What’s changed: We’ve supported closed captioning with SAMI and DFXP subtitle file formats for quite some time. The addition of SRT subtitle file support gives our customers even more options—and an easier path—for supporting hearing-impaired viewers.

Why it matters: Adding new closed captioning file support to our Player Dev Kit and Player Service makes your broadband video more accessible to a wider audience: individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, non-native speakers, and those desiring to improve their literacy skills can all benefit from this technology. Making video more accessible to the hearing impaired also helps distributors of government-owned video meet regulations.

What do I need to get started?
To provide subtitles as an option with your videos, you need three things:
1. A complete transcript of each video, converted into the right file format.
2. A player that supports captions, like those created using thePlatform’s Player Dev Kit or served through our Player Service
3. A video management platform that can deliver the requisite subtitle files like mpx.

How does it work?

Adding closed captioning to your content with mpx is easy. Just add the format caption file that you want to your media objects in mpx, and your users can choose to view captions when they play the video.
Then associate your file (or files, if you have captions in multiple languages) with your media object in mpx, and when the player plays the clip, it will automatically find the associated file(s) and display a “CC” button in the player.

Associating caption files with media in mpx: When a PDK or Player Service player sees the file reference included in the metafile for a clip, it enables closed captioning for the user.

Attaching caption files as media files: To associate a caption file with a media object, add it to the media object as a media file. The media file will not be released, so it needs to be in a location from which it can be delivered to the player.

To add a caption file to a media object:
1. Locate the media object in mpx.
2. Click the Files blade to view the media files for the media object.
3. Click Upload to add the captioning file as a new media file.
4. In the settings for the new media file, select Document as the type of file, and the appropriate caption specification as the format (DXFP, SAMI, or SRT).

The viewer clicks the button to toggle caption display. If multiple languages are available, the viewer can also select the appropriate language. The player remembers the configured state (including the last-selected language), and continues to display captions in that language (whenever they’re available) for all videos until the viewer changes the setting.

For more information on SRT support and Closed Captioning, download our latest PDK User’s Guide.

With mpx’s built-in email notifications feature, you can keep everyone updated on events, such as when media is added to or deleted from your account, when it’s approved or unapproved, published or unpublished, and more.

Administrators can set rules that determine when and how emails are delivered. Examples include:

• A notification event – the event type, which automatically generates the email
• A recurrence pattern – the frequency of email generation
• Which email template to use – preconfigured templates that govern how emails are delivered.

Pre-built email templates make it easy

mpx provides multiple pre-built email notification templates, which make email creation a whole lot easier. Each type of event notification references a specific, built-in email template that outlines the specific details for that event. For example, Media added events use the Media added template to create a digest email, which lists all of the media added to your account during anytime frame that you specify. The templates contain both html and plain text versions.

Email notifications in mpx are flexible. Administrators can set the time zone to use and/or specify particular times when emails are sent and their frequency – hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. Some email templates are configured to notify users immediately after an event happens.

You also have the ability to create your own email template. Where you can customize the subject heading, email body, logos or even the event information within the template.

To access this feature, go to the Account Setup view for Administrators.

For more information on creating an email notification, please see our Technical Resource Center for Managing Email Notifications.

This comes as good news for companies that rely on advertising as part of their revenue model. Fortunately, thePlatform has strong partnerships with the best in the industry.

Despite its growth, we think online video advertising will continue to be a rather complicated arena to navigate, and the industry movement toward the TV Everywhere paradigm will undoubtedly add to this challenge.

Industry expert, Will Richmond, recently highlighted the maturation of online video advertising as one of the top three themes of the 2012 predictions he gathered from twenty-one industry executives:

“There is a lot of optimism about online video advertising continuing to grow and mature in 2012. Specific points included increasing sophistication of agencies and brands with respect to ad buying and cross-platform campaigns, improvements in analytics, transparency and performance metrics, greater viewer choice and need for relevance, and the important role video ad networks are playing in the industry.”

mpx simplifies ad policy management

Despite our primary focus on managing online video content, we do provide ad policy management functionality in mpx as well:

Here’s how it works

An ad policy specifies how you want ads to be applied to your content. The information in an ad policy determines the following:

• When ads should appear relative to the content
• How often ads should appear
• Where the player should get the ads to play

After you have defined an ad policy, you can apply it to any of the following objects in mpx: public URLs, media, feeds, or the account. You can also include the ad policy in a publish profile. The ad playback information defined in the policy is inserted into the playlist provided to the player. As previously mentioned, the Player Dev Kit enforces ad policies using partner plug-ins.

