ability to adapt and innovate with relative speed, but these well-known benefits must be balanced against potential performance and cost issues, and their impact on different use cases. Thus, broadcasters may opt to shift lower-value services to the cloud first and then follow with higher-value or higher-visibility offerings if the model delivers compelling operational and economic benefits.

Once a workflow or operation is established in the cloud, broadcasters and media organizations can automate manual tasks and leverage AI and machine learning to optimize content production and distribution. To support those workflows, they can scale compute resources up and down at will to address peaks in demand or enable new business opportunities. Rather than overprovision or underutilize resources, businesses working in the cloud can use and pay for just the compute resources they need.