Streaming Blog: Industry News, Trends & Tips

AI-generated Highlights Tell the Story of the Masters

Written by David Mowrey in AI Video Technology on 5 April 2019

The pursuit of excellence is as captivating as it is timeless. That’s why millions of people will turn their eyes to Augusta, Georgia, from April 11 – 14, as a field of elite competitors vie for one of golf’s most prestigious accolades – the Green Jacket awarded to the Masters 2019 champion.

For more than 20 years, IBM and Augusta National Golf Club have worked together to invite patrons around the world onto the sport’s most hallowed ground through innovative digital experiences. This partnership is rooted in each organization’s shared desire to preserve and expand golf’s most unique experience through advanced technology. From developing the event’s first website and mobile application to creating AI-generated highlights and analysis, IBM has used industry-leading solutions to present the pristine timelessness that is the Masters Tournament to millions of viewers around the world.

Enterprise Video Delivery Infrastructure: Security Considerations

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 28 March 2019

Looking for security consideration strategies related to enterprise video delivery? Curious at how to approach user roles inside an organization around managing video delivery?

Technology exists that can effectively scale video delivery from a global perspective through CDNs. In addition, solutions exist that can be deployed on location to reduce the network footprint of video content, mitigating strain that might be placed on the WAN (wide area network) from consumption. However, this technology, which includes monitoring and other capabilities, requires some form of management. With security being paramount for internal video content and maintaining network integrating, a question arises from how to approach access for this.

This article will cover a few best practices for managing security across an enterprise video delivery infrastructure. It also details some of the recent updates to the IBM ECDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network) solution. This includes important updates to how users interface with the portal, in particular the addition of user roles.

IBM Cloud Video is IBM Watson Media

Written by Anthony Romero in Company News on 25 February 2019

In an effort to provide all IBM video products and services under a single brand, as of 2019, all solutions formerly marketed under the name IBM Cloud Video are now part of the IBM Watson Media product family.

As a result, IBM’s video streaming services now fall directly under the IBM Watson Media umbrella, joining other already available solutions including IBM Watson Captioning, IBM Watson Video Enrichment and more.

Closed Captioning vs Subtitles

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 20 February 2019

Curious on adding text to your video content? Unsure on if you should do closed captions or subtitles, or even what the differences are between them? This article discusses what are subtitles and compares closed captioning vs subtitles to assist you on which to go with and why.

If you are curious on technology around automating closed caption generation, register for this How to Add Closed Captions Powered by IBM Watson webinar.

Advanced Imaging Society: Leadership Award 2018

Written by Anthony Romero in Company News on 25 January 2019

With 2018 behind us, one final accolade for the year was sent IBM Watson Media’s way. This was the Advanced Imaging Society: Leadership Award 2018. Read on to learn more about the award and the Advanced Imaging Society, including their mission.

Connect with IBM Watson Media at IBM Think 2019

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Company News on 17 January 2019

We are less than a month away from IBM Think 2019, February 12th – 15th, and now is a great time to make sure you get the most out of your time at the conference happening this year in San Francisco.

Closed Captioning Best Practices for State Governments

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 17 December 2018

State governments have a lot of opportunities around video content, and are taking advantage of it. Meetings, from committees to interim task force debriefings, can be streamed to expand reach and participation from communities on a broader level. However, when presenting this content, the question of accessibility comes into play, and with it the inclusion of closed captions.

Late in 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice was looking to revise the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II regulations. A possible outcome was to establish requirements for making services, programs or activities offered by state and local governments to the public via the Web accessible. The reason for this belief was that the 2010 update stated: “The Department intends to engage in additional rulemaking in the near future addressing accessibility in these areas and others, including next generation 9–1–1 and accessibility of Web sites operated by covered public entities and public accommodations.” However, this was not reflected in the 2016 update, putting an indeterminate timetable on captions possibly being required in the future. However, some states have already adopted regulations on their own requiring captions for online video on state web sites.

For those paving the path toward captioning now, before a requirement goes into law, this article presents closed captioning best practices for state governments. This entails formatting and judgement decisions, along with ways to scale the actual creation of captions as well for both live and on-demand content.

If you would like to learn more on this topic be sure to download this white paper on AI Closed Captioning Services for Local and State Governments as well.

IBM Named a Challenger: 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Video Content Management

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Company News on 4 December 2018

In 2016, shortly after its acquisition of Ustream, IBM was placed in the Niche Players quadrant. Fast forward two years, and we see IBM now placed in the Challengers quadrant and close to crossing over into the Leaders quadrant. We’re excited by our new positioning in the Magic Quadrant and recognition by Gartner for both ability to execute and completeness of vision.

IBM believes the improvement in overall placement is due to the company’s strong leadership in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to video solutions (such as integrating IBM Watson for automated captioning and video enrichment), successful global partner momentum, and significant enterprise video product enhancements.

Download a copy of the full report.

Enterprise Video Use Cases and Case Studies

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 3 December 2018

Out of 1,512 corporate executives, 81% describe online video as an effective tool for communicating work-related information. That’s an undeniable movement toward video within the enterprise… but what are they using it for? What manner is video being deployed that executives are seeing value in?

This article spotlights prominent enterprise video use cases to explore inside your own company. It also highlights major case studies for several of them for further inspiration.

If a downloadable version, focusing just on use cases, is preferred, download Using Video for Internal Corporate Communications, Training & Compliance white paper.

Multi-CDN Enhanced by Software Defined Delivery

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 28 November 2018

Interested in attracting huge audiences with your video content, be it a sports game or a large scale enterprise town hall? Worried about how a delivery infrastructure might handle it?

The live streaming market has continued to mature. We’ve come a long way from 1995 when RealNetworks streamed the first baseball game or when Seattle’s Paramount Theater placed the first symphony online. As that market has matured, the desire for improved performance has increased in tandem. One method of achieving that is moving beyond a single point of end viewer distribution. Rather than rely on a single network or CDN (content delivery network), organizations can achieve mass scale through utilizing a multi-CDN approach.

This article addresses the benefits of utilizing multiple CDNs for video delivery, use cases and discusses an enhanced software defined approach for improved delivery. If you want a deeper dive on this topic, download this Scaling Video Delivery to Reach Massive Audiences white paper.

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