2016 Streaming Media West: Transitioning from Flash to HTML5

Choosing an HTML5 player
An overview of how media engines work & benchmark
of open-source frameworks
Streaming Media West – Track D
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
1:45 to 2:30 pm

● Pioneers in hybrid video delivery systems to accompany exponential growth in OTT
traffic
● Experts in HTML5 and consultants in the transition from Flash
Infinite scale, limitless delivery.
Streamroot: Who are we?

And who are you?

I. HTML5 basics
A. Why make the transition
B. Formats, APIs, standardization
II. Delving in to the migration
A. Formats & Encoding
B. Players
C. DRMs, ads and business features
D. HTTPs
III. Choosing a player
A. Modern player architecture
B. Considerations & what to look for
C. Benchmark of open-source and proprietary options
What we’ll be talking about today.

IV. Examples: hls.js & dash.js
Debugging, subtitles, encryption, ads, analytics, Streamroot, ABR
V. Going from POC to production
A. What could go wrong
B. What happens after I do a POC? Workflow, fallbacks, etc.
C. Smoothly transitioning into production: QoS metrics, AB testing
D. Useful tools & links
What we’ll be talking about today.

I. It’s time to switch to HTML5.

I. HTML5 Basics
APIs
1. Media Source Extensions
• Makes HTTP adaptive streaming
possible in HMTL5
• Use JavaScript to build streams and
inject data into the video tag’s buffer
Source: W3C specs

I. HTML5 Basics
APIs
2. Encrypted Media Extensions
• Allows for DRMs in HMTL5
• Provides a way to interact with
content protection systems
• Plugin-free
• Common Encryption (CENC):
standardized key and encryption
methods - multiple DRMs for same
file
Source: W3C specs

I. HTML5 Basics
APIs
Source: Bitmovin

I. HTML5 Basics
Formats available
HDS

I. HTML5 Basics
Formats available
Source: Encoding.com

I. HTML5 Basics
Standardization
CMAF…!

II. Delving into the migration
What are you using
today?

Formats & Encoding
Significant changes to the encoding side that can take some time
Encode to MP4 and then repackage as necessary for target platforms
Lots of packaging solutions out there: Wowza, Unified Streaming Platform, etc.

Players
More flexible architecture, with separation between UX and media engine logic
When choosing: look at use case and feature requirements
 Section III.

Business features
DRMs: switch from token authorization to HMTL5 DRM
Ads: rewrite the ad logic in HTML5
Business logic: make sure 3rd party plugins are also compatible with HTML5

HTTPS
Beware!
Playing HTTP streams even in an HTTPS environment is not an option in HTML5.
Changing to HTTPs can be expensive and long, depending on your CDN.

It’s like...
III. Player architecture
Modern player architecture

… your favorite burger.
It’s like...
Modern player architecture

UI

Skin
UI

Skin
Ads
Authentication
UI

Skin
Ads
Playlists
Authentication
UI
Social sharing

Skin
Ads
Playlists
Authentication
UI
Media Engine(s)
Social sharing

Skin
Ads
Playlists
Authentication
Media Engine(s)
UI
Media Engine(s)
Social sharing

Skin
Ads
Playlists
Authentication
Social sharing
Media Engine(s)
UI
Media Engine(s)
Playback
& DRM

Skin
Ads
Playlists
Authentication
Content decryption
module
Media Engine(s)
DRM
Manager
UI
Media Engine(s)
Playback
& DRM
Social sharing

Skin
Ads
Playlists
DRM
Manager
Decoder /
Renderer
Authentication
Content decryption
module
Media Engine(s)
UI
Media Engine(s)
Playback
& DRM
Social sharing

1. Skin - the graphic design
of your player
User Interface

1. Skin - the graphic design
of your player
2. UI logic - features defining
all interaction with the user
on top of video playback
Lots of plugins available, video.js for
example
User Interface

3. Business logic
Authentication
Payment
Ads
*Configuration / device detection logic!
User Interface

Sample UI workflow with authentication, channels and pre-roll advertisement
User Interface

Easily customizable, with many plugins available for use or inspiration.
Add features as plugins/modules to the core UI base.
Create a unified user experience across browsers, even if the media engine behind it
may vary from device to device.
Check out tools such as React native, Haxe
User Interface

Media Engine

Extremely important yet too often neglected.
Most often necessary to have several media engines to reach your audience.
Media Engine

Decoder & DRM manager

1. General criteria
- device, format and codec dependencies
III. What to look for
2. Custom features
- DRMs
- DVR subtitles
- QoS, etc.
3. Perfs & Quality
- startup time
- ABR
- error strategies
4. Street cred, robustness, ease of use

Light-touch dev:
- Simplicity and stablity of the media engine
- Assess extensibility & ease of incorporating special features
- Media engine customization
- Events exposed
- Debugging
Digging deeper:
- Robust yet flexible core design
- Tests and testing coverage
- community & support
III. What to look for

III. What’s out there?
Disclaimer!
- What follows are all GOOD options - probably the best out there.
- We’ve tried to be solely objective based on our research and experience.
- Features, support and upkeep are always changing.