When we first announced the arrival of TV Everywhere 2.0, we underscored the obvious benefits to the Pay TV Operator. But that was just the beginning. mpx’s Subscriber Groups and Subscription Packages also benefit the programmers, giving them a new way to model their affiliate deals and content packages. And the timing of this technology couldn’t be more perfect, as they are just beginning to tap into the potential of their own online services.

More viewer options, more satisfied viewers

mpx’s new Subscriber Groups and Subscription Packages features allow programmers to more easily offer content packages that are specific to their various content agreements with pay TV operators. Because most deals vary with each affiliate, programmers can now manage the distribution and segmentation of their content in mpx.

Example: Let’s say you have three types of content you publish: full length video, trailers, and promotional clips. The deals you might have in place with your partners determine the type of content users can view. If operators, such as Cox, Time Warner, and Comcast each have different content their subscribers can view, you can model those relationships in mpx and apply the appropriate rights and restrictions to your media.

How it’s done:

1. Create a Subscriber Group—in this case it would be by operator.
2. Set the criteria and all of the attributes of the group.
3. Create your Subscription Packages, based on the type of content offered in the package: full length content, trailers, and promotional.

You can virtually set this up to key off of any number of attributes either stored in mpx or pulled from other systems.

A new way to model and enforce policies

Although pay TV operators and programmers both benefit from the Subscriber Groups and Subscription Packages features, they take advantage of them in different ways. The real difference now is how they model and enforce their new content agreements. Rather than relying on legacy backend systems, programmers can now model and enforce these polices directly in their online video platform.
This is a huge leap for programmers, as they can now add more value to their services, differentiate themselves in the market, upsell, promote their services across more devices, and the list keeps going.

Take the next step – read our white paper

Our latest white paper: TV Everywhere 2.0 – Subscriber Groups – Subscription Policies dives into these features in much greater detail. I welcome you to check it out.

The list is an annual feature assembled by the editors of Multichannel News, and it is presented as a new list each year. For 2012, the editors have chosen 40 movers and shakers, under the age of 40, who are helping their companies grow and succeed, while playing an important part in mapping the future of cable and telecommunications. According the Multichannel News, the list of individuals honors some of the most innovative and influential people, who have made invaluable contributions to their areas of expertise, and are helping to shape tomorrow.

Marty’s background includes more than 14 years of product management, marketing and sales management. At thePlatform, Marty leads worldwide sales and account management, overseeing all revenue generation, business development, product management, marketing, public relations, and the company’s extensive partner program. Among his contributions to thePlatform’s success include: increasing brand awareness through advertising, PR and the website, building an ecosystem with 80 partners, and driving the product strategy for initiatives such as TV Everywhere, and more.

The 40 high-performing executives will be profiled in the April 23 Multichannel News 40 under 40 feature.

To view the complete 2012 list, visit Multichannel News

Our Encoding Profile view in the console makes it easy for our customers to manage their profiles in a smart and logical way.

If you’re an administrator, you can see all your encoding profiles in the “Encoding Profiles” view under the “Publishing” menu; it lists every encoding profile in your account or in a parent account.
You can add, copy, edit, or delete them. As soon as you create one, it will be available in other parts of the UI for thumbnail capture, clipping, or publishing.

When you add or edit an encoding profile, the console shows just the right controls for the profile: thumbnail encoding profiles will show height and width and command line encoding profiles will let you pick from the available profile options.

And if another encoding provider comes along, when RMP registers the encoding provider, the console will automatically pick up the new choice and dynamically build the right UI, including tooltips, validation, friendly titles, and so on.

Ready to learn more?

To learn more about Encoding Profiles, please got to our Technical Resource Center.

