Streaming Blog: Industry News, Trends & Tips

Cloud Video Editing and Chaptering

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 3 October 2018

Looking for cloud video editing capabilities? Tools that can let you trim content online while also looking into value adds like the ability to chapter content for better accessibility?

IBM Watson Media offers capabilities for content owners to modify videos, either uploaded or archived from previous live sessions, online. This is non-destructive, meaning changes can be reverted, and is collaborative as multiple managers and admins can utilize the same account to edit video content.

This article covers this feature set along with highlighting improvements that have been made, moving the technology to being HTML5 based. Also be sure to register for our Getting Started with Enterprise Video Management webinar as well, which will cover this and any additional improvements and features to the IBM Watson Media services.

Deploy ECDN through AT&T FlexWare

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 24 September 2018

Want to improve the end user experience while simultaneously removing strain on your site’s wide-area network?

Through using IBM Enterprise Content Delivery Network (ECDN) and AT&T FlexWare, companies will get a fully managed service for enabling delivery of streaming video within their enterprises. This encompasses reducing strain on the network for the main offices down to smaller locations to achieve a scalable streaming video solution.

This article covers what is ECDN technology, the benefits of it and why you should be using it with AT&T FlexWare. It also details how it works as part of the overall SD-CDN (Software Defined Content Delivery Network) process. To learn more about this, also download our SD-CDN: Scaling Video Delivery to Reach Massive Audiences white paper.

Salesforce Case Study Video: Broadcasting Dreamforce Online

Written by Anthony Romero in Customer Stories on 20 September 2018

The Salesforce platform provides users a 360 degree view of their customers, helping them connect and nurture relationships in a whole new way. An initiative at the company is Salesforce Live, which has webcasts, productions and events, including a live broadcast of Dreamforce.

Hosted in downtown San Francisco by Salesforce, Dreamforce is an annual, massively attended conference. Bringing together a mixture of thought leaders and professionals, the event has historically attracted over 170,000 people to attend. The focus of the show is often on keynote addresses, training sessions and networking events among many other activities that take place at the conference.

When it came to the topic of expanding the audience for the venue, online proved a natural fit. “Streaming is a huge part of Dreamforce, has been for many years,” said Michael Rivo, Business Director of Salesforce Live. “We put a big effort into driving large audiences for our Dreamforce broadcast. For the past several years we’ve had millions of viewers in real time watching the live stream of the broadcast.”

To help achieve this goal, the underlying technology had to be accessible and reliable while creating an overall high quality production for online viewers. For more information on the infrastructure used to support the large audiences, be sure to download this Live Video Delivery System Built for Scalability white paper as well.

CSI Awards 2018: Best Use of AI or Machine Learning in Video

Written by Anthony Romero in Company News on 17 September 2018

Artificial intelligence is transforming industries, increasing efficiency and improving our ability to manage complex issues. That technology also has many benefits within the video space, ranging from language processing to metadata management and enrichment.

As the market and technology continues to improve, those that are shaping it are being honored. This weekend, two of Watson Media’s video solutions were highlighted at the CSI Awards 2018. Announced in Amsterdam, IBM Watson Video Enrichment and IBM Watson Captioning and were cited as the ultimate winners for the “Best Use of AI or Machine Learning in Video” category. These solutions bring to market key advantages for tackling ongoing issues in the video space: the scalable generation of accurate closed captions and effective analyzation of large libraries of content.

Read on for more details on this technology and the awards themselves. For a greater elaboration of these concepts, also be sure to download our Uncovering Dark Video Data with AI white paper as well.

The Logistics of VOD and OTT Distribution

Written by Tom Ohanian in Tips & Tutorials on 12 September 2018

Whether content owner or service provider, the amount of time it takes to make content available in the required formats has consistently and significantly decreased. Today’s status quo is 24 hours or less for non-live broadcast offerings; however in many cases customers need it in less than six hours . This means that a finished “program” is transmitted via file-based terrestrial IP from a post house in Los Angeles to New York where it is then transcoded, packaged, and distributed. It’s not unusual for there to be 300 aggregation points (e.g. post houses and facilities from around the world), packaged into 150 different format permutations, and distributed to at least 100 worldwide partners.

