Collecting Data From Video Players
For modern audio and video publishers, recognizing the limitations of session-level reports and metrics, and embracing the dynamic potential of event-level data with customizable metadata attributes can be transformative. Event-level data empowers content publishers with unparalleled granularity, enabling both in-depth analysis of individual user interactions with content as well as holistic insights across user journeys. Event-level data easily correlates with other data sets to unlock a cohesive and accurate representation of user engagement.
01
Through the Datazoom DaaS Platform, you can collect the metrics you need from a variety of video players to ensure the best possible viewer experience, monitor ad engagement, and reduce subscriber attrition.
Video Player Data Collection Challenges
Navigating the landscape of data collection from video and audio players presents a multifaceted challenge. While the core functionality of media players remains consistent across devices, the way in which data can be collected changes from player to player, device to device and across versions. Considering the wide range of collectable events and metadata, spanning aspects like device characteristics, network performance, media type, geographic distribution, ad interactions, errors, content engagement, and spanning varying naming conventions and data schemas, inadvertent data inconsistencies that reverberate inefficiencies throughout your organization are common.
Auto-collect Standardized Video Events and Metadata
Datazoom’s data collection capability allows for auto-tagged collection of events and metadata standardized to our Data Dictionaries, as well as collection of custom events and metadata using developer-deployed scripts. Each event and metadata attribute can be turned on and off dynamically using Datazoom’s platform UI.
Eliminate Inconsistencies
Across various platforms and players, the way that data is named, the structure of how data is exposed, and the veracity of the data varies from environment to environment. Developers must be scrupulous, and have industry knowledge, to self-instrument for the 200+ events and metadata attributes that may appear. Further, to make this data usable, it needs to be conformed to a standard. Datazoom provides the undifferentiated heavy lifting of instrumentation and data standardization to eliminate data inconsistencies.
Save Time and Resources, Both Upfront and Ongoing
Because Datazoom can automate a large portion of data collection and data delivery, the resources and time required and revisions to data collection or stand up new tooling can be drastically reduced. Further, the autonomy created by being able to use our UI to select and deselect data points, or deploy your own custom data collection means reducing reliance on vendors and gaining control over the timeline to get projects deployed.
WebRTC Data Collection
Ultra low-latency streaming has become business-as-usual for live streaming operators as they offer interactive features within their platforms. Datazoom has capabilities for WebRTC monitoring that enables WebRTC stats and viewer data to be unified in a single dashboard.
CMCD Support
The need for real-time operational data sharing between players and CDNs has come to the forefront with the release of CTA-5004 - Common Media Client Data (CMCD). This standard defines a set of player measurements and data points, conveyed by piggybacking onto content requests from player to CDN, which CDNs can use to optimize delivery performance. Datazoom can provide support for CMCD in a couple of different ways.If a video player supports CMCD, Datazoom collects those values and includes them with all of the other player data providing comprehensive observability of the video player. These values are included in the CMCD node of the data packet collected for selected player events.If a video player does not support CMCD or a publisher wants to leverage only the request tracing capabilities of CMCD, Datazoom supports a mode called “CMCD Lite” which creates a Session Identifier (SID) and Request Identifier (RID) for the media requests to have a join key for the CDN Log files to support request tracing. This option is dependent on how the player allows network request modifications (e.g. adding query params).
03
Datazoom has a growing library of supported video players.
Supported Video Players
There are many video players that broadcasters and OTT publishers can use. Datazoom provides a data collector for a number of the world’s most popular video players:
03
We are constantly evaluating new video players to include in our data collector library. If you have a video player you would like to suggest for an integration, just fill out the form to the right.
Have An Idea For a New Video Player collector?
"*" indicates required fields