You don’t have to be a major cable company to extend your content to the connected mobile devices and tablets of your subscribers. As a cable operator with 10,000 to 500,000 subscribers, you can bring this value to your subscribers without huge implementation costs. In working with thePlatform on multiple digital video solutions, Empathy Lab has established a set of user interface design modules, integrated with thePlatform’s technology, that leverage user experience best practices, highly engaging interaction design, and successful content promotion strategies. These design modules get you out of the gate quickly and set the foundation for future innovation and growth. We believe in getting the basics of the user experience right, and, more importantly, providing the right mix of content for this market. Our philosophy is to build a solid and scalable solution with minimal operational burden.

We feel that the basics for success in the mid-market require adherence to some basic UX principles.

1. Focus on content selection – Negotiate your content rights with your programmers so you can offer your subscribers the best online content available. Many programmers are already there, and the work done to date by the industry at large is starting to grease the wheels, but do not underestimate the time it will take to cut these new rights agreements.

2. Make it easy for customers to find and play content – Start simple and leverage what’s been tested and proven: easy authentication flows, simple content search and discovery, and smart design. These ensure that your content is easy to find and view. In some cases, your customers will be able to watch videos under your roof or through another network. In all cases, you should make this as easy and seamless for your customers as possible.

3. Make the experience awesome – Focus on the quality of your video delivery and the basics of a playback experience. There is a cost of entry – full screen, easy to use, rewind, fast forward, pause/resume – and there are some quick hit high-value features, like setting a queue or playlist, resuming videos started but not finished in an earlier session, and receiving recommendations for further exploration. There are plenty of emerging tactics to further engage your customers, but start with getting the basics right before you adopt the latest and more advanced tools.

Learn from your customers to drive future investment. By setting up the correct measurement and reporting infrastructure, your customers’ usage will inform you where to spend next.

Want to see more?

If you are interested in seeing and learning more, please contact us at sales@theplatform.com. We can walk you through an interactive demo of the entire solution and show you how easy it is to get started.

About Empathy Lab
For over 6 years, Empathy Lab has continued to shape the market for customer-facing digital entertainment experiences that drive loyalty and retention with existing customers and revenue through new customer recruitment. The agency works with everyone, from content providers and studios, to MSO’s/MVPDs, designing and deploying new strategies and tactics within the TVE, OTT, UltraViolet and EST platforms. Empathy Lab’s Media & Entertainment clients include a globally diverse group of companies, including Liberty Global, Rogers Communications, Comcast/NBCU, DirecTV, Cogeco, Sony, Music Choice, WWE and the DECE (UltraViolet).

About Jon Molod
As SVP of Media and Entertainment, Jon is the lead architect of Empathy Lab’s strategic, creative and technology services for the rapidly changing Digital Video space. Over the last 17 years, Jon has held executive positions at leading interactive firms, the last five years with Empathy Lab.

Our new Player Service lets you launch unique players that are configured for PCs, Macs, mobile phones, and OTT devices. And through its simple-to-use console, our new Web-based service lets you build unique players on the fly that are configured for PCs, Macs, mobile phones, and OTT devices. But before you get started, watch our latest training video.

The Player Service training video will show you how to:

• Select from eight different layout templates, multiple skins, and dozens of color schemes
• Preview player changes in real-time
• Enable mid-roll ad support
• and much more

You can watch the video now in our Technical Resource Center.

Unauthorized access to your video or your partners’ video is a big deal. That’s why content owners throughout the industry go to great lengths to control who gets access, when they get access, and how often.

But not all methods of content security are equal, or more importantly, right for you. thePlatform works closely with the leading content protection technology providers to meet a wide range of security requirements.

In its simplest implementation, a single purchase or subscription can enable an end user to access all of the content on your site. But there are a variety of questions to consider regarding how you package your content for end users:

• Should they be entitled to single video titles, or to groups of content, such as a season of a television series or a particular team’s sporting events?
• Does a subscription offer unlimited access to the content archive of a single provider?
• Should some ‘subscriptions’ only offer access to single video titles (pay-per-view events, for example)?

Let’s take a closer look at how content can be restricted.

The Role of Rights

Rights define how your audience may use your content. The exact set of supported Rights options are specific to the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that you use. Protected media playback works in two phases: identification and license acquisition.

