The largest video streaming platform from India and Bharat, ZEE5, has deployed the Common Media Application Format, or CMAF, at a much larger scale to enhance its content delivery and viewer experience. In this novel endeavor, Company’s Technology & Innovation Centre, based in Bengaluru, will enable ZEE5 users to enjoy good AV quality even while having low internet bandwidth, thus ensuring smooth video playback on various devices.
This allows ZEE5 to expand its reach to 100 million users, ensuring more viewers can access high-quality streaming. With such versatile and extensible standards that package segmented media for seamless cross-device compatibility, CMAF allows for hassle-free viewing and saves latency – a critical aspect while delivering live sports, news, and events.
Our strategic focus is to have best-in-class AV experience even in low internet. CMAF helps us deliver content more efficiently with zero data wastage, high-quality immersive experiences to every viewer regardless of bandwidth,” said Shiva Chinnasamy, Chief Technology and Product Officer at ZEE. ZEE5 is building capabilities in-house, focusing on best-in-class services and experience for its consumers and adoption of CMAF is one such critical step to achieve the same.” Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India said, “We continue to be focused at ZEE5 on enhancing viewer experience through cutting-edge technology. The adoption of Common Media Application Format (CMAF) marks a step forward in ZEE5’s vision to democratize access to quality entertainment.”. And even with low internet connectivity in regions, our users will be assured of uninterrupted viewing. The move ensures that we deliver quality content to a more significant audience, further aligning with our objective of delivering an immersive form of entertainment across various devices. This is indeed the most advanced CMAF in fine-tuning how our viewers consume content on our platform.
Commenting on the success of the format, Suneel Khare, Senior Vice President and Head of Video Engineering, ZEE said, “The plan is strategic. It allows us to make our content delivery streamlined and better by real-time low latency streaming with a considerable amount of data reduction. Smooth playback can be perfectly achieved in a region with weak bandwidth thereby making ZEE5 reach a wider audience segment with limited internet access.
The successful implementation of CMAF for ZEE5 has provided several benefits, including:
Low-Latency Streaming: This is necessary for live events. Although CMAF ensures that near real-time video delivery is provided, the delay is minimized in almost all the videos, thereby enabling viewing to live events.
Bandwidth Optimization: With efficient packaging through CMAF, the data usage is reduced to improve the quality of videos on low bandwidth environments.
Cross-Device Compatibility: CMAF is implemented in the both HLS and DASH formats, providing consistent video playback across mobile devices, Smart TVs, and more.
Future-Ready Encryption: CMAF implements Widevine CBCS technology, which is actually the standard for content protection. This enables secure and seamless playback across both Apple & Android devices, therefore ensuring a smooth and secure streaming experience.
According to Rahul Banerjee, Principal Architect of Video Engineering, ZEE, “With the introduction of CMAF, the actual benefits have been in real-time improvements in video quality and reduced buffering, which definitely has improved the viewership. This upgrade will ensure viewers enjoy higher-quality streams with very few delays, even in regions that have weaker internet connectivity.”.
Apart from enriching viewership experience, CMAF has brought about a great operational benefit for ZEE5. It reduced by more than 30% the storage needs while keeping CDN costs flat despite high demand and going upwards with higher resolutions. Furthermore, with such scalability, ZEE5 can easily scale and expand its reach to more than 12 countries across the various languages without changes in performance even during times of peak usage.
Implementation of CMAF has enabled CCM to not only improve the operational efficiency but also reinforce its commitment towards delivering high-quality content towards broader, more diverse audiences. With such pioneering approaches in content packaging and delivery, the platform would always remain future-ready in the global evolution of OTT consumption.
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