Streaming Blog: Industry News, Trends & Tips

Live Video Streaming Statistics: Internal Communication in Numbers

Written by András Balogh in Video Trends & Studies on 18 June 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic developed, and with it the need to social distance, our IBM Enterprise Video Streaming customers moved more and more of their communication online. As a video streaming provider focused on helping customers share communications securely, IBM was at the forefront of these changes. We provide a solution for remote communication needs, such as training classes, company-wide broadcasts, executive town halls, digital events and virtual conferences. For example, we provided the streaming solution for the extremely successful two-day IBM Think 2020 Digital conference, leveraging the security rich aspects of the platform.

The need to social distance, work remotely and the cancellation of many in-person events has impacted how video streaming is being used today. For this report we gathered live video streaming statistics on how our clients use the IBM Enterprise Video Streaming solution for internal communication (i.e., employee communication). This covers data points like the frequency of live streaming, content length and information around viewership. The data is intended to help you formulate your own plan relating to your corporate communications.

Note: to avoid test broadcasts from being factored into the results, live streams with less than 10 viewers were removed from this study. Also, this data only focuses on live authenticated viewers and does not account for additional viewership or time spent on content from on-demand viewing of the same session.

MER Conference™ Case Study: Rapid Pivot to Digital Event

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on 11 June 2020

What do you do when you are on track for over 300 people registering to attend, 10 sponsors setup to exhibit, nearly 100 speakers committed to present… and 6 weeks before the event you learn all of these people now can’t leave their homes?

For the MER Conference, the solution was to quickly pivot to a digital experience; one that could engage audiences remotely while placing them in front of experts and thought leaders. This case study outlines their transitional story, of shifting the conference, in just 6 weeks, to the new format. In the end, the team executed a seamless digital event experience and achieved an increase in year over year registrations by about 45%. Here’s how they did it.

Live Stream Conferences: Digital Events and Hybrid Event Models

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Tips & Tutorials on 8 June 2020

Have you transitioned an in-person conference or event recently to an all-digital experience? Before COVID-19, many businesses focused on in-person opportunities to drive engagement. But once event cancellations started happening rapidly due to the need to social distance and related restrictions, businesses across virtually all industries were forced to take a very close look at how they could quickly pivot their efforts to digital.

This blog outlines some key insights from the last few months of activity in creating digital events. It details how IBM Watson Media has been able to help many clients with these efforts to live stream conferences, including our own IBM Think Digital event, providing considerations for your own virtual conference.

Permalinks: Creating Vanity URLs for Videos

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 2 June 2020

Looking to customize your video URLs? Want to setup a static link that can be updated with new videos without having to notify others or replace embed codes?

This article walks through creating vanity URLs for videos through a new permalink feature for IBM Video Streaming. When setup, a custom ending for the URL is created, featuring the name of the content or any other desired name. In addition, content creators and organizations can use this feature to swap videos tied to a permalink. This will automatically swap the video content featured across embed codes and shared links that use that permalink.

Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg Case Study

Written by Anthony Romero in Customer Stories on 27 May 2020

Pivoting in-person events to digital experiences in three weeks time

COVID-19 caused companies to pivot toward new digital solutions to do business. These practices are ones that must stand up to remote working and restrictions on travel and lockdown facilities.

What do you do, though, when your organization focuses on community and building a strong network of companies through in-person events?

For Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, they innovated by adopting a digital strategy through technology from IBM. This was done with an eye on speed: quickly being able to introduce video streaming to their community to keep them engaged from earlier events while reaping success through greatly expanding their reach.

Convert Video Speech to Text with Watson

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 22 May 2020

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.

Benefits of Live Streaming Webex Meetings to Large Audiences

Written by Chris Zaloumis in Tips & Tutorials on 15 May 2020

Looking to stream to a large audience but want to use a familiar program? Are you looking to have event presenters use Webex from home? Have you exceeded your limit on the number of people who can connect to your Webex session?

Through an integration between IBM and Cisco, Webex Meetings or Events can be used to reliably live stream to massive audiences. This includes a host of benefits, from ease-of-use to AI-driven features, and is currently part of an extended free access trial due to the current global crisis.

IBM Watson Media Integration for FileNet

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 28 April 2020

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.

Manage Video Platform User Permissions

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 27 April 2020

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.

Integrated Live Closed Captioning for Enterprises

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 8 April 2020

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 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.

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