Smooth, uninterrupted streaming is the norm, the expectation – users automatically expect their online viewing experiences to be more fulfilling, curated, personal – and more on-demand – than anything the traditional broadcast TV experience provides. Streaming performance (whether live or VoD) and quality of experience are also baked into the expectation. The number of users and devices streaming video continues to grow exponentially as demands on network resources are bursting at the seams.

­Now that the dust has settled on this year’s IBC show, we at Varnish wanted to highlight some key trends that we saw and heard being discussed at the conference and on the show floor for those of you who may not have been able to make the trek to Amsterdam. This year, it was just as interesting to see what didn’t end up making a prominent appearance at the event as what did. Here are our five key observations:

The entertainment - and particularly television - landscape was undoubtedly ripe for disruption before streaming video became a fact of life. A number of consumer surveys from the last 20 years concur: Americans (in particular) hate their TV subscriptions, and moreover, hate the cable companies that offer them. Across multiple industries, year after year, cable TV and internet providers rank near the bottom of customer satisfaction polls.

Streaming has - no secret - picked up steam, and we’ve been talking about it and providing solutions to enable seamless, easy streaming for long enough that we’d (humbly) call ourselves experts. We’re here to help you avoid some of the pitfalls and challenges of implementing a robust infrastructure for streaming live, OTT and VoD content.