A number of online video companies have announced their intention to jointly form the Streaming Video Alliance. This Alliance aims to facilitate the creation of architecture, standards and best practices that will scale the infrastructure for online video and improve efficiency for providers.
The Alliance members include: Alcatel-Lucent, Charter Communications, Cisco, Comcast, EPIX, Fox Networks Group, Korea Telecom, Level 3 Communications, Liberty Global, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Qwilt, Telecom Italia, Telstra, Ustream, Wowza Media Systems and Yahoo!.
The Alliance is designed to deepen collaboration, accelerate innovation and redefine the way online video is streamed across mobile and fixed networks to consumers worldwide. It will have three initial areas of focus:
Open architecture:
Defining specifications for the architecture and functionality of network and cloud-based streaming and caching infrastructure to support the growth of on-demand and live online video.
Quality of experience:
Creating a common approach to defining, measuring, optimising and reporting the quality of the video streaming experience for content providers, network operators and consumers.
Interoperability:
Creating standards for interoperability and performance to ensure content providers, content delivery networks and network operators can efficiently stream high definition and high quality video to consumers throughout the world.
