How we price Quortex Play
In this article, we will explain how you'll be charged for using Quortex Play.
Streaming is fast moving world and you need partners that will scale with your business rather than trying to guess what the future will look like. The business model of Quortex follows a Pay As You Go model.
The price comprises three components:
The Features Plan: This defines the set of features you can use. The Starter plan is free and provides all essential features for streaming live. Standard and Premium plans offer additional features.
The Usage: It consists in Ingest, Processing, Delivery, and Storage. The price depends on the on actual usage (Pay As You Go).
The Service & Support Level: The Basic level is free and provides essential support. Professional and Enterprise levels provides additional services and higher response times.
The Feature Plans apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
The Service & Support Levels apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
The rest of this article details the Usage pricing for Quortex Play.
We have a unique pricing model that you will not find anywhere else. When using Quortex Play, you will be charged :
Based on the accumulated number of ingested hours over a month.
Based on the accumulated number of transcoded data in GB over a month.
Based on the accumulated number of delivered data in GB over a month.
Based on the accumulated amount of stored data in GB over a month. This only applies when storage is used (e.g. when activating catchup for instance)
Inputs are only charged when they are enabled. Processing, Delivery and Storage items follow a tiered price list, where "the more units you consume, the less you pay per unit". Usage is invoiced every month based on your actual consumption.
Input items are priced per hour, according to the input type as described in the following table
This is the total number of bytes at the output of the processing, accumulated over a month. This includes the transcoded video profiles, the audio variants, the subtitling and the playlists/manifests.
Keep in mind that everything is done in Just-In-Time, meaning that you will only pay for the segments that are being watched by someone. If you create a channel that nobody's watching, or if a given profile isn't watched, you will simply not pay for it!
This is the total number of bytes that the platform will output, accumulated over a month.
The price for delivery applies for CDN or for Origin delivery.
This is the total number of bytes that the platform will store on your behalf. Note that this is only activated on specific use cases, e.g. catchup or Virtual Inputs.
The number of GB that is user over a month is an average of the number of GB used hourly, over all the hours of a month. If you use 500 GB during the first half of the month, then 0 GB for the second half of the month, you will be charged 250 GB for the full month duration.
The prices given above are full Pay As You Go - your usage will be charged $0 if you don't use the platform.
You can also benefit from private pricing that will come with a usage commitment. Usage commitments can be taken for 1 year or 3 years, and will come with significant discounts on the price list. Please contact quortex-sales@synamedia.com to get more information on the possible discounts, based on your usage!
When you commit, we continue to charge based on a pay-as-you-go model; committing simply lifts the entry barrier and offers a discount in return. For instance, we will make a 20% discount on the processing price list if you commit to utilizing at least 100TB of transcoding every month during a year. Note that you can't select commitment plans when paying by Credit Card.
The Usage Commitments are charged at the beginning of every month.
The platform comes by default with a free Starter Feature Plan, which provides all essential features for streaming live.
You can add more advanced features with Standard and Premium feature plans.
The Feature Plans apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
The platform comes by default with a free Basic Service Level, which provides the essential service and support for your service.
You can add a higher Service & Support levels to benefit from enhanced services and higher response times.
The Service & Support Levels apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
You want to stream a 4 hour event (let’s say a tennis match). Your event will be watched by 1000 viewers, at the average bitrate of 3.8 mbps, and a rendition ladder with a cumulated bitrate of 11.14 mbps. You stream this match in HLS and DASH, and use 6 profiles, up to 1080p50 (because sports looks incredibly better at 50 frames per seconds!).
Input: $1
You will ingest on a standard input for 4h. The price is: 0.25 x 4 = $1
+ Processing: $10.96
We assume that all the profiles are pulled by at least one viewer. This is probably a worst case scenario, as in real-life, it is very likely that not all the profiles will be pulled, resulting in cost savings. The total transcoded traffic for this event is 4 x 3600 x 11140000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 18.67 GB.
This is under the first tier of 100GB, so you will pay 18.67 x $0.587 = $10.96
+ Delivery: $162.85
As the average bitrate is assumed to be 3.8 mbps, the total traffic is 4 x 3600 x 3800000 x 1000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 6370 GB.
You will end up paying (10 x $0.035) + (90 $0.030) + (900 $0.028) + (5370 * $0.025) = $162.50
+ Feature Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Starter" plan, so it's all included!
+ Service & Support Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Basic" plan, so it's all included!
You want to stream a live channel for one month. You have 5 000 subscribers, watching your live channel 2 hours per day on average, with a peak in the morning and during prime-time. You select a rendition ladder with 5 profiles, up to 720p25 at 3 mbps. The average watcher bitrate is estimated at 2.36 mbps. Your input mezzanine feed is at 10 mbps.
