Ensemble Video vs. Streamable

One of the main reasons we were drawn to Ensemble Video was it's emphasis for supporting multimedia in higher learning environments. Unlimited user accounts, security features and the ease of use has made Ensemble Video an effective solution. Prior to Ensemble Video we tested free sites like YouTube and Vimeo. However they didn't have the privacy settings we needed, especially for our user contributed content, and things were not in a centralized location. This made it more difficult to support and troubleshoot with our students.

As a video agency founder, I've used several different video hosting platforms for both my clients and my own videos. Oftentimes, businesses just want a simple way to embed videos on their website. While they can use YouTube for free, they are stuck with a cluttered interface and related videos (sometimes even their competitors!) popping up on their videos. Other options like Vimeo or Wisitia are great, but for most businesses, they have too many features, and because of that, you are paying way more than what you actually need.
Streamable is extremely simple and fast. It checks all the boxes for what a business needs in a video hosting solution - privacy control, a simple clean embed, and the ability to replace videos without breaking links. And it's super affordable. Highly recommend Streamable!

• Ensemble is a really excellent video content management solution for organisations that want to deploy onsite, enjoy a perpetual license and all the features found in competitive products costing many times more.
• Ensemble does not try to be a monolithic application. Instead it leverages Sorenson Squeeze transcoder for ingest and Wowza's streaming media engine for playout. So it's pretty lightweight and is focused on content management tasks.

• Video Hosting
• Sharing Videos
• Video Management
• Download Videos From The Web

• There is one issue where sometimes the 'Add' button to add new media disappears, typically once per week. The workaround is to restart the physical server. While restarting the server each week can be a good thing, it would be nice not to have to keep a reminder on my calendar.

• More Detailed Analytics

The team at Ensemble Video is dedicated to supporting us and they offer prompt and reliable services.

Our campus has been using Ensemble Video since 2008. At the time we were unaware of Panopto or Kaltura, or other services. That said, I'm glad we picked Ensemble Video. Their team has been very supportive of us every step of the way. I'm not saying the other services would not be effective for our campus, but from what I've seen of those other services Ensemble best suits our needs and workflows.

Streamable is significantly cheaper than Vimeo and Wistia. Although Vimeo and Wistia have more features (like video marketing tools), for video hosting Streamable is the best bang for your buck. For the majority of small businesses Streamable is going to be the best solution for you

• ROI is sometimes tricky because systems, once implemented, are never welcomed by end users and thus, the ROI originally foreseen was more idealistic than real. Ensemble Video is almost universally well received by end users and thus, there is a real ROI that mostly relates to institutional effectiveness.

• Our video hosting costs are about 50% less than using Vimeo