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IBM Video Streaming

IBM Video Streaming

Overview

What is IBM Video Streaming?

IBM Video Streaming solutions are used to stream virtual events, executive town halls, video marketing product launches, and OTT streaming. According to IBM, the solution is built for privacy, reliability and scale, to optimize video quality, and powered by IBM…

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Recent Reviews

IBM Video Streaming

10 out of 10
February 12, 2024
Incentivized
IBM Video Streaming has proven to be an invaluable tool in our K-12 school district, significantly enhancing educational delivery, …
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Thanks IBM

9 out of 10
November 07, 2020
We used it for a 2-hour premier of a movie and a zoom Q&A panel to major healthcare institutions around the country. We were looking for a …
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IBM Watson Review

8 out of 10
November 08, 2019
Incentivized
It is used across the whole organization to help my clients to watch interviews remotely whenever they cannot join in person at our …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 31 features
  • Video link sharing (93)
    10.0
    100%
  • Live streaming (95)
    9.0
    90%
  • Video quality / Bandwidth controls (92)
    9.0
    90%
  • Mobile compatibility (87)
    9.0
    90%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is IBM Video Streaming?

IBM Video Streaming solutions are used to stream virtual events, executive town halls, video marketing product launches, and OTT streaming. According to IBM, the solution is built for privacy, reliability and scale, to optimize video quality, and powered by IBM Watson AI for video…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.ibm.com/products/video…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

What is Vimeo?

Vimeo is a video experience platform. They enable anyone to create high-quality video experiences to connect and bring ideas to life. They proudly serve their growing community of nearly 300 million users — from creative storytellers to globally distributed teams at the world's largest companies.

What is Gumlet?

Gumlet is a video hosting platform used to upload, optimize, and stream videos, offering detailed video analytics.Gumlet simplifies the video workflow from upload to analytics, and can be used to control every aspect of the end-user streaming experience while running the streaming pipeline on…

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Features

Video Marketing

Features related to using video marketing content, as well as marketing videos themselves.

6.1
Avg 7.2

Video Platform Integrations

Integrations between the enterprise video platform and other business applications.

7.6
Avg 6.3

Video Security

Features related to the security of an organization's content stored on an enterprise video platform.

9
Avg 8.7

Video Player

Features that support playing and watching video content that is hosted on the enterprise video platform.

7.8
Avg 8.4

Video Analytics

Features related to collecting and analyzing data around video streaming quality, viewer behavior, etc.

8.2
Avg 7.5

Video Hosting, Management & Storage

Features related to hosting, managing, and storing video content.

9
Avg 8.5

Video Engagement

Features to engage viewers around video content, particularly for live streams.

9
Avg 8.0
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Product Details

What is IBM Video Streaming?

IBM Video Streaming solutions are used to stream virtual events, executive town halls, video marketing product launches, and OTT streaming. 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 trainings and department meetings, to digital events – boosting engagement from virtually anywhere. This cloud-based solution includes AI-driven deep search and the ability to track usage down to the individual user level with metrics as detailed as when content was accessed, device information, geographic location of the viewer and completion percentage.

https://ibm.biz/Video_Streaming_product_page


IBM Video Streaming Features

Video Marketing Features

  • Supported: Lead generation
  • Supported: Video personalization
  • Supported: Audience for distribution
  • Supported: eCommerce
  • Supported: Support for advertisements
  • Supported: Video SEO

Video Security Features

  • Supported: Video access controls
  • Supported: User management
  • Supported: SSO support
  • Supported: Password protection
  • Supported: Video link sharing
  • Supported: Embed restrictions
  • Supported: Internal video
  • Supported: External video

Video Player Features

  • Supported: Player customization
  • Supported: Embedded videos
  • Supported: Video quality / Bandwidth controls
  • Supported: Mobile compatibility

Video Analytics Features

  • Supported: Streaming quality reports
  • Supported: Per viewer tracking
  • Supported: Per video tracking
  • Supported: Video analytics dashboard

Video Hosting, Management & Storage Features

  • Supported: On-Demand video
  • Supported: Live streaming
  • Supported: Impact of streaming on network
  • Supported: Video upload & format support
  • Supported: Video library / File management
  • Supported: Video portal
  • Supported: Video downloads
  • Supported: Video editing
  • Supported: High definition support
  • Supported: Closed captioning / Transcription

