It’s sounds like the start of a riddle: what part of OTT UIs do you most use but hardly ever notice? Answer: online video players!
Online video players have a gossamer quality about them in that they’re both visible and not. They’re the main way – the only way – that viewers can watch content but at the same time we don’t really see them unless we’re forwarding or rewinding or they’re not working properly. And even if we’re occasionally frustrated by the buffering wheel of death, we’ll tolerate the player as long as the streaming service has the titles we want. Are online video players, therefore, a perfect technology in that they’re mainly hidden? Or are they an under-developed part of the user experience?
We talked about online video players at OTT Question Time this week (Thursday 16th September, 4pm UK) where, together with Alicia Hurst, Group Product Manager at JW Player, Lexie Knauer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Brightcove, and Stephane Desproges, Director of Application Engineering at VisualOn, we also explored:
- The evolution of online video players
- The technologies that sit under the bonnet
- Native vs. Customised players
- Advanced features and functionality
- And the future of video players
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ABOUT KAUSER KANJI
Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 19 years, formerly at Virgin Media, ITN and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live.