Once a user has been identified, they must then acquire a license to initiate playback. The identification phase requires user identification and may include device identification. In the license acquisition phase, an authenticated user requests authorization to receive a license that enables protected media playback.

During the processing of the eligibility phase, the entitlement will apply to one or more of the requirements described above. Additionally, the scope may identify a specific playback format, which can impose additional content limits for either technical or marketing reasons—eg. only allow access to the high-definition versions, depending on the user’s subscription attributes.

DRM and thePlatform Player Dev Kit (PDK)

The PDK has features that enable playback of media protected by different types of DRM systems.

These features are available in plug-ins that handle the following aspects of a protected media flow:

• User login and authentication
• Device registration and management
• Protected media license acquisition and file decryption

Note: The plug-ins that are required for an environment are specific to the implementation.

Let’s take a look at a few of the major content protection solutions available.

Adobe Flash Access

Adobe Flash Access encrypts Flash FLV and F4V video files, which can then be streamed or downloaded to Microsoft® Windows®, Apple® Mac OS®, Linux®, and Android® platforms, and enforces business models such as online video rental. Consumers can enjoy high-quality content at their convenience, whether they are online or offline.

thePlatform’s Entitlements System integrates with Flash Access for content packaging and license generation. Data from a Rights object is used to fashion the policy that sets the restrictions enforced by the Flash Player.

The PDK can play content protected with Flash Access. It ships with four distinct plug-ins that work in conjunction with content that has been processed and protected using thePlatform’s Entitlements workflow. The plug-ins work within the player component and prompt the user to download any additional software necessary to view the protected content. Once the additional software has been installed and credentials provided, the user can play media to which they’re entitled.

To learn more about Adobe Flash Access, check out their partner pagepartner page.

Microsoft PlayReady

Microsoft PlayReady supports a wide range of business models for digital content providers, including:

• Subscription: Provides access to an entire catalog of content in exchange for a recurring fee.
• Purchase: Offers content for purchase and download.
• Pay Per View: Provides pay-per-view choices for all content types.
• Rental: Enables rental scenarios with time-based licenses.

Just as with Flash Access, thePlatform’s Entitlements System integrates with PlayReady for content packaging and license generation, and the PDK supports playback of PlayReady-protected content.
The PlayReady and Identity plug-ins prompt the user to provide any necessary credentials, and then the user can play media to which they’re entitled, assuming they have Silverlight player version 4 or later.

To learn more about Microsoft PlayReady, check out their sitepartner page.

Other DRM solutions

thePlatform also provides a base level of support for Widevine, Windows Media DRM, and Marlin.

Alternatives to DRM

Akamai, the leading Content Delivery Network (CDN), offers secure streaming as a lighter-weight alternative to DRM that meets the content protection requirements of many customers. Akamai SecureHD provides multi-layered security for live and on-demand streaming that can be used together or independently across each of the supported runtimes to protect against the most common threats to content.

Adobe Flash Media Server supports a SWF verification feature that restricts media download to pre-approved SWF files. This feature requires special coordination with your content delivery network, but it does provide a means to restrict video playback to only those applications and sites that you grant access.

A Ready-Made Solution

Regardless of how you want to control access to your content, thePlatform and our partners have likely solved the challenge for you already.

Jordan Friedman, Sr. Manager, Business Development
August 3, 2011

You can configure the player to allow viewers to share video clips with friends by sending an email or by forwarding to sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s how it works:

The share form contains a preview player, which shows the current position of the current clip, and an excerpt scrubber, which lets the user select a playback range to share only a portion of the clip, if they so choose.

There are four tabs in the default sharing form:
1. The Post tab lets users post the clip to one or more social networking sites.
2. The Email clip allows them to email it to one or more recipients.
3. The Link tab lets users copy a link directly to a player for this clip (users can then forward the link using email, instant messaging, or any other tool they happen to have).
4. The Embed tab provides users with HTML, which they can use to embed the clip in their own websites.

mpx’s Player Service Makes Sharing Easier

You can increase social network reach by encouraging viewers to share videos on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. thePlatform’s Player Service is white-listed with Facebook for in-stream playback of shared links.

For a Complete Overview

All of this info, and much more, is detailed in our Player Dev Kit User Guide in the Technical Resource Center.