To Thrive, Video Server Vendors Must Understand the Dynamic Needs of the Media and Entertainment Industry, Advises Frost & Sullivan

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The video server market is going through a growth phase as broadcasters and service providers all over the world are increasingly demanding advanced video server solutions to deal with the proliferation of high quality audio-video content. The new-age video server solutions help them manage their need for ingest, processing, and storage, and ensure efficient streaming of videos to provide a wholesome viewing experience for the end viewer.

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New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.digitalmedia.frost.com), World Video Server Market, finds that the market earned revenues of more than $760 million in 2009 and estimates this to exceed $1.5 billion in 2016. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's analysts thoroughly examine the video server markets for cable, telco, and broadcast, covering server usage and forecasts within playout, sports, newsroom, and studio.

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail to Jake Wengroff, Corporate Communications, at [email protected], with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

The evolution of diverse media platforms, such as digital cable, satellite and Internet protocol television (IPTV), has provided consumers with an array of personalized and interactive services such as video-on-demand (VOD), pause live TV, catch up TV, networked personal video recorders (NPVRs), digital video recorders (DVRs), high-definition (HD) channels, and interactive advertising. Initially, these services sought to entice customers and reduce churn, but today, they have become an integral part of a service provider's business.

The advances in video server technologies have made broadcast facilities more server-centric.

"Today, servers give users the freedom to achieve high processing power, real-time content streaming, and efficient networkability with various equipment," explains Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Meghali Sharma. "In addition, servers are increasingly being used to add various application features, such as channel branding, integration of graphics, insertion of live inputs, and ad-hoc advertisements."

Moreover, video server products also serve as video repositories and include enhanced features such as real-time play/pause, rewind/forward, and record for better customer interactivity. As cable and telco companies are expected to launch video distribution services over multiple media such as Internet and mobile, video server products have evolved to serve multimedia distribution needs. Further, the continued drop in prices for hardware has enabled vendors to add more functionality while keeping overall prices constant.

Despite these technology developments, the economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009 affected the spend on digital equipment and video server solutions by both broadcasters and service providers. Even while the effect of recession itself is expected to wane and consistently growing demand will boost the market, several small broadcasters and service operators do not have adequate infrastructure and financial bandwidth to implement advanced applications.

This market has noticed a high degree of consolidation since 2006, which has allowed smaller vendors to enjoy a greater bandwidth of resources, and larger vendors the flexibility to offer a complete end-to-end solution. These consolidation trends have further caused a dip in product prices. Therefore, even though there has been an exponential adoption of video servers worldwide and growth in technology and product innovation, resulting price reductions have restricted the overall revenue growth rate.

The spurt in important global sports events in 2010 and 2012; and the advent of 3D technology are factors that will further boost market growth. Moreover, continued consolidation, product innovation, and further price falls are important trends that are expected to promote the video server market.

"Video server vendors need to understand the dynamic needs of the media and entertainment industry, and establish highly-effective collaborative relationships with equipment vendors offering associated products for a complete infrastructure solution," notes Sharma. "This will help them strengthen market knowledge, ensure that their products and services are of the highest quality, and thereby, aid in greater market penetration."

World Video Server Market is part of the Digital Media Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research in the following markets: World Disk Storage for Digital Media Market, World Broadcast and DTT Video Encoders Market, World Pay-TV Video Encoders Market, World Enterprise, Broadband and Mobile Video Transcoders Market, Digital Asset Management Market, World Video Switchers Market, Content Protection and Digital Rights Management, and World Non-Linear Editing Market. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan