Abhijit Bhide, SVP Engineering, Vuclip

What is the biggest tech challenge you face in adding (or boosting) your online and/or streaming video elements?
“There are multiple challenges, ranging from reliable infrastructure in different region and, different secure streaming standards for different device types to unavailability of technical solutions for next-gen ad features on the majority of video players.”

Is there any one particular technology that has made a radical difference to the way you operate? What is it?
“Being a technology driven company, Vuclip has invested in developing multiple tools and functions, which have been core to business and operations of this company. However, with changing times, Vuclip being a content company has realised that management of content rights and files has become more important today than ever before, especially when awareness and compliance towards IP-related rights requirements of content has really matured. At the same time, the industry has moved from USB-based direct ingestions to OTT system to sophisticated and controlled ingestion and management systems. Vuclip has been no exception to this change. We are in the process of adopting this change where more complex rights can now be handled by the click of a few buttons; and the entire process from ingesting a piece of content, transcoding it and making it available for delivery has become automated with operational simplicity like a BPM (business process management) tool. These are our next gen CMS (content management systems) and RMS (rights managements systems).”

What do you wish broadcast/streaming tech vendors would do (or say, or offer) for you that they aren’t doing now?
“Modular and flexible solutions (which are not always bundled). We came across many tech solutions bundled as one product. This may be suitable for companies that totally rely on tech partners. But for companies like us, which also make investments to develop differentiator tech solutions, the entire bundle may not be suitable, but a part of the offering may be. Also, we wish that tech partners can pay attention to different type of business models adopted by OTT service providers before making commercial offers on the same but unrelated parameters. For example, the number of users (in a free OTT service) doesn’t really mean number of subscribed users; so if a solution cost is based around how many total number of users are engaged with a service, then it may not be fair to free service providers (unless it is a revenue share type of arrangement).”

What’s at the top of your tech wish list for 2019/2020?
“We are focusing on technically transforming our platform to provide the highest operational efficiency and end-user experience. With this in mind, we are adopting robust metadata operations tools and processes, integration of unified video player for all of our target devices with all possible next-gen ad features, implementation of modern encoding systems, implementation of all required security standards on our platforms, and last but not least, real adaptation of AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) in our operational process and also in providing higher video quality with reduced data consumption (hence driving more engagement).”

Published in ContentAsia Issue Six 2019, 4 November 2019