Video Engagement Features

  • Supported: Audience polling
  • Supported: Audience Q&A / Live chat
  • Supported: Video comments

Additional Features

  • Supported: Scalability
  • Supported: Enterprise Security
  • Supported: Quality of Service
  • Supported: Integrated Content Management
  • Supported: Multi-CDN Delivery via SD-CDN
  • Supported: Cloud-based Transcoding
  • Supported: Social Sharing with Facebook and Twitter Integration
  • Supported: Integrated Chat
  • Supported: Live Analytics Dashboard
  • Supported: Auto-Recording
  • Supported: Custom Branding
  • Supported: Lead Capture
  • Supported: Live Playlists
  • Supported: Support for Professional Encoding/Production Gear
  • Supported: Enterprise Support Plans
  • Supported: Managed Event and Production Services
  • Supported: Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN)

IBM Video Streaming Screenshots

Screenshot of the viewer's portal experience (channel page).Screenshot of how the automatically generated closed captions can be edited if necessary.Screenshot of the Analytics Console.Screenshot of the Watson Media CMSScreenshot of the viewer's portal experience (channel page).

IBM Video Streaming Videos

IBM Video Streaming Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Mobile Web

Frequently Asked Questions

Kaltura, Dalet Flex, and Vidyard are common alternatives for IBM Video Streaming.

Reviewers rate Video personalization and Video link sharing highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of IBM Video Streaming are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).

IBM Video Streaming Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)15%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)50%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)35%
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(206)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 66)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
March 24, 2024

24/7 IBM YMMD

Cale J. Rogers | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use IBM Video Ustream to provide 24/7 live streams of CTV Channel 11 video broadcasts and KCSU audio broadcasts. CTV also relies on Ustream on demand video features and storage to deliver show content and other videos to online audiences.
  • Ustream is easy to deploy and manage in 24/7 video streaming scenarios. The analytics module has been helpful to provide feedback to sales and marketing teams about the success of event campaigns. The live content works everywhere with no interruptions and we have received a lot of positive feedback from viewers about there hight quality of the video playback.
  • Offline playlists are a powerful and unique feature of the Ustream platform. When our headend is down, we love the fact that Ustream continues playback of programmed content to keep viewers engaged until while we work on returning service. This workflow also works well to support one-time live events such as pre-game shows.
  • Channel management is easy and offers a lot of powerful options. After the success of the 24/7 CTV live video broadcast, the station manager for KCSU wanted to set up a live video broadcast DJ channel. I was able to set up a new channel and configure a camera encoder in the booth in less than a day.
  • Live chat and social stream interactions are also a helpful feature. I have worked with our academic program managers to provide live feedback from online students during lesson events. Providing support for both broadcast and classroom needs speaks to the flexibility of the platform.
  • Ustream is simple to manage, but I would like to see improved user data management. It would be great to allow users to sign up for premium features (such as chat or other services) so we can get a better idea of who's watching. It would also be handy to manage analytics as "event data sets." For example, a live event would include a data set. Then when the event is used for on demand purposes, a separate data set would be created. This way, I can isolate data sets without concerns over deleting anything or including erroneous outliers.
  • Another feature I'd like to see is an option for adding "content resources" that can be included with the video player embed. This would help in situations where I want to deliver an audio version of the content, expand a description of the content (in the form of a simple paragraph or mini-blog entry), or just add additional files that users can download and print to use along with the video.
  • I would also like see poll and quizzing options. This would probably work best with a registration system to keep track of specific interaction. Interacting with the audience is key to building better viewing habits and understanding who's watching and why.
IBM Cloud Video (including Ustream) is a highly versatile and easy to manage cloud video platform. It's well designed to support live event programs and 24/7 video broadcasting in a channel format. The platform is also a robust video-on-demand tool, especially in post-live situations. It's also well suited for multi-user environments in which some clients only require a handful of features and others need all the bells and whistles.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming is excellent for broadcasting video behind a gate while also providing smooth functionality. It offers many customizable features for various needs within our organization and for providing informational videos to our audiences.

