Tracking Video Everywhere, Even on the iPad 2
Apple has a major event planned for later today, and the widely-held assumption is that the company will announce its next-generation iPad. Both the Limelight Video Platform and Limelight REACH service will support the next iPad on day one.
Video publishers are probably not in a panic about Apple’s announcement because the video delivery specs aren’t likely to change a great deal from the iPad 1. (The Apple HTTP streaming protocol isn’t going anywhere.) However, the next Apple tablet does add one more gadget to the list of connected devices publishers have to track. As complicated as the video delivery process is in the mobile arena, it’s equally difficult to manage the inbound data from all the devices consumers are using.
One element of our Limelight REACH service is the ability to view integrated analytics reports showing activity across virtually every type of mobile device. Reports include details on historical data, most requested programs, user behavior and consumption metrics, and geographic distribution. Above is a graphic from a major media publishing customer of ours showing how video views break down across different hardware platforms. It’s one example of the type of reporting data we can provide. We can also aggregate user views by brand, model, and device ID. A device ID includes a specific configuration of hardware, OS, and browser version.
Note that REACH is also an open platform, which means it supports popular third-party measurement systems like Omniture for extended reports that place video metrics next to other end-user data that publishers may collect.
Analytics are just one small part of the video publishing workflow, but they are an important one, particularly as the mobile ecosystem continues to fragment. Looking for info on other publishing elements? Here are a few links.
- Video ingest and library management
- Player customization
- CMS integration
- Mobile delivery
- Web/mobile acceleration services