Input: $182.50
You will ingest on a standard input for 730h. The price is: 0.25 x 730 = $182.50
+ Processing: $791.41
Let’s consider a worst case where all the profiles will be transcoded, leading to 6.14 mbps (the sum of all the profiles) overall. Keep in mind that if no-one is watching some profiles, they will not be transcoded and will not incur any transcoding costs! The total transcoded bitrate will be 6 140 000 x 3600 x 24 x 365 / 12 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 1,878.47 GB.
You will pay, based on the processing tiers: (100 x $0.585) + (400 x $0.505) + (1,378.47 x $0.385) = $791.41
+ Delivery: $6,049.22
As the average bitrate is assumed to be 2.36 mbps, you will end up with 2 360 000 x 2 x 3600 x 365 / 12 x 5000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 300,840.47 GB of delivered data over a month.
You will pay, based on the delivery tiers: (10 x $0.035) + (90 x $0.030) + (900 x $0.028) + (9000 x $0.025) + (90000 x $0.022) + (200840.47 x $0.019) = $6,049.22
+ Feature Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Starter" plan, so it's all included!
+ Service & Support Plan: Professional, $750
I decided to use the "Professional" plan. My monthly usage is $6,049.22 x 10% = $605. As this is below $750, you will pay the minimum of $750 for this Service & Support plan.
For this use case, you certainly want to contact sales to benefit from commitment pricings!
Business Model
Streaming is fast moving world and you need partners that will scale with your business rather than trying to guess what the future will look like. The business model of Quortex follows a Pay As You Go model.
The price comprises three components:
The Features Plan: This defines the set of features you can use. The Starter plan is free and provides all essential features for streaming live. Standard and Premium plans offer additional features.
The Usage: It consists in Ingest, Processing, Delivery, and Storage. The price depends on the on actual usage (Pay As You Go).
The Service & Support Level: The Basic level is free and provides essential support. Professional and Enterprise levels provides additional services and higher response times.
The Feature Plans apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
The Service & Support Levels apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
The rest of this article details the Usage pricing for Quortex Play.
Usage Price Items
We have a unique pricing model that you will not find anywhere else. When using Quortex Play, you will be charged :
Based on the accumulated number of ingested hours over a month.
Based on the accumulated number of transcoded data in GB over a month.
Based on the accumulated number of delivered data in GB over a month.
Based on the accumulated amount of stored data in GB over a month. This only applies when storage is used (e.g. when activating catchup for instance)
Inputs are only charged when they are enabled. Processing, Delivery and Storage items follow a tiered price list, where "the more units you consume, the less you pay per unit". Usage is invoiced every month based on your actual consumption.
Input Pricing
Input items are priced per hour, according to the input type as described in the following table
| Input type | Use for | Unit Price / hour |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Single stream input, generated input | $0.25 |
| High Available | Redundant input (2 streams) | $0.30 |
| Record | Catchup, Startover (up to 2 streams) | $0.40 |
| FAST | Virtual FAST channels | $0.40 |
Processing Tiering
This is the total number of bytes at the output of the processing, accumulated over a month. This includes the transcoded video profiles, the audio variants, the subtitling and the playlists/manifests.
| Total (GB) | Tiers (GB) | Unit Price |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 100 | $0.587 |
| 500 | 400 | $0.505 |
| 2000 | 1500 | $0.385 |
| 6000 | 4000 | $0.354 |
| 20000 | 14000 | $0.275 |
| 100000 | 80000 | $0.231 |
| 200000 | 100000 | $0.195 |
| Above | $0.165 |
Keep in mind that everything is done in Just-In-Time, meaning that you will only pay for the segments that are being watched by someone. If you create a channel that nobody's watching, or if a given profile isn't watched, you will simply not pay for it!
Delivery Tiering
This is the total number of bytes that the platform will output, accumulated over a month.
| Total (GB) | Tiers (GB) | Unit Price |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 | $0.035 |
| 100 | 90 | $0.030 |
| 1000 | 900 | $0.028 |
| 10000 | 9000 | $0.025 |
| 100000 | 90000 | $0.022 |
| 1000000 | 900000 | $0.019 |
| 5000000 | 4000000 | $0.018 |
| Above | $0.015 |
The price for delivery applies for CDN or for Origin delivery.
Storage Tiering
This is the total number of bytes that the platform will store on your behalf. Note that this is only activated on specific use cases, e.g. catchup or Virtual Inputs.
| Total (GB) | Tiers (GB) | Unit Price |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 | $0.115 |
| 100 | 90 | $0.104 |
| 1000 | 900 | $0.097 |
| 10000 | 9000 | $0.092 |
| 100000 | 90000 | $0.085 |
| 1000000 | 900000 | $0.078 |
| 5000000 | 4000000 | $0.076 |
| Above | $0.069 |
The number of GB that is user over a month is an average of the number of GB used hourly, over all the hours of a month. If you use 500 GB during the first half of the month, then 0 GB for the second half of the month, you will be charged 250 GB for the full month duration.