The off-air feature allows for select videos to play prior to scheduled broadcasts--essentially, it allows for teasers/trailers to play before the actual featured videos. This proved extremely useful for our organization to provide a looping informational trailer before we launched our scheduled programming.

In addition, the live feature integration is phenomenal. The platform integrates with Zoom and this feature takes precedence over scheduled playlists which is a exceptional aspect because the user has the ability to schedule transition videos of specific slides that will be interrupted when those on the Zoom side are ready to go live. My organization used this for a live Q and A session to further engage the community and spread awareness of a lesser known form of dementia.

Finally, the support team was beyond responsive and accommodating. Any and all questions we had with setting up the platform, hammering out the details, and configuring the videos to run smoothly were addressed by the communicative and attentive IBM support team.

Overall, this is an incredibly advanced and feature-packed platform that would serve any and all video requirements an organization may need. It is well worth the investment and I highly recommend it.
  • Video scheduling
  • Integration with live platforms like Zoom
  • Off-air video capabilities for trailers and informative pre-feature clips
  • Use of Q & A/chat box for delivering messages to panelists in external platforms like Zoom
  • Superb technical support services
  • It isn't always user-friendly or straightforward, but the technical support team will assist in any way they can to walk users through the platform.
Best for
  • Pre-taped/scheduled videos
  • Providing access to specific video content over a certain period of time (e.g., limiting access to a video for a week or a month)
  • Provides gated features so access to content can be restricted or emails/viewer information can be collected.
  • Extensive metrics to determine video reach/viewership, which proves great for reporting to marketing departments.
Not best for
  • Videos you do not mind having available anytime
  • A library of content that you do not wish to place behind an access gate
  • One area of improvement on the platform is the ability to customize confirmation email send outs to video registrants.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I manage live streaming for our university’s central communications office. I’ve used Ustream/IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming to centralize the streaming of major university events to one channel. I’ve also helped our smaller division set up their own channels for their events.

[Updated review on 10/2020: I decided to update this review after IBM stripped one more piece of useful functionality (a simple YouTube integration) without notice this week, and after many months of glitches in their web CMS and cloud platform. We have been a "metal plan" (self-serve) customer for years, and unfortunately, I can no longer recommend this product that deliver excellent performance for a good price. The price now is too high for what it currently delivers, relative to market peers. Save your money and look elsewhere if you're budget is below $20K per year for a live/VOD platform for your company.]
  • Rock-solid performance [updated review on 10/2020: not as reliable as 12 months ago]
  • Good video management system back-end [updated review on 10/2020: glitchy, waning engineering support]
  • Easy for non-technical users to grasp quickly
  • Invoicing - would like to see email notification/automation [updated review on 10/2020: Improved - of course, because it helps them collect $]
  • Updated templates for embedding channels on web pages [updated review on 10/2020: No major changes]
  • Beefing up event notification and functionality and subscription opportunities (this was stripped away earlier) [Updated review on 10/2020: Nothing new here]
Very solid performance. Friendly, supportive and responsive customer support. Great job to those on the front lines. You’ve kept me from canceling a few times in the past!

