Operators worldwide are diligently monitoring the delivery quality of their streaming services, often seeking ways to compile monitoring probes within customers’ set-top boxes for comprehensive monitoring. However, this talk will shed light on the fact that monitoring customers’ set-top boxes is not essential.

Instead, the focus of proper monitoring should be on answering the crucial question: Who bears responsibility for malfunctions in the streaming workflow? Installing probes on end user’s set-top boxes does not provide an answer to this question. These probes merely testify failure to play the stream on the device, with the same error replicated across all devices in that sector. By delving into the various components of HTTP streaming and exploring common errors in each stage, this talk will emphasize the significance of identifying and addressing issues within the streaming infrastructure itself. Attendees will gain insights into optimizing the streaming workflow, pinpointing responsibility for glitches, and implementing robust monitoring practices at critical stages such as ingestion, transcoding, packaging, CDN, and last mile delivery. The talk is debunking the myth surrounding the need to monitor customers’ set-top boxes and equip the attendees with the knowledge and techniques required to achieve seamless streaming experiences through comprehensive infrastructure monitoring based on real-world use cases. This talk was presented at Demuxed ’23, a conference for video nerds in San Francisco featuring amazing talks like this one.