The media and entertainment sector has undergone several transformational changes since the early 20th century. So, as we are gradually progressing into the new century, signs of the next transformation are already visible.
The traditional avenues of the media and entertainment industry are ebbing, making space for new channels that are primarily digital in nature. This digital transformation in media has equally impacted both the businesses and customers in the M&E industry.
However, customers have reacted positively to this change, which has compelled businesses to adapt to this new normal. For business, it may seem like a double whammy situation, but it’s also an opportunity for organizations to emerge at the top and beat competitors.
In this fast paced and competitive world, customers have multiple options to choose from. The enterprises operating in the M&E industry understand this phenomenon and want to make the most of it.
But, to come out of this digital upheaval, being better than their peers, organizations need to embrace this change and accelerate the process of digital transformation in the media and entertainment industry.
There can be numerous ways in which enterprises can speed-up this process, but quality engineering is pivotal to its success.
Here are a few points to highlight how quality engineering is essential to ensure that QA and product development teams can seamlessly bring about digital transformation in their organizations:
Artificial Intelligence and automation have disrupted many industries, and media and entertainment is no different. Today, most digital platforms employ AI to automate repetitive tasks in both production and delivery.
Owing to such rapid innovations in AI, we are on the cusp of a digital revolution. However, without proper quality engineering, achieving this revolution would be a pipe dream.
For companies operating in the media sector, ensuring a seamless quality-driven service delivery has been one of the biggest challenges. When integrated with AI and Automation, quality engineering can be the right combination to help businesses achieve a holistic digital transformation.
Some of the most common areas in quality engineering where AI-enabled automation has changed and upgraded the way the media industry functions are:
In the last few years, there has been a visible shift in customer behavior as they have started consuming more content from OTT and other online platforms as compared to visiting theaters. Furthermore, with the widespread adoption of AI-enabled automation technology, this shift has accelerated, compelling businesses to embrace it or become outdated.
Hyper customization is an important outcome of embracing AI-based automation. Such high levels of customization provide users with content based on what they have watched or searched for earlier. Be it Netflix or YouTube, these hyper-personalized user experiences have enabled every online platform to broaden its customer base and increase its revenue.
However, enterprises have had to continuously deal with the challenge of ensuring that this level of personalization is accurate and reliable for their users. In this regard, quality engineering played a significant role, whether by using cognitive QA for AI-enabled standalone software testing or advanced AI-based predictive and perspective analysis.
With the easy accessibility of the internet, digital platforms have become a dumping ground for several subpar content creators. Even though this phenomenon is rampant on social media channels, but online video streaming and OTT platforms are not out of it.
Moreover, most of the content (movies and series) released on OTT platforms directly, also needs to be categorized and classified as per the audience’s interests. AI helps segregate them according to age, genre, language, duration (short or long), etc.
These online platforms receive many new entrants (content) daily or weekly, so both moderation and categorization also need to be very accurate. This is where quality engineering comes in. The tools and software used in the moderation and categorization process can be comprehensively validated for all possible scenarios by using quality engineering frameworks.
Creativity knows no boundaries! A good movie or an online TV series attracts audiences from across the globe. However, if not the language, at least the subtitles need to be there to intelligible content to the global audience for deeper engagement and broader viewership.
In this regard, using AI-enabled natural language processing technologies can come in real handy. However, before making it live for the viewers, QA teams must test these advanced technologies. Here, a traditional testing methodology cannot give desired results, so AI-based software testing needs to be implemented.
Besides AI, other technology integrations in quality engineering have brought about massive digital transformation in the media industry.
Digital transformation in media has enveloped every part of the industry, whether it’s service delivery or storage. In addition, the emergence of cloud technologies has further modernized how businesses store and manage data on remote servers.
Some of the leading M&E companies use the cloud to enhance operational efficiency and reduce complexity with the help of simpler yet faster processes. Using cloud technology also helps M&E businesses deal with the unpredictable consumer demand for content swiftly and cost-effectively.
Cloud technology facilitates easy third-party integrations in payment gateways or seamlessly implementing relevant partner services. For example, you must have come across several offers for free monthly subscriptions in an OTT platform on purchasing a specific partner product or service. Cloud technology also helps to implement such cross-platform service offerings.
However, irrespective of how cloud technology is integrated into the system, verifying and validating the applications is crucial to ensuring seamless operation. In this context, quality engineering can help companies drive competitive advantage and achieve data autonomy through the cloud.
Due to many intermediaries present in the M&E industry, there are security, transparency, and personalized content delivery challenges. However, most of these challenges that have grappled the sector are centered around copyright infringement and royalty payments.
The current digital ecosystems in the M&E industry are not fully equipped to handle these complex challenges. However, with the shared ledger approach of blockchain technology, media companies can reduce copyright violations while also ensuring seamless content delivery.
As blockchain technology entered the scene, digital modernization in the M&E sector has also been accelerated by multiple folds. Several big names such as Comcast Cable, Channel 4, Disney, and NBC Universal have publicly acknowledged embracing this technology.
However, no matter how advanced the technology is, merely adopting technology cannot guarantee its success, as is the case with blockchain in the M&E sector. It is in this regard that integrated quality engineering frameworks play a significant role. These QE frameworks help businesses analyze and validate every aspect of the application right from the onset.
As media and entertainment companies are venturing into the new storytelling paradigms, cross-platform viewing has become a crucial criterion. Moreover, with lifestyle changes, consumers are now inclined to consume content (including movies) from the comfort of their homes.
For the M&E industry, which is en route to digital transformation, ensuring complete cross-platform compatibility would mean achieving it in a true sense. However, there are numerous roadblocks in the way of this digital transformation and with new IoT devices coming into the market, these impediments continue to grow.
Performing comprehensive cross-platform and cross-browser testing would possibly eliminate most of the impediments, but not all.
Companies operating in the M&E sphere are usually not limited to location, so they need a global presence. But audiences from different regions have different tastes for content, so the type of content must vary from region to region. Therefore, ensuring a global presence while streaming different variations of regional content has always been a challenge for the M&E industry.
With bespoke quality engineering frameworks in place, QA and development teams can eliminate these challenges and efficiently manage to deliver best-in-class service to their global audience.
Major players in the M&E industry today need to have direct access to all the customer information to comprehend their behaviors and preferences better. However, being privy to such large data sets (including users’ financial information) also increases the data security and privacy risks.
Moreover, as technology is evolving, so are online hackers. So, the traditional methods of security testing cannot be of much help to M&E organizations. However, QA teams can properly assess the complete system security by implementing quality engineering methodologies, including vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.
Effective use of software testing frameworks in AI-based applications or cloud adoption requires some very specific skillsets. Organizations who are experts in their niche may or may not possess the expertise. Even if they do, it is advisable to seek guidance from industry experts, when quality of a software product is in question.
Media and entertainment experts at Qualitest have all those required skillsets along with decades of experience in helping businesses provide quality to their customers through reliable software. Reach out to our experts for a consultation.
