Streaming Perspective StreamQ

Simplify streaming measurement with our StreamQ rating system

Keynote’s StreamQ™is the de facto industry-standard metric for measuring the streaming media user experience. StreamQ is measured in letter grades from A+ to F that indicate the amount of time a user had to wait or experience interruptions ("Frustration Time") versus the time actually spent enjoying the content ("Play Time"). To determine the StreamQ for a particular check, Keynote adds up the connect time, buffer time and rebuffer time. Then, a two second penalty is added for each rebuffer event. If this final "adjusted frustration time" is less than 6 seconds, the grade is an A+; 6 to 9 seconds A, 9 to 12 seconds, B+, etc.

This time-profile diagram shows a stream that suffered from rebuffering during playback. Each rebuffer event adds a 1 second penalty to the overall frustration time, in addition to the actual length of the rebuffering.