Five years ago this week… In late March 2020, a DVB and Ultra HD Forum webinar wrestled with the uncomfortable reality that UHD rollouts were stalling as streaming services slashed bitrates to ease network strain during lockdowns. Industry voices debated whether multicast ABR could alleviate congestion, with Ateme highlighting how the live encoding market suffered from cancelled sports. The session also touched on the impending arrival of VVC, though Ateme thought Covid-19 might delay the codec’s standardization (it didn’t). Ateme had also just started offering free transcoding licenses for pop-up pandemic response channels. Brightcove gets spooned: Brightcove is laying off 198 employees, representing two-thirds of its US-based workforce and one-third of its ~600 global workforce. The video player…