2023 has arrived and if there's one thing for certain, the live streaming video sphere will only become more competitive in the year ahead. But who will succeed? And who will fall by the wayside? 

There are an infinite number of factors that can contribute to the triumph of any live streaming platform but it’s safe to say that one of the key pillars for success is an exceptional analytics solution. 

With this in mind, here are three ways that video analytics can contribute to the success of your streaming business. 

1. Visibility across the delivery chain

The word ‘visibility’ is bandied around a lot in the world of streaming. But what does it really mean? 

Visibility means having access to actionable data for every part of your platform and along the entire content delivery chain. While many analytics solutions on the market offer visibility over the end device or CDNs, businesses looking to gain full visibility need an analytics platform that provides real-time data on the first, middle and last miles of your content’s journey to your end users. With this kind of oversight, operators can quickly spot, troubleshoot and solve issues that occur, particularly during periods of congestion caused by surges in concurrent demand.

System73’s Edge Analytics Solution provides the granular visibility that businesses need through the provision of crucial ASN, CDN and geo-mapping metrics among others. This way, bottlenecks or pinch points can be spotted and remedied before the audience’s quality of experience is impacted, ensuring that nobody is stuck staring at a loading screen. 

2. Provide a superior quality of experience

Buffering, latency, unstable connections and pixelated images are just a few of the problems that OTT audiences may experience, potentially leading them to close players and ultimately unsubscribe from services. It goes without saying that poor quality of experience (QoE) is bad for business. To beat the competition, streaming providers cannot afford to deliver suboptimal QoE. 

How can a video analytics solution prevent this from happening? QoE issues are often the result of congestion along the delivery chain. With a comprehensive analytics solution, which tracks real-time infrastructure performance and audience data, operators can accurately pinpoint the root causes of QoE issues and resolve them immediately. Furthermore, a video analytics solution whose design is centered around combating poor QoE allows businesses to easily identify where problems may be starting to occur for viewers so that the issue can be quickly nipped in the bud. 

Let’s zone in on one metric in particular. Resolution. Of course, the majority of analytics platforms track the average resolution their audience is receiving on their end-devices. What marks out System73’s Edge Analytics solution is its unique capability to track and display suboptimal viewport resolution on a user-by-user basis. This crucial metric shows us which users are receiving a lower resolution experience than they really should be. For example, a viewer is watching a live event in 720p, when their device is equipped with 1440p. This kind of data is vital to ensuring that you can make sure your customers are getting the QoE they demand and expect.

3. Get to know your audience on a deeper level

An in depth understanding of your audience is key to the success of any business’ streaming strategy. This kind of information can only be unlocked with video streaming analytics solutions like Edge Analytics. Operators are able to understand their whole audience at a glance or drill right down into a single user - where they are, how they connect, how long they tune in for. If a viewer reaches out with a problem, operators can easily see exactly what’s going wrong with an individual user’s session to determine the root cause. Armed with these kinds of insights, businesses can make smarter decisions when it comes to prioritizing infrastructure resources as well as content strategy and advertising. 

These are just a few of the many ways that an analytics solution can boost the success of your video business. Find out more about Edge Analytics by System73 here.