IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming vs Vzaar

Likelihood to Recommend

This software is ideal for any size church. The ability to purchase a modest number of viewer-hours per month for a reasonable cost (no-ads) is hugely important for non-profit organizations. Being able to live-stream, record and watch from the archives is also great. Finally, the chat room allows for a more interactive experience than traditional tv broadcasting.

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Beth Jinkerson

Webmaster

Highland View church of Christ (Volunteer)Religious Institutions, 1-10 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Lead generation

Video personalization

eCommerce

Support for advertisements

Video SEO

Integration to Marketing Automation

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Integration to Salesforce.com

Integration to LMS

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Video access controls

User management

Video link sharing

Internal video

External video

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Player customization

Embedded videos

Video quality / Bandwidth controls

Mobile compatibility

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

A/B testing

Streaming quality reports

Per viewer tracking

Per video tracking

Video analytics dashboard

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

On-Demand video

Live streaming

Impact of streaming on network

Video upload & format support

Video library / File management

Video portal

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Audience polling

Audience Q&A / Live chat

Video comments

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

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LeShawnda Fitzgerald

Founder

Ready For Spanish LLCE-Learning, 1-10 employees

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Cons

The user interface is pretty good, but it definitely needs some improvements to help organize videos better, and request online restoration of videos that have been taken offline.
As far as I can tell, new features haven't been added since UStream was acquired by IBM. It seems like development has been paused, or focused on back-end improvements that we as users simply don't see. Would like to see some new improvements being made, especially at this price point.
The mobile viewing window lacks options and cannot detect device orientation. So I embed a video on a page that I can publish through an app, but then the viewing window does not orient correctly, without some complicated JavaScript that I personally have to write. This is an example of a feature that IBM should make and have part of the viewer window platform. Mobile friendly is essential in this day and age.

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Derek Hoiem

CEO

Rain On Me ProductionsMedia Production, 1-10 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 8.9

Based on 8 answers

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

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Verified User

Strategist in Information Technology

Construction Company, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Usability

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 8.8

Based on 62 answers

Ustream has a very easy to use interface as well as multiple articles explain the methods and procedure involved in properly utilizing their services. This is very important to the house of worship market, as organizations like ours are often utilizing volunteer to help produce our content. While simple on the surface, the platform has great depth in its customization and tracking abilities. This allows a power user, such as myself, to dig deep beneath the surface of the main settings and create the streaming experience I want to showcase.

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Kevin Ford

Director of Audio Visual

Grace Community ChurchReligious Institutions, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Reliability and Availability

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 9.0

Based on 3 answers

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

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Verified User

Strategist in Information Technology

Construction Company, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 8.4

Based on 3 answers

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

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Verified User

Strategist in Information Technology

Construction Company, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 7.5

Based on 9 answers

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.

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Michael Coates

VP Technical Sales Strategy

N3Computer Software, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Implementation Rating

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 8.1

Based on 60 answers

Implementation is tough because there are so many different ways clients are expecting content to appear on their platforms. Ustream video embeds have been a good solution in areas where direct integrations are not available. But, this is an area for improvement in the case of LMS and marketing integrations. On the broadcast side, embed codes work well because we use them with CMS systems that provide their own library and user management.

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Cale J. Rogers

Digital Media Production Manager

Colorado State University - College of BusinessHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Alternatives Considered

When this project was evaluating streaming providers in 2013, Livestream was the closest to uStream in feature set. However, we found the packages that uStream provided were financially better considering the volume of customers who were going to stream our content. We also felt at the time that uStream had a superior API.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 1001-5000 employees

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No answers on this topic

Scalability

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming 8.1

Based on 3 answers

IBM global network.

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Michael Coates

VP Technical Sales Strategy

N3Computer Software, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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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.

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Michael Sharpe

Technology Committe Member

Vineville Baptist ChurchReligious Institutions, 11-50 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

—

Rating Summary

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

Vzaar

Likelihood to Recommend