What it is for
Most catalogues are encoded with one ladder applied to everything. That ladder is set for the hardest content in the library, so quiet, dialogue-led material goes out at a bitrate it never needed and high-motion material at one it cannot use. You pay for the first in egress and for the second in complaints. A per-title ladder fixes both, provided the quality target is measured and you can show that a preset change did not make things worse.
We build an encoding ladder for each title from measured objective quality. Every rung is justified by a VMAF target and a device capability matrix. A regression harness comes with it, so when you change a codec or preset you can show that quality held.
What it does
- Per-title ladder construction against VMAF targets
- Codec comparison across H.264, HEVC, and AV1
- Device and decoder capability matrices
- Bitrate spend modelling per title and territory
- Encode regression harness for preset changes
- Packaging validation for HLS and DASH
- Coverage
- H.264, HEVC, AV1
- Refresh
- Per encode
- Delivery
- Pipeline integration, reports
How it works
Measure the catalogue
We encode a representative sample across your genres and sources and score each rung objectively. This shows what your current ladder delivers for each type of content before anything changes.
Build the ladder
Each rung is the lowest bitrate that meets the quality target, limited to the decoders your audience has. Where you have playback data, the device matrix comes from it.
Prove it
The regression harness re-runs the sample on every preset, encoder version or codec change and reports what happened to quality and bitrate. A change that lowers quality fails before it reaches the catalogue.
Integrate
The ladder and the harness go into your existing pipeline, and you keep your encoders. You own the configuration, and there is no service to rent.
What you get
- Per-content-type ladder definitions, ready for your encoder
- Objective quality and bitrate report against your current ladder
- Device and decoder capability matrix for your audience
- Encode regression harness wired into CI
- Projected egress change, per territory
- Handover documentation and a runbook for future codec changes
Who it is for
- Streaming services with a catalogue large enough that egress is a real line item
- Platforms adding a codec that need to prove the gain before committing
- Teams whose ladder was set years ago and never re-measured
Example projects
Example designs related to Stream Ladder, built on Cloudflare.
- FFmpeg encoding on Cloudflare ContainersYour own ladder and packaging, started by an upload, served from R2
Discuss Stream Ladder
Briefings, a scoped trial, or a look at your current setup. Tell us what is breaking.
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
17420568
Registered in England and Wales
QuestionsQuestions
Common questions about Stream Ladder.
DRM solutions
Three corporate use cases, each with a Widevine demo that runs in your browser and checks what your device supports.
Video projects
Example designs for video on Cloudflare, each with a sequence diagram and the platform limits that apply.
- Serverless video platformUploads, encoding, captions and signed playback with no servers to run
- FFmpeg encoding on Cloudflare ContainersYour own ladder and packaging, started by an upload, served from R2
- Sub-second live with WHIP and WHEPLive auctions, Q&A and watch-alongs where a few seconds of delay is too much
- Searchable video archiveFind the moment in hours of recordings by what was said
- Thumbnails and previews by URLHover previews, thumbnails and storyboards for a clip library, with no batch jobs
- Instant clips from a live streamViewers clip the moment they just saw and share it while the event is still on