Video Platform Product Specification Template

Use an existing player library (Video.js, Shaka Player, hls.js) and customize the UI. Building a player from scratch means handling hundreds of browser and device edge cases that open-source players have already solved. Customize the skin, controls, and overlay features (chapters, notes, quizzes) to match your product. The player UI is a differentiator. The underlying playback engine is not.

CDN costs scale with total bandwidth delivered, not the number of videos stored. Calculate: (monthly active viewers) x (average session duration in minutes) x (average bitrate in Mbps) x (30 days) = monthly bandwidth in TB. CDN pricing ranges from $0.02-$0.08 per GB depending on volume and regions. Use [per-title encoding](https://netflixtechblog.com/per-title-encode-optimization-7e99442b62a2) to reduce bitrates without visible quality loss. Monitor cost per viewing hour as your primary unit economic metric.

H.264 remains the safest default because it works on every device and browser without exception. If you need better compression (lower bandwidth costs, faster mobile loading), add H.265 for Apple devices and AV1 for Chrome/Android as secondary profiles. Serve the most efficient codec each device supports using adaptive streaming manifests. Do not drop H.264 support unless you are targeting a narrow device set. For a deeper look at technical infrastructure decisions, see the [architecture decision record template](/templates/architecture-decision-record-template).

For user-uploaded content, run automated screening during the transcoding pipeline (before content goes live). Use services like Amazon Rekognition, Google Video AI, or Hive for NSFW/violence detection. Set confidence thresholds: auto-reject above 95%, queue for human review between 70-95%, auto-approve below 70%. For curated/professional content, editorial review before upload is sufficient. Track moderation queue depth and false positive rate weekly.

Industry benchmark for a good experience is <1% of viewing sessions experiencing a rebuffer event. Top streaming platforms target <0.5%. Measure rebuffer rate by device type and network condition separately. Mobile on cellular networks will always have higher rebuffer rates than desktop on broadband. If your rebuffer rate exceeds 2%, investigate CDN coverage gaps, transcoding bitrate ladders, and player ABR logic before adding infrastructure. ---