PROs
Supported by DASH-IF
Pushed & maintained by Akamai + tier-1s (BBC)
Highest visibility, big community
Lots of features and use-cases handled
Widely used in production
Huge test suite + online test page
CONs
A little bit of technical debt and complexity
Non-trivial API and customization config
H264/AAC support only

PROs
Built by an entire at Google: solid & smart
Performances and robustness, quick to improve
Simple to get started, good tutorials
Only one supporting WebM, VP8, VP9, open audio codecs
Good support on github and Google groups
CONs
Google-centric
Today lacks some features for large broadcasters
Stricter PR & features policy
No ES6 support
Fewer OVP and open-source all-in-one integrations

PROs
Lead by Dailymotion, built from scratch by author of Flashls
Enormous traction and visibility
Clear architecture design, easily extendable
Good robustness and debug demo, responsive support
Widely used in prod by all-in-one players + tier-1s
CONs
Not all HLS features supported yet
Some restrictions from the transmuxing & HLS: no DRMs today,
only AES128

PROs
Seamless Flash fallback with a MediaSource polyfill
De facto solution for HLS with VideoJS
Large community of users (Brightcove + Videojs)
In production with Brightcove with a wide range of customers
CONs
Videojs plugin: not usable without videojs
Lack of public debug tools or pages
Learning curve on providers & tech behind it

But there are also a lot of off-the-shelf options.

All available online on github:
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player
Contains:
- Media engines code
- Examples
IV. Examples

MSE example
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/mse.html
IV. Examples

https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/hls.js/hlsjs.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/hls.js/hlsjs-AES.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/hls.js/hlsjs-subtitles.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/hls.js/hlsjs-ads.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/hls.js/hlsjs-streamroot.html
Online debug demo: debug http://dailymotion.github.io/hls.js/demo/
Videojs Ads plugin: https://github.com/videojs/videojs-contrib-ads
Ads state diagram: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/videojs/videojs-contrib-ads/master/ad-states.png
Hls.js Events: https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/API.md#runtime-events
Video Events simulator: http://docs.youbora.com/video-event-simulator/
Streamroot Clappr integration: https://github.com/streamroot/clappr-p2phls-plugin
Strearmoot Videojs integration: https://github.com/streamroot/videojs5-hlsjs-p2p-source-handler
IV. Examples

https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/src/controller/cap-level-controller.js#L68
Checks the max CapLevel
corresponding to current
player size
Frequency: every 1000 ms
IV. Examples: hls.js CapLevel

https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/src/controller/fps-controller.js#L33
Calculates the dropped frames
per second ratio.
If > 0.2, bans the level forever 
goes into restricted capping levels
fpsDroppedMonitoringThreshold
fpsDroppedMonitoringPeriod
IV. Examples: hls.js dropped frames

https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/src/controller/stream-controller.js#L131
First segment is loaded from
the first level in the playlist, then
continues with normal ABR
rule.
IV. Examples: hls.js startup strat

https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/src/controller/abr-controller.js
Before: Simple algorithm,
inspired by Android’s AVController’s ABR algo
Now: EWMA smoothing
IV. Examples: hls.js bandwidth est.

https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/src/controller/abr-controller.js#L51
IV. Examples: hls.js abort rule

STRONG POINTS COULD BE IMPROVED
Very simple and understandable
Startup time constraint could be improved to get
the lowest level first
Handles CPU & player size constraints
Conservative BW adjustment to avoid oscillation,
with EWMA smoothing
Sound emergency abort mechanism
IV. Examples: hls.js sumup

1. Tweak the parameters
https://github.com/dailymotion/hls.js/blob/master/API.md#fine-tuning
Dropped FPS:
capLevelOnFPSDrop: false,
fpsDroppedMonitoringPeriod: 5000,
fpsDroppedMonitoringThreshold: 0.2
PlayerSize:
capLevelToPlayerSize: false,
2. Write your own rules!
AbrController: AbrController
capLevelController: CapLevelController,
fpsController: fpsController
Bandwidth estimation:
abrEwmaFastLive: 5.0,
abrEwmaSlowLive: 9.0,
abrEwmaFastVoD: 4.0,
abrEwmaSlowVoD: 15.0,
abrEwmaDefaultEstimate: 500000,
abrBandWidthFactor: 0.8,
abrBandWidthUpFactor: 0.7,
IV. Examples: hls.js how to improve

