Streaming services are seeing demand rise like never before. Consumers want more content, and they want it now. As a result, video service providers are tasked with consolidating a wide range of high-quality media content into a single, user-focused platform to meet the expectations of viewers. This means that quality control plays a pivotal role in ensuring consumer satisfaction. To fulfil those expectations, providers need workflows that can respond quickly to pre-release errors, or they will risk consumer loyalty and miss out on market share.
Founded in 2019, Joyn is a free, multi-channel streaming platform which bundles live streams and on demand content from more than 60 channels. With Joyn, users can stream series, sports, and movies, as well as originals and exclusives. Its premium service, Joyn PLUS+, expands on the free services, offering additional channels in brilliant HD quality.
A Disconnect in the System
Offering a vast library of aggregated content from many different partners, Joyn receives a plethora of media files which require Quality Control (QC) checks before being sent for distribution. Identifying common issues with metadata, such as incorrect, inconsistent, or missing information, was becoming increasingly time consuming. Joyn’s resources could be used more efficiently, if media operators didn’t need to manually identify the exact location of errors before taking action.
Additionally, the images received for marketing purposes, and in platform thumbnails, didn’t always meet Joyn’s standards. In some cases, these images would be screenshots, which didn’t match the required dimensions or the high-resolution needed to attract consumers to the content. Accurate.Player delivered an elevated visual experience for Joyn’s users, by enhancing the image quality of its content. Joyn no longer had to worry about receiving subpar images, as operators could export posters from the media at frame-level.
To free up time and resources during its organisational growth, Joyn needed a single solution to streamline and manage its QC and validation workflows. The marketing team also needed to create high-quality posters, to promote the content and show each movie or episode in the best possible light.
“The streaming industry has grown significantly in recent years and being able to quickly deliver high-quality content is key to standing out against the competition. The demand for consolidated QC tools is higher than ever, not only to meet consumer expectations, but to also establish best practice editing workflows for internal teams.”
Simon Bergmark, CPO,Codemill
Rebuilding the Workflow
Codemill set up a multi-day workshop to clearly define the scope of the project and establish exactly what was needed from the workflow. Joyn selected Codemill to develop a cloud-based solution that could mitigate its pain points and meet its specific requirements for QC, validation, and segmentation.
This project provided the perfect launch pad forAccurate.Video. With validation, edit, segmentation, and poster creation capabilities, Accurate.Video offered Joyn all the features its team needed, in one place. Furthermore, to meet Joyn’s requirements for specific use cases, Codemill was able to deliver custom tools which would help with its flexibility and scalability goals.
With a focus on metadata, Accurate.Video enables QC operators to intuitively detect and mark any errors within the media content. This reduces content processing delays, as time-based markers can be added to areas of concern before media operators make frame-accurate, essential edits.
The Path to Success
The final solution allows Joyn to validate video and audio, segment content, make essential edits, and create high-quality poster images all within one cloud-based product. Its QC teams can now perform the necessary checks even more efficiently, and address any issues during video playback (including audio errors). Users can segment content, and remove black frames, and posters can now be created without ever having to leave the platform.
“Codemill’s approach put Joyn at the centre of the project and future-proofed its media processing. This allowed the product team to understand and address Joyn’s pain points and develop a solution which could enhance its editing and QC processes.”
Dinesh Damodaran, Account Manager, Codemill