Traditionally most online video has been on-demand, but recently that has begun to change with more live events delivered online all the time. The trend has been driven primarily by sports, news and music, but other categories like entertainment are also following along.

For content providers, live presents numerous new workflow complexities vs. on-demand in areas such as encoding, ad insertion, stream management, metadata, device support, etc. To address this complexity and try to streamline workflows, thePlatform is today introducing a single web-based console in its mpx platform that can handle key tasks including signal acquisition and encoding via an integration with Elemental (so encoding can be managed within the console), dynamic ad insertion and metadata creation plus archiving to VOD for replays.

Marty Roberts, thePlatform's SVP of Marketing and Sales explained to me last week that mpx is capitalizing on the 10-20 delay typical in live delivery to enable content providers to dynamically insert ads or other information at particular cue points. Content providers can use any of the pre-integrated ad platforms like FreeWheel to do this. They can also insert relevant companion information (e.g. a player's stats or other factoids) so that this can be displayed at the right moment as well as chapter break points.

Last but not least, during the live broadcast all of the key information - cue points, breaks, metadata and the file itself are saved and readied for follow-on VOD use, whether for on-site publishing or third-party syndication. thePlatform uses a hybrid approach so that all of these features are enabled whether the content provider has its encoding processes behind its firewall or in the cloud.

As more content providers deliver live events, the type of streamlined workflow and monetization that thePlatform is offering will become increasingly valuable.

(Note: thePlatform is a VideoNuze sponsor)