In a post-pandemic world of remote meetings, streaming entertainment, and ubiquitous security and surveillance video, technologies that can transform video across standards, devices, resolutions, and platforms will continue to grow in importance.
That’s the prediction of one researcher, forecasting a 16.5% compound annual growth rate in the global video processing platform (VPP) marketplace through 2026, doubling revenue to more than $11 billion.
Research firm MarketsandMarkets says the increasing desire for high-quality videos, requirements for multi-device video compatibility, and changing trends in digital advertising will drive demand.
In their new report, Video Processing Platform Market With COVID-19 Impact Global Forecast to 2026, the group elaborates the role of transcoding, which is key to fulfilling these needs — compressing today’s video into smaller files without an unacceptable loss of quality.
Transcoding, essentially reformatting, the report notes, “also enables the addition of dynamic overlays into videos, such as logos, watermarks, sports scores, or any other graphics. It helps content providers offer their videos to more end users.”
These capabilities also can mean high costs for video creators as they make duplicative versions of their programming, spreading it wide while also fighting piracy or monetizing brand partnerships. Companies may invest in a lot of complex hardware and software or hire the work out to specialists. Processing digital video requires a significant amount of computational power, which the report says should also be factored into the cost equation.
Nonetheless, there are enormous opportunities, especially in areas like real-time video services.
The Never-ending (?) Growth Spurt
The Internet may be aging — born in 1968 as part of Gen X — and the World Wide Web is maturing after three decades, but the number of users continues on a pace more akin to the growth spurt of a Gen Z tween.
This report calculates annual growth at 5.7%. If you break that down, approximately 700,000 new users go online each day, totaling a quarter-billion in just the last 12 months, the report concludes based on DataReportal findings.
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These new users are a boon for smartphone manufacturers and mobile companies, as these tiny pocket computers are increasingly the portal through which global users enter the universe created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
And what are smartphone users doing on the internet? They’re watching (per Statista, the third-most common Internet activity, behind checking email) and making videos.
All of this spells opportunity for the video processing platform market.
Broadcast’s Place in the Internet Age
Even as smartphone use and social media keep growing, large legacy TV broadcasters will continue to enjoy the majority of end-users in the marketplace, in the world beyond their traditional realm of over-the-air, cable, and satellite — with some help from their new tools.
“Video processing platforms are helping TV broadcasters to scale their operations and become future-ready,” the report says. “Video processing platforms assist service providers and broadcasters in optimizing their video-on-demand (VoD) processing operations and improving reliability and quality through automation. They enhance the quality of experience, simplify operations, and provide a future-proof platform. It supports high-fidelity visual and audio processing, with live video and video-on-demand.”
Who’s on Top?
The top companies in the VPP marketplace, the report says, include Akamai, Imagine Communications, MediaKind, Kaltura, SeaChange, NVIDIA, Amagi, Aprioriy, MediaMelon, Mux, Base Media Cloud, JW Player, Lightcast.com, and Beamr, based in the United States; Synamedia, Pixel Power, and M2A Media in the United Kingdom; ATEME and InPixal in France; Vantrix and SSIMWAVE in Canada; and BlazeClan Technologies in India.
The report is available here.