Surfmeter Player SDK

In-app video quality measurement for any player, any platform.

Add real-time video quality monitoring to your existing player integration. The Player SDK collects playback telemetry — loading delay, stalling, bitrate, resolution — and computes ITU-T P.1203 MOS scores in the background, with zero impact on the viewing experience.

Book a demo

Product Overview

Quality measurement inside your app

The Surfmeter Player SDK integrates directly with your video player — on Android, iOS, or web. It observes playback events passively, collecting quality-relevant metrics without intercepting the video stream or affecting performance. Data is transmitted in the background and available instantly on the Surfmeter analytics platform.

Key Features

What it does

Multi-Platform Support

Available as an Android AAR, iOS XCFramework, and npm package for web. One consistent measurement approach across all platforms.

Multi-Player Support

Works with ExoPlayer, AVPlayer, Video.js, THEOplayer, Shaka Player, Brightcove, HTML5 Video, and Chromecast receivers.

Background Telemetry

Collects playback metrics passively in the background. No stalling overhead, no UI changes, no impact on the viewer experience.

ITU-T P.1203 MOS

Computes standardized Mean Opinion Scores for every viewing session, predicting how users would rate the quality they experienced.

Ready to see it in action?

Get a personalized demo and see how Surfmeter fits your use case.

How It Works

From integration to insights in 4 steps

The SDK is designed for minimal integration effort. Most setups require fewer than 10 lines of code.

1

Add the SDK

Install via npm (web), Gradle/AAR (Android), or CocoaPods/XCFramework (iOS). Initialize with your API key.

2

Connect to your player

Attach the SDK to your player instance. It automatically subscribes to playback events — no manual event forwarding needed for supported players.

3

Automatic collection

The SDK passively captures loading delay, stalling events, bitrate switches, resolution changes, frame drops, and session metadata.

4

Dashboard & analysis

Session data and P.1203 MOS scores appear on the Surfmeter analytics platform. Filter by app version, device, ISP, geography, and more.

Data & KPIs

Supported players and KPIs

ExoPlayer AVPlayer Video.js THEOplayer Shaka Player Brightcove HTML5 Video Chromecast

Video QoE

P.1203 Overall MOS

Perceptual quality score (1–5)
Initial Loading Delay

Time until video starts playing
Stalling Ratio

Playback time spent stalling
Stalling Count

Number of stalling interruptions
Average Video Bitrate

Average data rate of video stream
Resolution & Quality Switches

How often quality changes mid-stream

Playback Details

Video Resolution

Output resolution in pixels
Frame Drops

Frames skipped during playback
Codec & Protocol

Video encoding and streaming protocol
Session Duration

Total length of viewing session
Playback State Timeline

Play, pause, and buffer events over time

Session Context

Device & OS

User's device and operating system
App Version

Application version identifier
Connection Type

WiFi or cellular connection
ISP / Network

Internet service provider
Geography

Country and region of user

Use Cases

Who it's for

Streaming Services

Monitor the quality your viewers actually experience across devices and platforms. Detect issues in real time and correlate with CDN or ISP problems.

Broadcasters & Media Companies

Add quality measurement to your OTT apps without building analytics infrastructure. Get standardized MOS scores alongside your existing analytics.

Telecom Operators

Measure video quality from the customer's app perspective. Complement network-side monitoring with actual viewer experience data.

Test & QA Teams

Integrate quality measurement into your testing pipeline. Track QoE regressions across app releases and player versions.

Proven in Practice

Multi-platform QoE monitoring for in-house IPTV service

DNS:Net wanted to understand quality differences across their Android, iOS, and web player implementations, and discover users who were experiencing poor quality before they complained. With the Surfmeter Player SDK, they gained visibility into client-side quality metrics across all platforms.

Results

Added clients-side SDKs to all three platforms
Implemented a dashboard showing the lowest performing sessions across all platforms
Verified downstream issues due to network interchanges which were not visible in server-side logs

WDR, one of Germany’s largest public broadcasters, uses Surfmeter to monitor the delivery quality of their streaming services from the viewer’s perspective. Beyond continuous CDN performance monitoring, WDR uses Surfmeter to validate new player versions, compare stream configurations, and verify that encoding changes deliver the expected quality improvements before rolling them out to millions of viewers.

Results

Continuous monitoring of CDN delivery quality for WDR’s streaming services
Validated new player versions and stream configurations before rollout
Compared encoding settings and verified quality improvements objectively
Identified delivery issues across different ISPs and regions

“The Surfmeter app now enables us, for the first time, to record qualitative measurements that are comparable with the customer’s actual perception.”

Volker Libovsky, CTIO — Magenta Telekom

Magenta Telekom needed a way to measure streaming quality exactly as customers perceive it. Together with T-Labs and AVEQ, they developed a Surfmeter-based mobile app that lets service technicians measure on-site streaming quality at customer premises, producing ITU-standardized MOS scores with geodata for network-wide quality mapping.

Results