Level 3 Communications: 'VR-video will become a mainstay of streaming video'

Highlights from the survey show the following:

• 52 percent are researching, getting ready to launch or have already launched VR-video content
• 67 percent believe VR is here to stay, however, acknowledged primary business and technical challenges including lack of consumer awareness, interest and fear of competition from free services, user generated content and bandwidth caps.
• Close to 50 percent of respondents have plans for 4K broadcasts, 4K VOD streaming and/or 4K live-linear or live event streaming.
• On the HDR and HFR front, almost 70 percent of respondents confirmed they offer or plan to offer both HFR in existing HD video, as well as offering HDR content for greater color depth.

Jon Alexander, Senior Director of Media Products, for Level 3, including their content delivery network (CDN) and Vyvx Solutions answered the following questions for Found Remote about their survey and the state of the industry.

Found Remote: Why did Level3 conduct this survey? What are the company's specialties?

Jon Alexander: Level 3 owns and operates one of the largest fiber backbones in the world, and as you can probably imagine, we carry a lot of content across our pipes. Because of that, we operate a global content delivery network (CDN).

For those unfamiliar with CDNs, here’s an easy way to look at it: CDNs comprise a network of servers located in data centers around the world. They make copies of the content to be distributed – let’s say the latest new movie release – and cache them at each of its edge servers as they are demanded by local users. If someone from New York City wants to download that movie, the CDN will recognize the person requesting the movie is in Manhattan and deploy the movie from its server that can deliver the movie the fastest in its network – often the geographically closest server to the end-user. That way, the movie is sent as quickly and efficiently as possible, providing for a much better viewing experience.

Level 3 is keenly interested in the OTT landscape because we deliver a lot of that content over our CDN. To give you some perspective on volume of content, our CDN answered 33.4 trillion requests for content in 2015. The growth in OTT and the bandwidth-heavy formats under that umbrella have spurred Level 3 to significantly expand our CDN capacity globally, and we will continue to monitor the industry to ensure we have the bandwidth to seamlessly deliver these streamed experiences.

FR: What were some of the key findings?

JA: Most notable in our findings was the importance of VR, 4K and HDR/HFR.

With regard to VR, our study found more than half of companies offering OTT services are researching, getting ready to launch or have already launched VR-video content. In addition, more than two-thirds (67 percent) of OTT companies said they believe VR is here to stay. Given VR technology was more of a novelty just a few years ago, this is certainly compelling.

In terms of 4K, close to 50 percent of OTT companies indicated they have plans for 4K broadcasts, 4K video-on-demand (VoD) streaming and/or 4K live-linear or live event streaming.

Finally, HDR/HFR: Our study found that nearly 70 percent of OTT companies confirmed they offer or plan to offer both HFR in existing HD video, as well as HDR content for greater color depth.

The key takeaway for me from these findings is that the network has never been more important, and that providers like Level 3 will need to work closely with OTT companies to ensure we have the scalability and capacity to deliver these increasingly bandwidth-heavy experiences.

FR: HDR vs 4K - which is more important?

JA: We are excited about both HDR and 4K, and broadly speaking, consumer adoption of both are still at the early stages of true content trends. But we do expect them to ramp up fast. A new Ultra HD Premium standard has been ratified, as announced by UHD Alliance at CES 2016. UHD and 4K TVs are now widely available, and HDR is gaining traction – we won’t be surprised if we start seeing HDR capabilities on some of the smaller screen devices out there soon. Of course, content must also be offered in 4K and HDR and we are seeing more and more of the OTT-providers making announcements for support of both.

FR: Is VR just a fad right now or will it change the way we consume content?

JA: This is a great question. This is a great question. When VR saw a resurgence over the last year, we knew it was going to be different this time around. What is really exciting, is that VR technology can be applied well beyond the entertainment realm. We’re seeing it used in healthcare to help prepare for complicated surgeries and to help treat mental illness, in education to help teenagers safely learn to drive, and even in the military to provide realistic scenarios for training purposes. VR is a valuable and important way to consume content, and I believe its uses will continue to grow/expand.

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