[updated review on 10/2020: IBM has very solid streaming infrastructure in place, and a live stream very seldom has any issues. But many other aspects of their streaming service has had significant glitches recently. If you're a "whale" customer looking to spend $50K a year or more on streaming, IBM may serve you well. But if you're a small to medium-sized business who wants to significantly over-pay for IBM Video's so-called self-serve, or "metal" plans, you will find great customer support but significantly lacking engineering support and product management. You could probably get a much better deal with Vimeo and other vendors in the sub-$15K annual range.]
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Ustream to live stream research sessions to clients that can't attend. We give clients a URL an unique password.
  • Reliable service - we hardly ever run into technical difficulties
  • The back end is rather complex and has lots of unnecessary sections. It is not intuitive.
The service itself is very well suited to quickly setting up streaming for clients. however, the tech support is almost non-existent, and the help desk team do not read emails properly, so if you ever run into a technical issue, or an issue with your account, you won't be able to get it resolved easily.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Livestreaming all school events from concerts to sports
  • high-definition video
  • graphic capabilities
  • multiple channels for streaming
  • titling capabilities
  • preset keying options
  • I initially saw dropped broadcasts due to usb conflicts with different accepted video mixers--this could have also been due to mixer/computer incompatibility.
  • A handier GUI for audio instead of adjusting audio going to the audio window separately
  • Some preset titling revealers for sports livestreaming would be helpful.
  • An ability to link with existing scoreboards for livestreaming
It is most likely suited for accepting input from any mixer and showing those cameras. I have not seen how well it is able to represent multiple cameras within mixers or if that is even possible. I do like the virtual display capability for separate monitors--I cannot vouch for how easy that is to set up.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use video streaming for the online classes that we offer as part of our Master of Biblical Studies curriculum. Our online students can watch the classes live, or they can watch a recording of the class at their earliest convenience. We connect two IP address cameras to the video streaming platform (one on the students and one on the professors), and we control the cameras with an iPad. We also connect to the professor's computer as a Remote Desktop (3rd camera) to show PPT slides that he is showing to the class.
  • The streaming platform is easy to navigate from the back end. It does not take extensive training for someone to step in as a video live stream producer.
  • I like the functionality to create numerous channels to stream and host varying content.
  • Although the platform has the capability to produce a complicated stream with a lot of moving parts, it is also user-friendly enough for an iPhone user to set up a simple stream on his or her phone very easily.
  • When using a Remote Desktop source, it is very hard to connect the computer's audio to the stream. It has never worked well for us. And we have often had to use the audio from the room itself as opposed to directly from the computer.
  • The chat feature can be more natively integrated into the video source (chats could be overlayed on the video itself as opposed to the side). It would make the interaction more prominent.
  • The video editor could be significantly improved. It would be nice to be able to clip more than just the beginning and the end of a recorded video (i.e. if you want to clip a 10 second section from the middle of the video, you need to export the entire recording, import the file into a video editor, edit the video there, export the video out of the video editor, and then import the new file back into the Ustream channel).
It's better for a recording scenario than it is for a live scenario when you want rich and timely interaction. Because of the 20 second delay between what is live and what the UStream end-user is seeing, it makes meaningful interaction not as seamless as you would want it to be.
Joshua Iley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an Audio Visual Event services provider, we use IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming for all of our live streaming needs for various clients. There are several factors that we feel make IBM's service the leading choice, including it having a rich, customizable interface, multiple channels, security features. Using the service with multiple corporate clients allows us to offer a customized solution for different clients, while keeping a uniform interface for our technical specialists.
  • Channels - Having a channel that can be customized, and having a single link that can be shared before the event without having to update links to attendees is key. Attendees then being able to access the same link to view past broadcasts is important.
  • Security - Password protection on a channel is great for those looking to have limited access or monetize a stream.
  • Having separate Q&A and chat windows is great. Some events use one or the other, or both.
  • Increased security - I would love to have channels be inaccessible to searches on the website, but still accessible via private link.
  • A separate mobile app that presenters could use just for the Q&A and Chat module would be fantastic.
  • Support for multiple hardware encoders so there could be a failover.
IBM Watson is perfect for webcasts, especially in a corporate environment. It is not well suited for 2 or 3-way web conference-style communication.
Beth Jinkerson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My church uses IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming to webcast all public assemblies for Bible study and worship of the church that meets at 138 Providence Road in Oak Ridge TN. We are a congregation of about 145 members drawn from Oak Ridge, Clinton, and Knoxville and surrounding rural areas. The webcast serves members who are homebound or otherwise unable to attend in person. We also make the assemblies available to interested people around the world.

