March 2024 Summaries

Developers often use Low-Quality Image Placeholders (LQIPs) or "blur up image" technique to improve user experience by making webpages load faster. LQIPs involve resizing the original image, compressing it with JPEG encoding server side, and then upscaling the image and applying a Gaussian blur filter on the client side. This technique was first introduced by Facebook in 2015. Another approach is BlurHash, which encodes an image into a short string of characters for more efficient compression but requires JavaScript to decode on the client side. ThumbHash is another similar library that encodes even more detail and supports images with transparency. However, LQIPs are generally preferred by developers due to their better quality and compatibility with web browsers.

Mux Video has introduced SRT live ingest protocol support as Generally Available (GA). This update aims to improve the reliability of live streaming by replacing the older RTMP protocol, which was prone to connection drops and lacked support for modern video codecs. SRT is a UDP-based protocol that uses acknowledgment at the protocol level to handle data loss or reordering. Mux Video's implementation of SRT allows users to choose between RTMP and SRT for live stream contribution, as well as enabling HEVC support for reduced bitrate encoding. The new feature is available to all Mux Video accounts at no extra cost.