Microsoft Explains the Specifics of MPEG DASH Streaming

For those who have heard much about MPEG DASH, but still aren't sure how the adaptive streaming standard works, Microsoft has an answer. Speaking at the recent Streaming Media West conference in London, Alex Zambelli, then a media platform evangelist for Microsoft, gave a detailed look at how DASH operates.

"Dash is really a framework standard," Zambelli said. "Some might call it an enabler standard, because it defines certain things - really what it defines when we get down to the specifics is it defines the media presentation description (MPD) which is an XML document which describes what's in the asset, how many bit rates exist, how many different presentations, how many languages, what kinds of subtitles, so it really just describes the content itself."

Zambelli also explained how MPEG DASH sends requests and then receives responses.

"The other thing that's defined by the standard is the segment format, and that's essentially the syntax of the HTTP requests and responses," Zambelli said. "So it describes here's how you request segments and here's what you get back. But it doesn't really go down into the detail of what's necessarily inside of the segments that come back. The only exception to that rule is that the standard does actually specify two file formats that are both MPEG supported file formats, and that's the ISO base media file format and the MPEG-2 transport stream."

For much more on MPEG DASH, watch the full session video below.

MPEG DASH: Opportunities and Impacts on Adaptive Streaming

Moderator: Tim Siglin, Co-Founder, Transitions Inc
Cornelia Patzlsperger, Interactive Solutions, Interlake Media GmbH
Paul Stallard, Head of TV Systems Management, Ericsson
Tristan Leteurtre, CEO, Anevia
Alex Zambelli, Media Platform Evangelist, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Corporation
MPEG DASH provides an open, interoperable standard for adaptive streaming. A panel of experts discusses its key features, its rate of adoption by various consortia, the challenges for a wide adoption and its impact on adaptive streaming. Possible migration paths from the current proprietary formats to MPEG DASH for content and service providers will also be discussed.