Mobile operators may be able to analyse the increasing video usage on their network in real time and in more granular detail, thanks to a new product launch.
Skyfire’s Rocket Insights provides a real-time analytics dashboard, allowing operators to view the likes of stall rates, video start times, bitrate distribution and mean opinion score.
The vendor said the product improves on older types of traffic management analytics, which measured packet or URL-level data but did not give a sufficient picture of session quality and could not measure the effects of changing the network in real time.
The company said operators can trial and improve network optimisation strategies by using the dashboard and also see a live update of the effects of any changes made.
Rocket Insights is part of Skyfire’s Rocket Optimiser video management platform. Telenor is currently deploying the platform in 11 countries, with a Tier 1 US-based operator also rolling out Rocket Insights. The company added that trials are underway among several operators.
“‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’ is a fundamental truth for monetising mobile video. Operators need easy monitoring and quick reaction to network congestion”, commented Joe Hoffman, Practice Director at ABI Research.
“Video optimisation solutions have to get the analytics right and deliver them with a user-friendly dashboard. Otherwise, operators will seek different solutions when they comprehend the money that is left on the table.”
Video usage is soaring on mobile devices, with it accounting for more than half of traffic for the first time last year. Cisco said two thirds of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2018, with usage increasing fourteen fold between 2013 and 2018.
“Video stall rates are the one KPI that a mobile operator in 2014 should never be without”, said Nitin Bhandari, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Skyfire. “In a world in which video QoE is an essential part of the overall customer experience, we’re happy to have risen to the challenge of quantifying mobile video playback analytics in an immediately actionable manner for operators with the release of Rocket Insights.”