Does Your Company Need a Custom VOD Platform?

More and more companies choose to deliver their video content on their terms by opting for a custom Video-on-Demand (VOD) player. In his recent article, Max Kalmykov discusses which aspects are crucial for a custom VOD platform.

Over recent years, a growing number of companies have been opting to build custom Video-on-Demand platforms. The reasons for this trend vary. For some, it’s about flexibility and features; for others, it’s about having full control of their content or merely a matter of preference.

But regardless of the reasons, it’s essential to note that building a custom VOD platform requires extensive resources to complete. Along with that, what are essential components and aspects to consider when you build a custom VOD? Let’s find out. But first…

What do you get with a custom VOD platform?

Building a custom VOD streaming platform is a resource-intensive task. The development cost can quickly multiply with the vast hours required to complete the job. If you have the budget for it, then it is an excellent option.

A custom VOD platform is designed to your exact specifications. By including only the features that you require, companies gain the advantage of a streamlined interface. A custom design also facilitates a personalized look and feel, which can be challenging to achieve when using third-party platforms.

Additionally, some companies may find that the ability to develop higher security measures is worth the additional cost involved. While the overall initial expense is elevated, a custom VOD leads to a decreasing cost of ownership over the long run. Moreover, retaining complete control and ownership over content may be advantageous in some scenarios.

Taking all this into account, you want a comprehensive and relevant ecosystem, the components of which guarantee success and smooth functioning.

What to Consider When Building a Custom VOD

Now, which tech features and aspects should you keep in mind when it comes to building a Video-on-Demand platform?

Content Availability and Licensing

VOD promises access to online video and television programming in the most personalized manner. You don’t want to rely on one-size-fits-all content delivery in traditional linear channeling. Thus, in terms of content availability, you can focus on giving your content a personal touch allowing for greater digital rights management.

Besides, by working on your custom VOD, you create your content, protect yourself from piracy, and secure use in live environments. Finally, you can optimize the opportunity to implement different content licensing that fits your brand.

Multi-platform and Multiscreen Support

You want a series of platforms to deploy on. But the more adoption you implement, the higher the costs of products, as well as the greater complexity and maintenance. To counter this, think of native and near-native resources that manage a single codebase. That saves development time and safeguards the bottom line.

VOD Monetization

Video content has become a major component of revenue and reputation. To compete, you need a customized monetization operation. A system that delivers targeted video ads and does so across a range of platforms and screens. This needs to include CTV and OTT. It’s also important to consider encoding, hosting, and streaming video content. That promises high monetization.

Infrastructure Maintenance & Hosting

A stable infrastructure is vital. You want a solution providing unlimited broadcast capacity, notable speed, and a cloud that stores securely.

Whoever hosts your cloud, make sure you have full deployment and setup of content, updates, and maintenance.

And don’t just go with a feature-rich host. Go with one that supports your infrastructure with the features you need that work within your budget. Services should support video streaming that manages broadcasting goals. Look for API services, adaptive video playing, strong bandwidth, video monetization, and user-friendly content management.

Video Security

A solid pathway to securing content is serverless architecture. That’s a software design that doesn’t require an underlying infrastructure. It uses code via cloud-provided provision servers to run scalable databases, apps, and storage systems.

As video takes over as the primary resource for sharing information and entertainment, you want a safe streaming platform.

Video Analytics

Service providers need a firm grasp of understanding the ways their audiences consume video. Hence, it’s essential to think of an approach to measuring video analytics and ensure you’re capturing all the crucial data.

For instance, you may want to have behavioral analytics at place, as it will help you make robust decisions about content acquisition, real-time platform diagnostics, product development, pay-TV packaging, and more.

Other Considerations

VOD platforms require unique customization for every business. Here are a few more distinctive and important aspects that you have to consider while developing a custom Video-on-Demand platform.

• Easy Development via SDKs and API:A lot of businesses are migrating to workflows that are API-based. Application programming interfaces, or APIs, streamline video content customization and integration. APIs have become essential to video projects and the modern workflow, simplifying complex uploading and embedding of content. The best way to build a workflow and distribution ecosystem and engineer finer control over tasks on a scalable level is with API.
• Video CMS: CMS, or video content management, is a tool for managing content. It sorts and tags videos, makes them searchable, and allows bulk actions. Thus, the platform allows different permissions for multiple users uploading, managing, and publishing content.
• Cloud Video Transcoding: Your video formatting needs to be flexible. There are too many sizes and formats. All are impacted by device capability and internet speeds. Matching these resources to your needs is easily done with cloud video transcoding. In conjunction with a customized adaptive video player, you’ll be able to upload any content and transcode it quickly and easily.

Final Thoughts

When you choose to develop a custom Video-on-Demand platform, you empower your enterprise. You enable scalability and quality delivery that’s affordable and competitive.

If you’re thinking of building a custom video production, distribution and management solution, find out more about how DataArt’s Media & Entertainment practice may help as a technology partner.

Author: Max Kalmykov
Vice President of Media and Entertainment Practice at DataArt

Originally published on https://www.dataart.com/blog.