March 2015

VR
• Google making Android for virtual reality
• To Bring Virtual Reality to Market, Furious Efforts to Solve Nausea
• Magic Leap VR game play

MSE & DASH
• Shaka Player 1.2.1 released: a JavaScript library which implements a DASH client with EME support.

Plugin deprecation

Codecs, compression, containers
• BBC Audio Factory project: turning off all Windows Media Audio on demand services
• IETF Begins Standardization Process For Next-Generation 'NETVC' Video Codec (Daala):
Just as the IETF took Google's SPDY protocol and turned it into the HTTP/2 standard, IETF seems to be trying to do the same with Daala and turn it into the NETVC video codec standard. Much like Daala, NETVC seems to have largely the same main goals. The IETF wants it to be:
• Optimized for real-time communications over the public Internet
• Competitive with or superior to existing modern codecs
• Viewed as having IPR licensing terms that allow for wide implementation and deployment
• HEVC Advance pool formed
• Today's WTF Moment: A Competing HEVC Licensing Pool
• Next-gen high-res video faces new fees and uncertainty
• libvpx 1.4.0 - Indian Runner Duck - release candidate announced
The State of Video Codecs 2015
we’ve seen the first deployments of HEVC and VP9, and heard aggressive claims (“technical performance superior to H.265”) from Xiph and Mozilla about the open source ultra HD (UHD) codec Daala. Out of nowhere, RealNetworks demonstrated its RMHD codec, with “HEVC-like image quality” at CES 2015.

WebRTC
• Building a Raspberry Pi 2 WebRTC camera (using the Janus WebRTC Gateway)
• Chrome 42 release notes
• WebRTC & mobile battery consumption: why phone power is optimized for voice communications – and what should happen when you get a phone call during a WebRTC call
• MeshCentral: WebRTC data channel stack built by Intel
Kranky Geek London, 15 April, 12:30–17:00

Android Audio
• Unified Music Player: 'implement an audio media app that works across multiple form factors and provides a consistent user experience on Android phones, tablets, Android Auto, Android Wear and Cast devices'

Web Audio, audio on the web
• Motion sensing using the doppler effect: control scrolling by moving your hand
• Adding Audio to Web Apps
• Multi-Device Timing – synchronised playback on multiple devices, built to handle flakey connectivity: for example for radio playback or music collaboration:
As people consume and interact with more and more content, using any number of devices, providing a coherent experience is increasingly challenging. The traditional way of media - bundle everyting in a pre-synchronized container for high quality sync translates badly to the Web and multi-device scenarios … a new HTMLTimingObject, suggested to handle both local and online timing for both media elements, web animations and any other linear data.
• YouTube just put the final nail in the Loudness War’s coffin: YouTube is now the most important online music discovery source – and loudness levels on YouTube are low and consistent
• Streaming sets off a painful debate in the music industry: 'From a near standing start in 2008 [Spotify] subscriptions brought in $2bn in 2013 against the $5.1bn consumers spent on downloading tracks from digital stores such as iTunes … .'
• Universal wants Spotify to cap free streaming to encourage users to opt for paid-for services

And finally...
• 360-degree videos on YouTube
• BuzzFeed to stream live David Cameron interview
• Buyer's Guide to Education Video Platforms 2015: more questions than answers
• How Nvidia Plans to Be the Netflix of Gaming: Shield console streams games at high resolution with less than 150ms latency
• The State of Media & Entertainment Video 2015
• Mobile video market will be 13 times larger in 2019 than it was in 2013
• Ooyala Global Video Index Q4 2014:
34% of all video plays in Q4 were on tablets and smartphones, rising to 38% in December, up 114% from preceding December.
Tablet users watched long-form video for 70% of the time they spent viewing on their device.

For broadcasters, 76% of ad impressions came from PCs.

For publishers, almost half of all ad impressions were non PC during December 2014. Mobile made up almost 35% and tablets 14%.