CloudFront is the content delivery network (CDN) from Amazon Web Services.
$0.02
IBM Video Streaming
Score 8.6 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
IBM Video Streaming solutions are used to stream virtual events, executive town halls, video marketing product launches, and 24-hour streaming channels. According to IBM, the solution is built for privacy, reliability and scale, to optimize video quality, and powered by IBM Watson AI for video search and automated closed captioning. IBM Enterprise Video Streaming can power security-rich video communications ranging from employee town halls, to…
$137
per month 100 viewer hours
Pricing
Amazon CloudFront
IBM Video Streaming
Editions & Modules
Over 5PB
$0.02
Next 524TB
$0.03
Next 4PB
$0.03
Next 350TB
$0.04
Next 100TB
$0.06
Next 40TB
$0.08
First 10TB
$0.09
Silver
$137
per month 100 viewer hours
Gold
$688
per month 2,000 viewer hours
Platinum
$1380
per month 5,000 viewer hours
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon CloudFront
IBM Video Streaming
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
—
Video Streaming edition is available for purchase via credit card online (or via IBM salesperson if needs exceed those outlined in the online plans).
Enterprise Video Streaming edition must be purchased from an IBM salesperson.
Amazon CloudFront is the perfect solution for any type of company. If a company is small or medium size, CloudFront offers 1 TB monthly free bandwidth which is more than for any small and medium size companies. If we compare the speed of CloudFront with other CDN, CloudFront is way ahead of their competitors and with 1 TB free bandwidth. If someone is ready to invest time in CloudFront documentation then he/she definitely go for it.
Very limited customization features. Permissions are a mess too if you want to have people assigned as chat moderators for events for instance, but dont want them access to the admin panel. The quality of the broadcast and live captions work well, but they charge extra for live captions. For operating a video on demand site, the design of the page is really poor and limited on customization. Been a user for years and seen almost no new innovation on the platform which has been disappointing. The metrics are a mess on the user panels too. They do provide an api link for your external metrics and/or data dumps for using something like tableau, but that features not really something to write home about and a rather basic offering. This is an expensive platform with limited options and an outdated style unfortunately. We have been getting by for our uses but there's nothing really keeping us with IBM if another platform offering came around
if a website’s static data are based in New York City, people in Boston will get the content faster than people in San Francisco or Tokyo. The farther away customers are from a company’s data center, the slower the website or application loads. This problem can be fixed with a content delivery network like Amazon CloudFront
When a visitor requests a file from your website, Amazon CloudFront automatically sends the request to a copy of the file at the nearest edge location. This results in faster download times.
You may have great hosting but it doesn’t have the capacity or scalability offered by Google, Microsoft or Yahoo. The better CDNs like Amazon CloudFront offer higher availability, lower network latency and lower packet loss.
Amazon CloudFront provides 24/7 email and phone support
Amazon CloudFront Free Tier allows you to free up to 50 GB of data transfer and 2,000,000 HTTP and HTTPS requests / month for one year.
IBM Video Streaming allows for the integration of interactive elements into video content, such as quizzes, polls, and live Q&A sessions. This can make learning more engaging for young students by making it interactive and fun, thus increasing their attention and participation.
Teachers in a K-5 setting can access and share professional development materials and teaching resources through the platform. This can help them stay updated on the best practices for early childhood education, innovative teaching methods, and subject-specific strategies, ultimately benefiting their students.
IBM Video Streaming provides the capability for teachers to create a library of on-demand educational videos. This is particularly useful for young learners who may need to revisit concepts multiple times to fully understand them. It also supports differentiated learning by allowing students to learn at their own pace.
Young students often benefit from visual aids in their learning process. IBM Video Streaming can deliver high-quality video content that includes animations, demonstrations, and visual explanations of concepts. This can be particularly effective in subjects like science, math, and reading, where visualizations can enhance understanding.
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.
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
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.
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
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
CloudFront is a good CDN solution. It can be a bit complicated to implement depending on your needs, but AWS tech support is great. You get to avoid a ton of upfront costs by going with CloudFront. It works best in conjunction with other AWS services in your infrastructure. Once you set it up, you won't need to do much to maintain it. It just works.
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.
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.
Amazon has always been creative and leading, and I have been using its services for years. They are very reassuring and have fast and responsive support--you can call them from any time zone to respond quickly. High security on servers, open hands on changes, and increasing and decreasing server resources and features.
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.
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.
