Seven.One Entertainment Group GmbH optimizes Video Streaming with Bitmovin’s Per-Title Technology
Overview
Seven.One Entertainment Group GmbH, a ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE company and a leading platform-independent entertainment company for the core markets Germany, Austria and Switzerland, was running different encoding solutions for different content offerings. Their streaming platform Joyn was using Bitmovin Per-title Encoding, while other departments relied on an inhouse encoding solution. Seven.One Entertainment Group (SOEG) sought to consolidate their encoding solutions and decide between “make” or “buy”. With an extensive and continuously growing video library, SOEG needed an encoding solution that would deliver top-notch quality while reducing infrastructure expenses.
The problem:
SOEG faced three interconnected challenges:
- Two different solutions: Due to previous mergers SOEG was running two different encoding solutions which they wanted to reduce to one, for efficiency and manageability.
- Cost inefficiencies: SOEG faced high and partially intransparent costs stemming from delivering large volumes of video content to a big user base.
- Inconsistent quality: SOEG’s inhouse solution and its fixed bitrate ladder over-encoded simple content and under-optimized complex content, causing quality and bandwidth inefficiencies.
Additionally, SOEG wanted to continue using H.264 (AVC) due to its high device compatibility and aimed to limit renditions for their non-paying users to SD (AVOD) while giving HD access to their paying subscribers (SVOD).
How we Delivered
Bitmovin’s Per-Title Encoding provided the answer to SOEG’s challenges. The proprietary “per-title” algorithm analyzes every asset (=title) and dynamically adjusts the encoding’s bitrate ladder based on the video’s complexity. In the course of the analysis, typical example assets for each content type were encoded with SOEG’s in-house solution and Bitmovin’s Per-Title Encoding. The subsequent comprehensive Video Quality Assessment (VQA) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis revealed that Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder, compared to the inhouse solution, could optimize bitrate ladder while maintaining or even enhancing video quality.
Results
The following results were achieved while sticking to H.264 (AVC) codec.
- CDN Cost Savings: SOEG achieved up to 60% bandwidth reduction without sacrificing quality (VMAF score stayed at 92). This translated into significant CDN savings.
- Improved Video Quality: Both AVOD and SVOD viewers experienced consistently higher-quality streams (including for high-motion content) across all devices.
Conclusion
SOEG decided to roll out Bitmovin’s Per-Title Encoding solution to all their VoD encoding workflows and achieved significant CDN cost savings while maintaining (and partially increasing) video quality for all their streaming content.