Likelihood to Recommend The teacher uses IBM Video Streaming to record and upload instructional videos on various subjects, such as math problem-solving techniques or grammar lessons. Students watch these videos at home as homework and then apply what they've learned in class through collaborative projects and hands-on activities. This approach allows the teacher to spend more time providing individual support where needed.
Read full review JW Player has flexible plans that won't cost you a lot of money. If you are a startup, JW offers a variety of plans that will suit your specific needs and grow with you as your company grows. You do not need to be a video expert to understand how to upload a video, which allows nearly anyone in the office to do it.
Read full review Pros It allows us to stream without special equipment. We mainly use our phones. The quality of the videos is amazing and I love the fact that videos auto-save and you can download and edit them for later. The program allows you to create playlists so that we can stream on our online channel 24/7 Read full review Responsive HTML5 Provides share functionality built into the player Platform use enables playlist functionality and playlist players which can be customized or versioned for specific uses Videos uploaded to the JW Platform automatically provide multiple image frame options for selecting video thumbnail Read full review Cons Occasionally, we experience a form of static that lasts for about 1 to 2 minutes. It appears in the live stream and in the auto-recorded file, but not in the live worship assembly. It occurs roughly 1 in every 4 hours of webcast time. I wish there was a way to trace the source of that recurring static. The diagnostic tools could be more robust. It would be nice if the chat room allowed a user photo/avatar for each user to personalize that a little more. I have wished for a way that an admin could use a “laser pointer” on the video window to point out something on the feed that other live viewers could see. It would be wonderful to have a mini-tutorial for viewers who are not technically savvy that would inform them of how to get to the site and explain how they can use the software. For example, how they can see and type in the chat room, how to maximize the screen and make it smaller. Some of our viewers are in nursing homes or otherwise limited in capability to learn to use this on their own. Read full review Definitely missing the ability (in and easy way) to have clickable links in the video. Analytics is a little cumbersome and not very user-friendly. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Our organization depends heavily on this streaming service. Now that we have the option of allowing our clients to attend meetings virtually, we can never retract that option as so many of our clients love the flexibility. Also, we have no complaints with the service itself. It is reliable and dependable and any issues we have encountered have never been to blame on the service but rather our lack of knowledge of it or needing to update our embed code
Read full review Just made the decision to renew given demonstrated improvements being made to the platform to expand compatibility for its player use on devices such as Apple TV, as well as improvements made recently to its JW Platform Dashboard
Read full review Usability The user interface is pretty straightforward, but simply needs optimization. (Please hire a seasoned UX person to fix it.) However, all of the key features are there and understandable. It's a great platform overall, a bit expensive, and could use some more options for its viewing experience, and a better "smart" embedding window for mobile applications.
Read full review Reliability and compatibility on a majority of platforms. Would have received a 10 except recent versions of browsers such as Firefox are now defaulting against Flash components and thus prompting approval from users BEFORE loading which is a HUGE obstacle to an effective user experience thus creating concerns by end-users unnecessarily and risking that they will NOT accept the prompts, thus leaving unable to view video content hosted using the JW Player. Assurances by JW support suggest they will resolve this, so we'll see...
Read full review Reliability and Availability Absolutely. We have never had an outage problem or any application errors that I have been privy to. We are duly notified generally in advance of outages or updates
Read full review Performance As we use it now, we are satisfied with the streaming performance. I cannot speak to integration yet as we have yet to engage in that but have plans to in the future
Read full review Support Rating We funded 'white glove' service as our timelines were tight and our needs were well-defined. Tier 1 and Tier 2 support were able to help us get up and running in shorter order than we would have on our own. Documentation on the eCDN product had gaps, increasing the time to resolve and created concerns about success.
Read full review Support is reasonable. I from time to time have made suggestions on improvements that would be nice to see (like the ability to have a clickable link within the video - that is easy to create, without tons of coding) and it seems as though I never see it happen or get much response to "suggestions" to upgrade the software. The good news, other than a few things as I mentioned above, overall, I don't have many "technical issues" in the platform, which is a good thing. On occasion, I have seen some "issues" with the delivery of the video, but it has been pretty scarce. So it is dependable.
Read full review Implementation Rating Ustream is easy to implement. It takes any stream we have thrown its way and distributed it quickly and with quality. When talking to others that are pursuing live stream implementations, I often remind them that the technology used to distribute your live stream is less important than the quality of the content you are distributing. Taking care to use the right camera equipment, the proper encoder, and quality sound gear will result in a high-quality stream that will allow the strength of the Ustream CDN to shine.
Read full review One of the primary features promoted by JW Platform is its SEO definition. However, there did not seem to be a way to integrate that data to our platform if selected thus only leaving the benefits of that data to be established on the individual video page hosted by JW Platform, which isn't useful in the end to the client value we are trying to deliver for our
VideoproFile.net solution
Read full review Alternatives Considered Vimeo offers better tools for on-demand like chapters and marketing tools. But their live options are limited to event durations. YouTube can stream for longer durations but IBM 24/7 stream has been much more reliable and easy to use.
Read full review JW had more player options, a better/more intuitive user interface, was altogether faster both in rendering the uploaded videos and in time to load on the web page. The integration with
OpenX for pre-roll was faster and easier than with
Brightcove , and lastly, they offered a great price for service.
Jim Cairl Director, Online Advertising and Operations
Read full review Scalability IBM global network.
Read full review Return on Investment Our ROI is measured by the provision of ministry and satisfaction of our congregation. We are extremely pleased with our USTREAM and feel that it is a valuable asset to our church. Read full review JW Player has was less expensive (without sacrificing quality) than our previous video platform so the ROI was instant. We were easily able to add a variety of video advertising options including pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. The quality and consistancy of the look of the video has enabled us to grow our video views by well over 100% since starting with JW. Read full review ScreenShots IBM Video Streaming Screenshots