https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/dash.js/dashjs.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/dash.js/dashjs-widewine.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/dash.js/dashjs-subtitles.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/dash.js/dashjs-ads.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/dash.js/dashjs-streamroot.html
Online debug page: http://dashif.org/reference/players/javascript/v2.3.0/samples/dash-if-reference-
player/index.html
Dash.js metrics & events: http://cdn.dashjs.org/latest/jsdoc/module-DashMetrics.html
Dash.js ABR logic: https://github.com/Dash-Industry-Forum/dash.js/wiki/ABR-Logic
Streamroot Videojs integration: https://github.com/streamroot/videojs5-dashjs-p2p-source-handler
IV. Examples: Dash.js

Source: DASH-IF, Maxdome
IV. Examples: Dash.js

STRONG POINTS COULD BE IMPROVED
Smoothes bandwidth No quantization of bitrates
Segment abort mechanism to avoid buffering during
network drops
Doesn’t handle CPU & Player size constraints
Rich buffer threshold to avoid BW oscillations
IV. Examples: Dash.js sumup

1. Tweak the Parameters
ThroughputRule:
AVERAGE_THROUGHPUT_SAMPLE_AMOUNT_LIVE = 2;
AVERAGE_THROUGHPUT_SAMPLE_AMOUNT_VOD = 3;
AbandonRequestRule:
GRACE_TIME_THRESHOLD = 500;
ABANDON_MULTIPLIER = 1.5;
2. Write your own rules
https://github.com/Dash-Industry-Forum/dash.js/wiki/Migration-2.0#extending-dashjs
https://github.com/Dash-Industry-Forum/dash.js/blob/development/src/streaming/rules/abr/ABRRulesCollection.js
BufferOccupancyRule:
RICH_BUFFER_THRESHOLD = 20
IV. Examples: Dash.js how to improve

Other media engines
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/shaka.html
https://github.com/streamroot/benchmarking-player/blob/master/samples/videojs.hls.html
IV. Examples

What could go wrong?
- - Encoding
- - DRMs
- - HTTPS
V. The Path to Production!

I did a POC. Now what?
- - Do you need a Flash Fallback?
- - Moving the UX to HTML5
- - Build the media engine extendable architecture (providers)
- - Fallback alternatives
https://github.com/streamroot/videojs5-hlsjs-source-handler/blob/master/lib/videojs5-hlsjs-source-handler.js
https://github.com/videojs/video.js/blob/66922a818e588b8954989c439e1be790777966ae/docs/guides/tech.md
https://github.com/faisalman/ua-parser-js

Making a smooth transition.
- - HTML5 player rollout
- - Playback & QoS Metrics
- - AB Testing!

Streamroot
workflow
AB testing pipeline: General workflow

Many options based on your requirements: open-source, proprietary, Cloud...
AB testing pipeline: What to chose from
Message broker /
stream processor
Storage + possible
query/visualization
BI/viz tools Advanced analytics
Kafka (Kinesis) Druid Caravel R
RabbitMQ InfluxDB Grafana Matlab
ActiveMQ Cassandra (DynamoDB) Tableau
PostGresSQL QlikView
ElasticSearch Kibana

AB testing pipeline: General setup

Client AB testing methods:
1) Dynamic Config Injection
2) Different builds with a reverse proxy
AB testing pipeline: General setup

AB testing pipeline: Config injection

AB testing pipeline: Dynamic config injection
PROs
Simple & easy splits
Separate - fast to deploy & rollback
Scalable
CONs
Limited scope
Complications in code
Need to handle scaling & high availability
WARNING
Async implementation!

AB testing pipeline: Different builds with reverse proxy

PROs
Serve very different (major) versions of player
Perfect for rolling out new features smoothly
(10% then 30% then...)
CONs
Good CI/CD necessary to roll out new
versions quickly
Heavy stack to maintain and scale
WARNING
Make sure the file request is not slower!
Single point of failure!
AB testing pipeline: Different builds with reverse proxy

How much time does it take?
The build vs. buy tradeoff.
- Do I have the internal resources to develop,
integrate, customize and maintain?
- Are the features I need already available in
off-the-shelf and/or open-source solutions?
Consider time to market.

Questions?

Nikolay Rodionov, Co-Founder and CPO, nikolay@streamroot.io
Erica Beavers, Head of Partnerships, erica@streamroot.io
Get in touch!

We’d like to send out a huge thanks to Ludovic Bostral and Benjamin Pott from
Afrostream for letting us borrow their burger analogy. Without them this talk would not
have been half as juicy.
(Also their platform rocks!)
Credits

2016 Streaming Media West: Transitioning from Flash to HTML5

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