Adding Usage Commitments
The prices given above are full Pay As You Go - your usage will be charged $0 if you don't use the platform.
You can also benefit from private pricing that will come with a usage commitment. Usage commitments can be taken for 1 year or 3 years, and will come with significant discounts on the price list. Please contact quortex-sales@synamedia.com to get more information on the possible discounts, based on your usage!
When you commit, we continue to charge based on a pay-as-you-go model; committing simply lifts the entry barrier and offers a discount in return. For instance, we will make a 20% discount on the processing price list if you commit to utilizing at least 100TB of transcoding every month during a year. Note that you can't select commitment plans when paying by Credit Card.
The Usage Commitments are charged at the beginning of every month.
Adding Feature Plans
The platform comes by default with a free Starter Feature Plan, which provides all essential features for streaming live.
You can add more advanced features with Standard and Premium feature plans.
The Feature Plans apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
Adding Service & Support Levels
The platform comes by default with a free Basic Service Level, which provides the essential service and support for your service.
You can add a higher Service & Support levels to benefit from enhanced services and higher response times.
The Service & Support Levels apply universally to all Quortex applications and are detailed here.
Examples
Example 1: A Tennis Match => $174 / event
You want to stream a 4 hour event (let’s say a tennis match). Your event will be watched by 1000 viewers, at the average bitrate of 3.8 mbps, and a rendition ladder with a cumulated bitrate of 11.14 mbps. You stream this match in HLS and DASH, and use 6 profiles, up to 1080p50 (because sports looks incredibly better at 50 frames per seconds!).
Input: $1
You will ingest on a standard input for 4h. The price is: 0.25 x 4 = $1
+ Processing: $10.96
We assume that all the profiles are pulled by at least one viewer. This is probably a worst case scenario, as in real-life, it is very likely that not all the profiles will be pulled, resulting in cost savings. The total transcoded traffic for this event is 4 x 3600 x 11140000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 18.67 GB.
This is under the first tier of 100GB, so you will pay 18.67 x $0.587 = $10.96
+ Delivery: $162.85
As the average bitrate is assumed to be 3.8 mbps, the total traffic is 4 x 3600 x 3800000 x 1000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 6370 GB.
You will end up paying (10 x $0.035) + (90 $0.030) + (900 $0.028) + (5370 * $0.025) = $162.50
+ Feature Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Starter" plan, so it's all included!
+ Service & Support Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Basic" plan, so it's all included!
Example 2: A 24/7 Live Channel => $7,773 / month, incl. Professional Service & Support*
You want to stream a live channel for one month. You have 5 000 subscribers, watching your live channel 2 hours per day on average, with a peak in the morning and during prime-time. You select a rendition ladder with 5 profiles, up to 720p25 at 3 mbps. The average watcher bitrate is estimated at 2.36 mbps. Your input mezzanine feed is at 10 mbps.
Input: $182.50
You will ingest on a standard input for 730h. The price is: 0.25 x 730 = $182.50
+ Processing: $791.41
Let’s consider a worst case where all the profiles will be transcoded, leading to 6.14 mbps (the sum of all the profiles) overall. Keep in mind that if no-one is watching some profiles, they will not be transcoded and will not incur any transcoding costs! The total transcoded bitrate will be 6 140 000 x 3600 x 24 x 365 / 12 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 1,878.47 GB.
You will pay, based on the processing tiers: (100 x $0.585) + (400 x $0.505) + (1,378.47 x $0.385) = $791.41
+ Delivery: $6,049.22
As the average bitrate is assumed to be 2.36 mbps, you will end up with 2 360 000 x 2 x 3600 x 365 / 12 x 5000 / (8 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = 300,840.47 GB of delivered data over a month.
You will pay, based on the delivery tiers: (10 x $0.035) + (90 x $0.030) + (900 x $0.028) + (9000 x $0.025) + (90000 x $0.022) + (200840.47 x $0.019) = $6,049.22
+ Feature Plan: $0
I decided to use the "Starter" plan, so it's all included!
+ Service & Support Plan: Professional, $750
I decided to use the "Professional" plan. My monthly usage is $6,049.22 x 10% = $605. As this is below $750, you will pay the minimum of $750 for this Service & Support plan.
For this use case, you certainly want to contact sales to benefit from commitment pricings!
Updated on: 26/03/2024
Thank you!