Streaming Media 101: Technical Onboarding for Streaming Media Professionals

This course teaches the fundamentals and skills necessary to succeed in a streaming media-related job, whether you're producing and distributing streaming media or creating the tools, technologies, and services necessary to do so

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Student Reviews

Hear from those who took the course

Complete and Comprehensive!

Chris Joyce

As an engineer, I wasn’t sure what to expect and didn’t want to pay for some fluffy sales type material. Jan’s course didn’t disappoint as he delves right...

As an engineer, I wasn’t sure what to expect and didn’t want to pay for some fluffy sales type material. Jan’s course didn’t disappoint as he delves right in with hands-on tutorials and covers a broad spectrum of streaming workflows and platforms. I highly recommend his course from the executive to the engineer and everyone in between.

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Great course!

Nikolajs Varlamovs

An enormous source of up-to-date streaming knowledge with some good practical tasks of encoding and image quality evaluation. This course is suitable for IT ...

An enormous source of up-to-date streaming knowledge with some good practical tasks of encoding and image quality evaluation. This course is suitable for IT professionals looking into building fundamental knowledge of streaming technologies as well as get some deeper knowledge on some topics. Highly recommended!

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Very Informative Streaming Media Introduction Course

Michael Pinto

Thank you Jan for creating this course. I work in streaming media and have been looking for an intro course like this for some time. I highly recommend this ...

Thank you Jan for creating this course. I work in streaming media and have been looking for an intro course like this for some time. I highly recommend this course due to its clear explanation of industry concepts, measurements and trends. The exercises are helpful in cementing the information from the lessons. This class was money well spent!

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Streaming Media 101 - more than for just onboarding

Alan Raymond

This course does a great job of not only teaching technical fundamentals but also explaining the state of the state of broadcast streaming world including va...

This course does a great job of not only teaching technical fundamentals but also explaining the state of the state of broadcast streaming world including various players like manufacturers, Service providers, standards bodies, codecs and the like. Well worth the investment in both $ and time.

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Great Course for Newcomers to Video

Thomas McClave

As an individual working in the live-streaming video space, I wish I had taken this course sooner. Many of the things that I have picked up during my ~1 year...

As an individual working in the live-streaming video space, I wish I had taken this course sooner. Many of the things that I have picked up during my ~1 year in video were solidified over the span of this course, and my only regret is that I had not taken it as soon as I started at my new company. Most excitingly, I've been able to apply some things I picked up from the course mere hours after completing it - a clear indicator of value in my eyes. Would recommend to anyone starting in video or looking to brush up on their video knowledge.

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Jason Evans Review

Oliver Eichel

This course was extremely informative, there is nothing else like it out there and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn a solid foundation ...

This course was extremely informative, there is nothing else like it out there and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn a solid foundation in the streaming media field. It's a lot of information and I intend to start from the beginning again to really sink things in.

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Great Course

David Leslie

I found this course to be very helpful. I really wanted to learn more about HLS, DASH and CMAF and it was covered very well in this course. Thanks Jan!

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A very good and unique course

Alla Petrova

I found the course valuable as it provides for better understanding of the industry. As an engineer working with media technology, I got some missing pieces ...

I found the course valuable as it provides for better understanding of the industry. As an engineer working with media technology, I got some missing pieces for deeper understanding of the media problem space. Pros: The course is constantly updated. After I completed the course two days ago, I saw six new lessons were added. Cons: Course quizzes would benefit from more refinement. Some multiple choice options are very obviously wrong. In a couple of cases a question was misplaced and appeared before the relevant material was presented. Update: After I posted my review, I received an inquiry from Jan Ozer asking to point him to the errors I mentioned. I did, and he made the corrections right away. I am upgrading my rating from 4 to 5 stars.

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Overview

This 9-hour video course teaches the technical fundamentals and skills necessary to produce and distribute streaming media. It enables organizations to efficiently provide employees with the knowledge required to succeed in streaming media-related jobs. Employers can ensure completion via the completion certificate.

