Anthony Romero, Author at Streaming Video Blog

What is Closed Captioning and How Does it Work

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 1 February 2018

What is Closed Captioning and How Does it Work

Wondering what is closed captioning? Curious on why you should be captioning your content, or what regulations might exist that could impact your industry?

This article describes closed captions and relates why they are important, with an emphasis on the legal side of the equation. It also includes some best practices, to ensure that content owners are creating what could be considered quality closed captions, both from an accessibility standpoint and to protect organizations as regulations tighten. It also concludes with some resources to help you start captioning your video content as well. For a demonstration of some of those techniques, and to learn overall where the industry is headed, also be sure to check out our Video Trends in 2018 webinar.

Video Hosting Service for Business

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 29 January 2018

Looking for a video hosting service? Not sure on what criteria is important, or maybe even how to host a video in the first place?

This article walks through the hosting process while detailing things to look for in regards to content backup and restrictions, which is detailed more in this Video Security Components & Services white paper. The article then goes over various value add features to consider for video hosting, from managing assets to making them more accessible to viewers.

How to Webcast in Just 5 Steps

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 18 January 2018

Want to learn how to webcast?

This article discusses, briefly, what is a webcast before explaining how to do a webcast of your own in five steps. If you want a video on this topic, along with highlighting many of the features that could be used as part of a webcast or resulting on-demand file, check out this Getting Started Demo.

Support: Phone, Chat or Email

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 3 January 2018

24/7 Support: Phone, Chat or Email

IBM Watson Media is passionate about supporting our customers and their events. We have a thriving, in-house Customer Success team that works closely with content owners to aid them in their live and on-demand streaming. IBM Watson Media will continue to invest in our support infrastructure to better assist IBM Watson Media users. As a result, content owners get access to in-house experts on these solutions, able to assist them during a live broadcast or event regardless of timing.

The support includes assistance over phone, chat and email, accessed from inside an account for IBM’s video streaming or enterprise video streaming offerings. In addition, the IBM Watson Media Support Center is also available for guidance with graphic and video tutorials.

Video Metadata Editor and Manager

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 5 December 2017

Metadata is a powerful supplement to video content. It enables organizations to more efficiently classify content, using this information for structure, permissions or help develop unique experiences around content types. Metadata can take many forms, from listing a simple description to tying assets to individuals.

To expand on metadata’s growing use, IBM Watson Media has introduced a custom metadata feature. This acts as a video metadata editor for online content, allowing for a huge expansion of metadata fields. As a result, content owners can add fields with criteria such as “multiple choice” or a numeric value to be associated with video content.

This article documents the new feature, along with covering the value of metadata as it relates to video content and its use cases. For more information on the importance of metadata, also please reference our Video Metadata: Management and Tools white paper.

Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards 2017 Winner

Written by Anthony Romero in Company News on 3 November 2017

Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards 2017 Winner

Winners for the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards 2017 have now been announced. Representing the online video industry’s shining stars as selected by users, categories ranged from cloud based solutions, like the Live Streaming Platform category, to physical offerings, like Encoding Hardware (Live). This year, IBM took home three awards at the ceremony in the following categories:

– Live Streaming Platform
– End-to-End Workflow Solution
– OTT Platform for MSO and MVPD

For more information on the awards, including our history at them, please read on.

Dynamic Video Playlist: How to Create and Use

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 11 October 2017

Dynamic Video Playlist: How to Create and Use

Looking for ways to simplify managing your video playlists? Need to create playlists that will update themselves? According to Wainhouse Research, almost one in five (19%) organizations report that they add at least 25 hours of video to their corporate libraries each month. These increasing libraries present challenges to improve methods to manage content in a way that promotes accessibility. A dynamic video playlist is part of the solution for this, giving content owners a way to quickly produce playlists that will automatically update with new content. This is done through creating playlists that populate content based on certain criteria, and then will update that playlist as new videos meet the same conditions. Criteria can range from content found in titles and descriptions, but also through using information found in custom metadata fields as well.

This article describes what is a dynamic video playlist, what are the use cases, the user experience and also how you can create them as well.

Brandlive Surpasses Monumental 8,000 Livestreamed Events and Unveils Partnership with IBM at its Annual Customer Summit

Written by Anthony Romero in Streaming on 4 October 2017

Brandlive, the leading live video platform for brands and retail marketing today announced that it has livestreamed over 8,000 events, as part of a partnership with IBM Watson Media. With this milestone, Brandlive confirms its position as the go-to resource for brands and retailers looking to interact with their audiences for sales enablement, marketing and commerce events.

In today’s saturated digital landscape, brands need an innovative method to cut through the noise and engage with their customers. By leveraging live video, companies can bolster their marketing strategies to more effectively interact with their audiences and foster relationships in real-time.

Brandlive empowers top brands like Adidas, GoPro, eBay, and Cabela’s to better communicate with their audiences by offering customers real-time access to experts, influencers, and executives. With 8,000 livestreamed events, it is clear that brands are harnessing live video and understand its myriad advantages: live video is more engaging, faster to produce, and drives more sales than recorded video.

Direct HLS Video Streaming to M3U8

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 21 September 2017

Are you looking for a service that can provide HLS compatible live and on-demand video output? This article provides details around using IBM Video Streaming for direct HLS video streaming and the associated M3U8 manifest file format. Using this approach bypasses other methods from IBM Video Streaming such as our web based player, API based player offerings and our player SDKs.

To help guide content owners, this article discusses what is HLS and M3U8. It then outlines the benefits and uses cases for this approach, such as using third party players. It then covers what features are and are not available in this approach, letting content owners make an informed decision on their delivery strategy.

How to Setup a Live Stream in 8 Steps

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 6 September 2017

Want to know how to setup a live stream?

This article walks you through 8 steps from start to finish in terms of managing the sources and settings for your live stream. This includes everything from choosing a video source and lighting, to a live encoder and managing your connection. If you consider yourself already setup on the video and audio side, skip to step 4. Also, if you are more interested in perfecting your current setup or curious how to best handle the delivery aspect at scale, watch this Five Video Delivery Mistakes to Avoid webinar.

All posts by Anthony Romero