Although live streaming offers a powerful way to engage with viewers in real time, adding an on-demand layer to your streaming platform is great for keeping viewers engaged after cameras stop rolling.
That’s why Dolby OptiView has rolled out support for DVR, live‑to‑VOD, and VOD uploads. These powerful new streaming features give live sports platforms more ways to keep audiences engaged before, during, and after the action.
In this article, you’ll get acquainted with what these new features have to offer and how they will enrich your live sports streaming experiences.
Benefits of VOD enablement in live streaming
These new streaming features enhance the streaming experience for both service providers and their end users in several ways. Let’s take a look at some of the specific benefits of this powerful feature release.
1. Creates flexibility for viewers
By enabling DVR on your live streams, viewers have the flexibility to catch up on sporting events that were live-streamed at whatever time works best for them. It also enables instant replays, allowing viewers to rewatch exciting moments in the stream.
Plus, this flexibility helps to increase viewership by making content accessible for longer periods.
2. Improves ROI
Producing live content requires significant effort and resources. By making your live streams available for on-demand access after the event ends, you can multiply your return on investment by making it available to more viewers.
This creates more monetization opportunities from the content with minimal additional effort.
3. Creates more opportunities for viewership
Using VOD upload to create a library of content that viewers can access on their own time creates more opportunities for your content. While live streaming has many benefits, on-demand access to pre-recorded content adds a layer of convenience that many viewers appreciate.
With these additional viewership opportunities comes additional opportunities to generate revenue.
4. Promotes community engagement
On-demand playback is powerful for strengthening the social aspect of your streaming platform since viewers can revisit an exciting moment with friends or family in real time. It also gives them the opportunity to come together later to watch the event as a group.
Introducing the features: DVR, Live-to-VOD, and VOD Upload
Dolby OptiView’s new streaming features work together to give viewers more control over how they consume sports content. Paired with live streaming, these new VOD capabilities provide a more complete streaming solution to online sports broadcasters.
With DVR windows built in, viewers can rewind and catch key moments they missed. Fast live‑to‑VOD workflows make it easy to turn moments into highlights in near real time. Platforms can quickly create clips for in‑break playback, highlight reels, or social sharing as the event unfolds.
These tools extend fan engagement beyond the live stream, keeping audiences connected when excitement is at its peak. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at how each of these new features can help you make the most of your sports streaming experiences.
Rewind (DVR)
DVR, which stands for “digital video recorder,” is a new element of Dolby OptiView that unlocks the ability to rewind within a live stream. This update enables them to rewatch key moments or go back to parts of the stream they may have missed.
This rewind functionality is very important because it gives the viewer more control over their viewing experience.
Live-to-VOD
Live-to-VOD is exactly what it sounds like: a tool that automatically transforms live streams into content that can be published for on-demand access after the cameras stop rolling.
By leveraging Live-to-VOD, you can save your live streams to publish to your library of on-demand content. Access to this library can be sold as part of a separate subscription, or replays can be made available to users who paid for access to the original event.
VOD Upload
VOD upload enables online sports broadcasters to publish libraries of pre-produced, on-demand content. This unlocks different video content formats, such as sports documentaries and other pre-recorded specials. These on-demand offerings are great for supplementing live content, as they are accessible at any time.
VOD files are uploaded to the Dolby system and served through our CDN. This means that users can manage both their live and on-demand experiences in one place.
How these features work together: a technical overview
From a technical standpoint, the DVR and live-to-VOD workflow looks something like this:
- A live stream is ingested directly via OptiView Streaming
- The streams are transcoded and packaged with OptiView Streaming
- Segments are stored in a cloud bucket
- The content is served to viewers via CDN upon request
The DVR window is configurable, and rewinding in the player triggers retrieval from the stored segments. Furthermore, customers can choose to restream the top layer or provide a separate high-bitrate contribution for optimal quality.
Clip extraction is accurate to the nearest I-frame boundary (typically within two seconds). Currently, frame-accurate repackaging or re-encoding is being considered for future iterations.
FAQ about new streaming features
Live sports streaming platforms that wish to enhance their user experience will benefit from these new features. This ranges from sports streaming platforms that simply want to add rewind or DVR capabilities to their existing experiences to those that want to offer on-demand content libraries, as well.
The media engine currently supports stereo audio. Integration with external tools like Amazon MediaConvert is possible for advanced use cases. Interested users could contact us to learn more.
VOD upload supports any file type, including HLS manifests, MP4, and even mezzanine files, as long as the correct entry point is specified during registration.
Broadcasters can set a custom DVR window length based on their specific use case and needs.
Final thoughts
Equipped with Dolby OptiView’s new live-to-VOD, DVR, and VOD upload feature, your viewers will feel more in control of their streaming experiences. These tools enable them to rewind to key moments during live streams, catch up on sporting events that they couldn’t watch live, and more.
Ready to learn more about how these new streaming features can help you deliver more powerful sports streaming experiences? Contact us and a streaming professional from our team will help you get started.