56 Video Lessons (averaging about 7 minutes). Students must complete all lessons to receive the completion certificate.
43 quizzes accompany key lessons and range from 3-8 multiple-choice questions. Students must score a 100% on all quizzes to receive the completion certificate.
14 exercises use free or open-source tools to reinforce technical fundamentals and teach new skills. Students will encode multiple files with HandBrake and FFmpeg, analyze them with MediaInfo and Bitrate Viewer, and measure quality with VMAF. Students must complete all exercises to receive the completion certificate.
1 Certificate of Completion

Who This Course is For

And What You Will Learn

Welcome, I'm Jan Ozer, the course creator. Thanks for having a look. Here's the text alternative of the video presented below.

I created this course because, AFAIK, there are no college or university-level courses that prepare you for a career in streaming media, whether on the production side or creating the tools that enable streaming media production and delivery. When sketching out the content, I tried to imagine what a student should learn in an 8-10 week university course, and what skills they should acquire along the way.

Here's what I came up with. In 9+ hours of on-demand video, you will learn:

How to encode and deploy streaming video using the H.264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1 codecs.
How to encode for single file and adaptive bitrate encoding and packaging for HLS, DASH, and CMAF.
About digital rights management (DRM) and distribution issues like choosing a CDN and how to measure and ensure Quality of Service (QoE) and Quality of Experience (QoE).
Factors to consider in critical production-level decisions, like whether to encode on-premise or in the cloud, how to choose a per-title encoding technology and cloud encoder, and how to compute the breakeven on deploying an advanced codec like HEVC or AV1.
About the three MPEG codecs launched in 2020, VVC, EVC, and LCEVC.

Regarding skills, you'll learn how to use the tools that I use every day in my consulting and production practices. This includes:

How to analyze files in MediaInfo and Bitrate Viewer.
how to measure VMAF and PSNR with the Moscow State University Video Quality Measurement Tool (and what the scores mean).
How to encode with Handbrake and FFmpeg.
How to encode a file for uploading to a user-generated content (UGC) site or online video platform (OVP).
How to choose encoding parameters for live streaming, and how to connect to your live streaming service provider.
How to embed videos from a VOD or live streaming service into your web pages.

To help you apply what you've learned, you'll see multiple demonstrations in programs like AWS Elemental MediaConvert and the Adobe Media Encoder. You'll learn how to encode a mezzanine file for uploading to an OVP/UGC site and how to embed the video in a web page. You'll learn how to connect to a live streaming service provider for live productions.

Please take a moment and scroll down through the complete curriculum in the window below. I think you'll find that if you complete the course, you'll produce higher quality video in the short term and will be much better prepared for encoding and production-related decisions to come over the next few years.

Watch Intro Video

What's in the Course

From course creator Jan Ozer

Curriculum Overview

56 Lessons/43 Quizzes

Here's an overview of the nine sections in the course (see complete curriculum below).

Section 1. Technology Fundamentals (compression, codecs, distribution alternatives).

Section 2. Tools and Metrics (MediaInfo, Bitrate Viewer, Moscow State Video Quality Measurement Tool, Rate-Distortion Curves/BD-Rate Functions, Introduction to FFmpeg).

Section 3. Generic Encoding Parameters (data rate, resolution, frame rate, bitrate control techniques, CRF Encoding, VBV buffer, I, B, and P-frames, reference frames).

Section 4. Working with H.264 (about H.264, H.264 profiles, levels, and entropy coding, x264 presets, AAC audio compression).

Section 5. Working with Other Codecs (VP9, HEVC, AV1, VVC, EVC, and LCEVC).

Section 6. Adaptive Bitrate Technologies (HTML5 playback architecture, MSE, EME, DASH, HLS, choosing an ABR technology, dynamic and static packaging, CMAF, creating encoding ladders, per-title encoding).

Section 7. Miscellaneous Topics (DRM, low latency technologies, QoE and QoS, content delivery networks, choosing a player).

Section 8. Producing VOD (production overview, create your own or OVP/UGC, cloud or on-premise encoding, make or buy encoder, choosing a cloud encoder, encoding for uploading to OVP/UGC).

Section 9. Producing Live (live production overview, transcode on-premise or in the cloud, choosing a live streaming service provider, choosing a live streaming encoder, connecting to your live streaming service provider).

Most lessons involving codec selection and output configuration show how to configure these options in encoders like the Adobe Media Encoder, AWS Elemental MediaConvert, or HandBrake.

Students must complete all lessons and achieve a 100% score on all quizzes to receive a completion certificate.

