Bitmovin developed a new feature for its player that allows viewers to watch multiple streams simultaneously, customising the experience while retaining stream quality and features.
Bitmovin has added a new feature to its video streaming infrastructure that opens an interesting option for viewers. Called Multiview, it can be used to watch multiple streams simultaneously and is designed for use cases such as sports, esports and live events, where it is often advantageous for the audience to stay immersed in the content they want, while switching between different channels.
Bitmovin's Multiview also has advantages for streaming operators that differentiate it from other delivery options. It is built on Bitmovin's Playback, which delivers high-quality video streams at scale on all devices, and includes built-in features such as advertising support, low latency streaming and Digital Rights Management (DRM). Multiview is also supported by Bitmovin Encoding that assures operators of stream quality regardless of bandwidth, owing to its content-aware, Per-Title encoding.
These features mean that users can maintain the quality of the streaming experiences they deliver to audiences without sacrificing monetisation and security.
"There's growing market demand for a multiview experience, especially in the world of sports," said Stefan Lederer, CEO and co-founder of Bitmovin. "What sets Bitmovin's Multiview apart from other services is that it's built on our player architecture with recognised feature support. The Bitmovin Player is known for its broad device support, reliability and the ability to scale at speed. It also has many features that we continuously optimise, which makes it more efficient."
Like other aspects of Bitmovin's Encoding, Multiview includes multi-codec support with 8K, and multi-HDR support. Pre-integration of Bitmovin Analytics also means that audience adoption of Multiview can be measured, as well as identifying and resolving any playback issues in real-time before they impact the viewer.
Bitmovin's Multiview is compatible with iOS, Android, Web, Smart TVs and Connected TV devices. In multiview, viewers will see tiled playback where the player window contains multiple tiles. These tiles can show completely separate content, enabling custom use cases. By playing multiview streams in tiles, Bitmovin overcomes the challenge of most TVs only having one video decoder, only allowing the user to view a single video stream. The user interface is customizable so viewers can choose between multiview and single streams at any time.
Bitmovin's Multiview will debut at IBC Show 2024 in Amsterdam in September. www.bitmovin.com
