Product Updates

Closed captions have grown to be an important part of the video experience. While they assist deaf and hard of hearing people in enjoying video content, a study in the UK discovered that 80% of closed caption use was from those with no hearing issues. Not only that, but Facebook found out that adding captions to a video increased view times on their network by 12%. These reasons, along with regulations such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and rules from the FCC, have realized the need to caption video assets. However, caption generation can be time consuming, taking 5-10 times the length of the video asset, or costly if you are paying someone else to create them.

A solution is automatic speech recognition from machine learning. This the ability to identify words and phrases in spoken language and convert them to text. The process offers content owners a way to quickly and cost effectively provide captions for their videos. To address this, IBM introduced the ability to convert video speech to text through IBM Watson. This was added to IBM’s video streaming solutions in late 2017 for VODs (video on-demand). It has recently been expanded to recognize additional languages.

Integrated live captioning for enterprises is also available, although differs in several ways from the VOD feature talked about here.

• How it works for VODs
• Supported languages
• Caption accuracy
• Steps to convert video speech to text
• Exporting and editing captions
• Additional professional services available for captioning

Explore the video content in your FileNet ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solution in new ways through this integration with IBM Watson Media. Introduced with version 5.5.4 of FileNet, enterprises can now leverage comprehensive video processes that unlock additional functionality. This includes the ability to stream videos from FileNet, accessing video content faster and with more flexibility. End users also benefit from AI-driven processes, generating automatic closed captions and powering deep video search features. This technology can be used to get the right content in front of the right viewer across a wide range of use cases, from watching your CEO’s virtual town hall to re-watching footage before sending a maintenance truck or approving an insurance claim.

If you are already a FileNet user and interested in testing out this integration, sign up for a free trial to start leveraging this technology. Note that this special trial has to be started before June 30th and you must be a current FileNet customer to take advantage of this.

Looking to manage video platform user permissions?

Managing video content is become an increasingly collaborative experience. Furthermore, enterprises are adopting larger video strategies as well. In fact, 51% of enterprises estimated their streaming budgets at $100,000 or more going into 2020. Naturally this increase in budget for video will produce more content, creating an environment where companies need to be more agile in managing assets. Especially as companies are looking to use video both internally, to employees and stakeholders, and externally, for prospects or entertainment purposes.

To address this, IBM released an administrator controlled permission system for organizations back in 2018. These features were recently expanded, offering more granular control. As a result, organization administrators can manage video platform user permissions, empowering them to oversee admins and managers for accounts and channels from a dashboard. This enables quick team management for video assets, fostering easier collaboration toward video goals.

• What is an organization?
• Controlling permissions in an organization
• User permission levels
• How to manage user permissions
• Creating custom roles
• Custom role use cases

62% of employees use closed captions for work related video content, for a number of reasons other than hearing accessibility. In fact, only 5% of employees cite a hearing impairment as a reason to use captions. Additional reasons include convenience, watching videos with low or no volume, or non-native speakers needing assistance to understand the language spoken in the video.

Additionally, employees are 80% more likely to watch a video to completion when it is closed captioned. As a result, there is real value behind captioning video content and a driver for organizations looking to increase viewer engagement.

To address this, IBM is offering integrated live closed captioning for enterprises by combining IBM’s video streaming solutions with IBM Watson Captioning Live. Hosted entirely on the IBM Cloud, the integrated closed captioning software solution eliminates the need for hardware on location and makes it easy for businesses to quickly set up. It is security-rich and offers teams full ownership and control over their video content and metadata, as well as any internal usage metrics and training data. In addition, Watson Captioning Live offers secure, scalable, AI-driven live captions to any live stream. The solution, which currently captions for English language content, can be easily trained to recognize industry- and company-specific terminology and seamlessly integrates accurate live captions to live streaming content, connecting employees across the globe through engaging and accessible workplace video.

• How the integration works
• Viewing the live captions
• Importance of accessibility
• AI training
• Watson Captioning Live
• Use cases
• Enabling the integration

Live and on-demand video content can be a compelling medium. It can build excitement for product launches, engage employees with corporate communication or educate viewers around specific topics. Managing and updating a company’s video activities can therefore be crucial.

For those leveraging IBM’s video streaming solutions, an on-demand and live video manager dashboard is provided. Accessed online, this allows administrators and managers to quickly go live, edit video assets or control individual access levels.

This interface has been updated at IBM, streamlining management functions while also enhancing the ability to find and locate content channels available.

• Header: go live and change accounts
• Dashboard navigation
• Channel selector

Looking for an Android or iOS mobile video app SDK in order to develop custom applications for your company?

IBM offers the Video Streaming SDKs (software development kits) for Android, iOS, and macOS devices to enable enterprises creating their custom and personalized mobile broadcasting solution.

The SDKs provide features for mobile broadcasting and manage the complexities around video streaming, scaling and security. The solution is deeply integrated into the IBM Enterprise Video Streaming platform, helping companies to focus on their own business instead of dealing with the complexities of mobile broadcasting. 

These documented interfaces allow developers to bring the power of live video broadcasting into their business-specific custom workflows. The resulting applications are then used to enable employees, from executives to managers, to broadcast content internally using their mobile device after authenticating. Audiences can range from all-hands addresses to smaller departments.

IBM Watson Media, an IBM Business would like to announce new enhancements to the IBM Video Streaming service, including to the registration gate feature available through the IBM Video Streaming service, which will allow for users to have more privacy controls.

These include providing the link to a privacy policy along with a feature for users to opt out of the sale of their data when they provide personal information on the video registration gate.

Note: currently the opt-out feature is only available for viewers located in California, USA.

The use of video inside enterprises is on the rise. This rise is in proportion with the amount of content being created for corporate communications. As companies increasingly embrace video for internal communications, video assets are used more. In fact, at organizations that use video for online events more than 100 times annually 49% of their employees watch online video for business on a daily basis.

This presents an opportunity to engage employees at scale while at the same time breaking down geographic barriers that might have existed in the past in doing so. It also, however, presents a challenge in curating and maintaining this growing volume of content. While AI aspects have been introduced, automating both closed caption generation and fueling content discovery in place of manual metadata, there is still manual work to be done.

To address this, IBM Watson Media has introduced bulk features for account administrators and managers to take advantage of. This includes the ability to bulk video publish and label on-demand video content that has been added to an account among other bulk features.

• Bulk video publish and unpublish
• Add labels in bulk
• Copy videos in bulk
• Delete videos in bulk

Looking for a method to allow your viewers to slow down or speed up a video? IBM Watson Media is introducing a way for end users to control the playback speed of on-demand videos. This enables viewers to slow down the material, to savor moments or better comprehend segments, or speed up the material, for those looking to breeze through the video.

Read on to understand how users have access to this feature and what it allows them to do for on-demand content.

• Player speed control
• Responsive and mobile compatible
• Speed up video with closed captions
• Keyboard accessible

Need an accessible HTML5 video player? A player built with compliance in mind to broaden those who can watch video content?

IBM Watson Media has been making improvements to the existing video player around accessibility. This included re-evaluating keyboard controls, visual accessibility like font and indicators, along with many other aspects toward accessibility. As a result, the player now meets the IBM accessibility guidelines, as of version 7.0, along with the W3C WCAG 2.0 standards and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Application and Scoping Requirements. This article covers the various advancements and features found in the player toward making it accessible. Note that while it touches on captions, it won’t go into great depth. For more information on that topic, watch this webinar on How to Add Closed Captions Powered by IBM Watson.

• Keyboard accessible
• Screen reader support
• Visual accessibility
• Closed captions
• Disabled auto play
• HTML5 and browser accessibility