Exercises

Exercises use free or open-source tools so students can follow along, and introduce students to critical tools, reinforce key learning messages, teach new skills, and ingrain proper testing and analysis techniques.

While completing these exercises, students will learn:

- How to analyze files with MediaInfo and Bitrate Viewer.

- How to measure and compare file quality with the Demo Version of the Moscow State University Video Quality Measurement Tool (Windows only).

-How to use HandBrake to produce various outputs to reinforce lessons. For example, an exercise outputs H.264, HEVC, and VP9 with HandBrake and allows the students to compare quality with the VQMT tool.

- How to use FFmpeg for simple encoding tasks that reinforce lessons, like CBR vs. VBR quality, or the quality/encoding time trade-off relating to reference frames. Exercises include demo files and batch files available for simple double-click execution.

- How to encode for upload to a UGC site. Students will upload a file to YouTube and embed the video into a webpage to learn the basic VOD workflow and how to work with UGC/OVPs.

- How to connect and stream to YouTube Live via OBS to learn the basic live streaming workflow and how to connect to their live streaming service provider.

Discounts on Streaming Media Analysis Tools

Students get discounts on several video analysis tools.

$150 off the Moscow State University Video Quality Measurement Tool
10% off Telestream Switch Pro
20% off any edition of Solveig Multimedia Zond 265

Instructor(s)

Instructor

Jan Ozer

Jan is a streaming consultant and contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, where he teaches courses on Video Quality Metrics, FFmpeg, and other topics at Streaming Media Events in New York City, Los Angeles, and London. Jan is the author of Video Encoding by the Numbers, which uses video quality metrics to direct key encoding configuration decisions and differentiate codecs and encoders, and the author of Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg in 30 Minutes or Less which is available on Amazon and other online sites.

Course curriculum

1

Free Lessons
2

Introduction
- Thank You and Greetings
  FREE PREVIEW
3

Section 1: Technology Fundamentals
- Lesson: Codecs and Compression
- Quiz: Codecs and Compression
- Where Codecs Come From
- Quiz: Where Codecs Come From
- Lesson: Codecs and Container Formats
- Quiz: Codecs and Container Formats
- Lesson: Distribution Alternatives
- Quiz: Distribution Alternatives
- Lesson: The Big Picture: Understanding the OTT Ecosystem and Components
4

Section 2: Tools and Metrics
- Lesson: Essential Tools
- Exercise: Installing and Using MediaInfo (note correct link in lesson description)
- Exercise: Install and Use Bitrate Viewer
- Exercise: Install and Encode with HandBrake
- Lesson: Introduction to Video Quality Metrics
- Quiz: Video Quality Metrics
- Exercise: Install and Use the Moscow State University Video Quality Measurement Tool (VQMT)
- Lesson: Rate Distortion Curves and BD-Rate Functions
- Quiz: Rate Distortion Curves and BD-Rate Functions
- Lesson: Introduction to FFmpeg
- Demo: Telestream Switch Pro
- Demo: Solveig Multimedia Zond 265
- Lesson: Meet the SSIMWAVE Metric
5

Section 3: Generic Encoding Parameters
- Lesson: What is an Encoder and How Do They Work?
- Lesson: Configuration Basics
- Lesson: Resolution and Aspect Ratio
- Quiz: Resolution and Aspect Ratio
- Lesson: Bitrate Control Techniques
- Quiz: Bitrate Control Techniques
- Exercise: Bitrate Control Techniques in FFmpeg
- Lesson: Understanding Bits-Per-Pixel
- Lesson: Working with the VBV Buffer
- Quiz: Working With the Video Buffer Verifier (VBV Buffer)
- Lesson: Constant Rate Factor (CRF) Encoding and Capped CRF
- Quiz: Working with CRF and Capped CRF
- Lesson: Frame Type Overview
- Quiz: Frame Type Overview
- Lesson: Working with I-Frames
- Quiz: Working With I-frames
- Exercise: Setting I-frames in FFmpeg
- Lesson: Working With B-Frames
- Exercise: Working with B-Frames in FFmpeg
- Quiz: Working With B-frames
- Lesson: Working with Reference Frames
- Quiz: Working with Reference Frames
- Exercise: Working with Reference Frames in FFmpeg
- Lesson: Fixing Aspect Ratio-Related Issues
- Lesson: Deinterlacing
6

