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A standard library will be available through the developer portal for the following device types and will be backwards compatible with up to two prior OS versions:
iOS
Android and Android TV
Apple tvOS
JavaScript for browser-based applications
RDK settop
Although the Synamedia Clarissa Client Library can also be used in conjunction with other Clarissa Insights applications, data will only be retained and processed for the applications which are activated as part of the provider’s Clarissa subscription.
The Operational Insights application comprises of four sheets that focus on different analysis areas: Startup, Playback, Capacity, and Trends
The dashboards on the Startup sheet focus on issues that might occur during the launch of a video asset, including lag time, failures, and exits before video start.
The goal of Playback is to analyse the Quality of Experience (QoE) of watching video by examining the rebuffering rate and duration, as well as the average bitrate and playback errors.
Capacity looks at total views and concurrency across services, device types, and time of day to show when peaks occur and what devices and content are driving those peaks.
Whereas the other sheets show data from the last 24 hours, the Trends sheet looks at errors by type and volume and how these errors are distributed across devices, time of day, day of the week, and location over a 30-day period.
The data for Operational Insights is collected and processed in configurable time increments for rapid feedback. This data is retained in the data warehouse for a sliding time window of 24 hours, while aggregated Trends data is retained for 30 days. Common filters can be applied to the visualizations, including:
Time scales (e.g., last hour, last 3 hours, prime-time, last 24 hours, etc.)
Device groups
Device types (e.g., PC, iOS, etc.)
OS and application version
Errors are classified into four main categories:
QoS errors – These errors relate to issues outside of the control of the operator, e.g., bad weather or local broadband issues. Although these problems largely exist beyond the service provider’s control, knowing what they are and how often they occur can help you understand external factors affecting users.
QoE errors – These errors are associated with issues that impact the viewing experience that are within the control of the operator, such as application or streaming errors. It is important for service providers to understand these errors to improve the viewer experience.
Viewer Variance – These errors are caused by problems that are user-controlled based on end users failing to use the product or platform as per design. Examples here are not inserting the smart card properly or not updating to the correct app version. We can still learn a lot from these errors with regards to user behaviour and customer experience.
Upsell Errors – These errors offer the most opportunity to the Service Provider. These are errors that allow them to upsell parts of their offering to users. For example, a user with insufficient disk space for recording would be the ideal candidate for a cDVR quota upgrade.
This sheet focuses on service issues experienced by a viewer which prevents them from successfully starting a video playback session.
Metric | Description |
|---|---|
% of plays effected by errors | Percentage of viewing sessions that were not started due to errors |
Total Viewing Sessions | Total number of successful viewing sessions initiated |
Attempts | Attempts counts all attempts to play a video which are initiated when a viewer clicks play or a video auto-plays. An attempt can result in a successful play, or an early termination due to a video start failure (VSF) or an exit before video start (EBVS) |
Exits before video start (EBVS) | EBVS measures the attempts that terminated before the video started—without a reported fatal error |
% VSF | VSF (Video Start Failures) measures how often attempts terminated during video startup before the first video frame was played and a fatal error was reported |
This sheet focuses on service issues experienced by a viewer during video playback.
Metric | Description |
|---|---|
Rebuffering Average Volume | The average number of rebuffering events per playback session |
Rebuffering Average Duration | The average amount of time rebuffering per playback session |
Video Playback Errors | Video playback failure occurs when video play terminates due to a playback error, such as video file corruption, insufficient streaming resources, or a sudden interruption in the video stream |
Average Bitrate | Average bitrate delivered to all client devices in Mbps |
This sheet helps video providers plan capacity.
Metric | Description |
|---|---|
Top Channels | Top channels by total sessions |
Top VOD Assets | Top VOD assets by peak concurrent plays |
Top Linear Programmes | Top live programmes by peak concurrent plays |
Concurrent Plays | Concurrent viewing sessions by time of day |
Metric | Description |
|---|---|
Service Sufferers | Number of users who have experienced at least one error during a 24-hour timeframe |
Smooth Sailors | Number of users who have experienced no errors during a 24-hour timeframe |
Errors / Service Sufferer | Average number of errors experienced by a Service Sufferer classified by location |
Average Error Rate | Average error rate by type as a percentage of total errors |
% Errors QoS | The percentage of total errors that are classified as Quality of Service (QoS) |
% Errors QoE | The percentage of total errors that are classified as Quality of Experience (QoE) |