This article talks about how to intelligently manage and distribute content to virtually any platform or screen—multiplied by the power of Watson. It includes an example around the logistics of VOD and OTT distribution and how it can function as part of a larger workflow as well. For more strategies and information around managing large libraries of content, also download this Video Metadata: Management and Tools white paper.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Taps IBM Watson Media to Automate Live Broadcast Closed Captions

Written by David Mowrey in Company News on 6 September 2018

This has been a big year for IBM Watson Media. Since launching a year ago, we’ve worked with the Grammy’s, FOX Sports and The World Cup, The Masters, and introduced a new product: Watson Captioning. A highly trainable, AI-powered offering, Watson Captioning provides broadcasters and publishers alike with a new tool to take closed captions to the next level. Today, we’re excited to kick off a new collaboration with Sinclair Broadcast Group that will roll out Watson Captioning to all of their local stations across the United States, making live programming more accessible to local viewers, including the Deaf community, senior citizens, and anyone experiencing hearing loss.

Television requirements for closed captioning were established in 1996, but more than two decades later, live captioning remains both challenging and labor-intensive for production teams to deliver in real time. As a result, breaking news, weather, and live sports segments often have delayed or incorrect captions, leading to a confusing and occasionally frustrating viewing experience. With our Watson Captioning technology, Sinclair will be able to improve caption accuracy, automate time-intensive manual processes, and reduce production costs, all while providing captions in real time at scale.

Pay-Per-View Video and Paywall Solutions

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 22 August 2018

Looking to monetize your video assets or live streams? Interested in pay-per-view (PPV)? Pay-per-view video and paywalls solutions offer content owners a method to create a revenue stream from live broadcasts or on-demand video libraries. This enables organizations to sell their content to viewers, having them pay to access content.

This article describes this process, talks about adding a paywall to your content, strategies and use cases for pay-per-view.

Want additional strategies on video monetization and also methods to reduce churn, increasing predictable revenue from your content? Also be sure to register for our How to Monetize Videos & Reduce Subscriber Churn webinar.

API: Training AI for Video Analysis & Caption Automation

Written by Anthony Romero in AI Video Technology on 15 August 2018

Curious on the artificial intelligence capabilities of the IBM Watson Media solutions for managing video content, but looking for a way to develop them into existing workflows?

APIs are available to integrate IBM Watson Video Enrichment and IBM Watson Captioning into other applications, such as existing dashboards and interfaces. This includes both generating metadata using the artificial intelligence and managing training the AI to be better attuned to a use case. In addition, the APIs are launching with new, additional features, some currently unavailable elsewhere.

If you are interested in putting these APIs to use, contact us to learn more.

Creating Lower Thirds for Live Video

Written by Anthony Romero in Tips & Tutorials on 9 August 2018

Creating Lower Thirds for Live Video

Need a guide for creating lower thirds for live video?

This article walks through, briefly, what are lowers thirds before discussing what makes a good lower third and use cases. It finishes off with instructions on adding a lower third to a live stream with instructions for several popular encoders.

Looking for some additional advice as part of your live streaming strategy? Download these 5 Pro Tips for Live Video Production.

Live Broadcast Closed Captioning from Watson Captioning

Written by Anthony Romero in AI Video Technology on 31 July 2018

Looking for live broadcast closed captioning solutions?

IBM Watson Captioning offers a service for broadcast television to caption their live content. This uses a combination of artificial intelligence in the cloud and hardware on location. For the on-premise component, the Watson Live Captioning RS-160 is hardware created specifically for this use case by the Weather Company to complement the Captioning service. For accuracy, the AI can be trained in advance, expanding both vocabulary and relevant, hyper-localized context through providing corpus.

This delivers a solution that can not only be highly accurate, but one that is both scalable and built for high availability.

To learn more about automatic closed captioning, register for our Auto Closed Captions and AI Training webinar.

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