Section 4: Encoding With H.264
- Lesson: Introduction to H.264
- Quiz: Introduction to H.264
- Lesson: H.264 Profiles, Levels, and Entropy Coding
- Quiz: H.264 Profiles, Levels, and Entropy Encoding
- Lesson: Choosing an x264 Preset
- Quiz: Choosing an x264 Preset
- Exercise: Choosing an x264 Preset in HandBrake
- Lesson: Encoding Audio: Codecs and Configuration Options
- Quiz: Encoding Audio and Configuration Options
7

Section 5: Working With Other Codecs
- Lesson: Introduction to HEVC
- Quiz: Introduction to HEVC
- Lesson: Producing HEVC
- Quiz: Producing HEVC
- Lesson: Producing VP9
- Quiz: Producing VP9
- Exercise: Comparing H.264, HEVC, and VP9 Produced by HandBrake
- Lesson: Producing AV1
- Quiz: Producing AV1
- Lesson: Comparing H.264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1
- Quiz: Comparing H.264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1
- Lesson: Three MPEG CODECs, VVC, EVC, and LCEVC
- Quiz: Three MPEG Codecs, VVC, EVC, and LCEVC
- Lesson: Preliminary Results for VVC
- Lesson: Preliminary Results for LCEVC
- Lesson: Hardware vs. Software Codecs
- Lesson: New Rules of Codec Deployments
- Lesson: Codec Deployment Projections: When VVC, EVC, and LCEVC Will Become Real
- Lesson: New Codec Breakeven; When to Consider Adopting a New Codec
8

Section 6: Adaptive Bitrate Technologies
- Lesson: Introduction to Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Streaming
- Quiz: Introduction to Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Streaming
- Lesson: HTML5 Playback Architecture
- Quiz: HTML5 Playback Architecture
- Lesson: Choosing an ABR format
- Quiz: Choosing an ABR Format
- Lesson: Dynamic Packaging
- Quiz: Dynamic Packaging
- Lesson: The Common Media Application Format (CMAF)
- Quiz: The Common Media Application Format (CMAF)
- Demo: CMAF Proof of Concept
- Lesson: Creating Encoding Ladders
- Quiz: Creating Encoding Ladders
- Lesson: Per-Title Encoding
- Quiz: Per-Title Encoding
9

Section 7: Miscellaneous Topics
- Lesson: Introduction to DRM
- Quiz: Introduction to DRM
- Lesson: Introduction to Low Latency Technologies
- Quiz: Introduction to Low Latency Technologies
- Lesson: Introduction to Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE)
- Quiz: Introduction to QoE and QoS
- Lesson: What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and When Do You Need One?
- Quiz: Introduction to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
- Lesson: Services that CDNs Perform
- Lesson: Choosing a CDN
- Lesson: Choosing a Video Player
10

Section 8: Producing Video On Demand
- Lesson: VOD Production Overview
- Quiz: VOD Production Overview
- Lesson: Create Your Own VOD Ecosystem or Use a Service Provider
- Quiz: Create Your Own VOD Ecosystem or Use a Service Provider?
- Lesson: Cloud or On-Premise Encoding
- Quiz: Cloud or On-Premise Encoding
- Lesson: Choosing an Encoder: Make or Buy?
- Quiz: Make or Buy
- Lesson: Choosing a Cloud Encoder
- Quiz: Choosing a Cloud Encoder
- Lesson: Encoding for Upload to UGC or OVP
- Quiz: Encoding for Upload to UGC or OVP
- Exercise: Encode for Upload
- Exercise: Uploading a Video to YouTube (and Brightcove)
- Exercise: Embedding a Video into a Webpage
11

Section 9: Producing Live
- Lesson: Live Production Overview
- Lesson: Encode On-Premise or In the Cloud
- Quiz: Transcode On-Premise or In the Cloud
- Lesson: Choosing a Live Streaming Service Provider
- Quiz: Choosing a Live Streaming Service Provider
- Lesson: Choosing a Live Streaming Encoder
- Quiz: Choosing a Live Streaming Encoder
- Lesson: How to Connect to Your Live Streaming Service Provider
- Exercise: Stream Live to YouTube and Embed the Stream