IBM’s video streaming service is cost-effective for us since we are such a small congregation. We are able to use open-source free products to support our video stream, making this a uniquely accessible approach to a service that is of primary importance to our mission statement.
  • This service allows multiple viewers to either set up a free, ongoing account or watch anonymously without getting an account.
  • Whether or not the viewer logs into an account or views anonymously, they can participate in the chat room, another feature of IBM’s software. Here, one can ask questions, make comments, and ask for technical support. Our webcasting team also uses this chat room feature to manage/test technical details related to webcast quality and other specific settings for the stream (I.e., sound, image, camera focus, etc.).
  • The ability to auto-record is another useful feature for us. The company offers a generous 1000 hours of recorded content per month, which is more than enough for our roughly 4 hours of streaming per week on average. This makes it possible to save an entire year of worship and study time for playback.
  • 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.
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.
Eli Garfinkel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the IBM Streaming platform annually to provide a way for sick or incapacitated members of our congregation to see and hear our High Holy Day services in the fall. Our health-challenged congregants appreciate this service, as it allows them to feel like a part of our community even though they can’t physically attend. The service also helps those who find themselves out-of-town during the holidays.
  • It makes video streaming extremely simple. Anyone with basic computer skills can set it up.
  • It is very reasonably priced and the service is much more reliable than free options.
  • The quality is good.
  • A few have complained about the audio quality, but I am not sure that this is an IBM Watson issue. It may be a microphone problem or an issue with users' speakers.
  • I would like the system to be more compatible with Chromebooks. The audio was unacceptable when I used my Chromebook for live streaming, but good when I used my Mac.
  • I'd like the silver plan to include more user hours.
Whenever you need reliable, reasonably priced live streaming, IBM Watson is your answer! It's very good for places that don't have expensive cameras and large technology budgets. I like that I can "set and forget" it; we're not allowed to fiddle with technology during the holiday, so it's very important that our streaming service works reliably.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the streaming service to live stream events and AGMs to remote audiences. We often get asked if there are registration stats or viewer stats. However, the options offered on the platform is limited. The service gives us an easy platform to stream via RTMP that has an embedded player.
  • Easy to set up
  • Easy to customize, although there are very few options.
  • The player is simple for the audience to operate
  • Stream from the webcam through the browser is a great function, although we don't use it.
  • It means your platform can be used with professional cameras with nothing but a BLACKMAGIC web presenter or a BLACKMAGIC ATEM Mini, both of which are cheap and affordable.
  • Limited stats
  • No registration options
  • Vimeo is not as "well known" as other platforms
Suitable for:
Livestreamed events
Anything that needs a "white label" player embedded.
Large audiences.

Not suitible for:
AGMs, stock holder meetings or anything that requires stats or registration and automatic reminder emails for attendees, Check the webinar add on on zoom.us, this service provides all this but the video quality and requirement to download their program is confusing and annoying to attendees.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for our annual conference, which takes place once a year. We live stream the sessions over a 4 day period. It gives us the ability to allow anyone to view our broadcast (with the link). Also, nice to allow comment streams.
  • Once set up, very easy to start/stop streams
  • Review saves streams, editing information
  • Sharing saved streams with others
  • Easy way to save streams and download later
  • I do not like the free version going away. It allowed us to keep streams available when we aren't live streaming (once a year).
  • Allow editing of multiple stream information (like the name).
Well suited for larger events where you don't know your target audience's availability to social media or their experience. Give them a link and they view. Also, they can go back and watch previous streams all in one place.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, it is used to stream externally to our "customers". It is used in a house of worship, so we stream our worship services out to our congregation. This allows people who can't attend in person to feel connected to their community. It has also extended our reach into two retirement communities allowing them to age gracefully.
  • It just works!
  • Reliable.
  • Handles different devices, formats and bit rates automatically.
  • Support isn't all that helpful.
  • The online interface is lacking, hasn't changed much in 9 years.
  • No HLS ingest or other ultra low latency options.
Well suited: Small business without video experts or development team. Set it up, forget it, it just works for basic needs. Basic HTML embeds integration like websites.

Less appropriate: large streaming events (10k+ viewers), where analytics are core to your measurement of success. ULL streaming situations. I'm not aware of native app player support.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We livestream a range of events, from our graduation ceremony to live Q & As. Essentially livestreaming gives us wider access to our stakeholders, be it colleagues, families of our students, prospective students or current students themselves.
  • Storage of footage is excellent, clear and easily managed.
  • Syncing to our streaming system is easy.
  • Reliability is always good.
  • The preview functionality of saved footage can be very laggy.
It suits a lot of our streaming in regards to having chat functionality and also as a lot of streams are to education establishments it is often much more user friendly in comparison to more social channels like youtube or facebook in regard to accessing whilst on site. To clarify, YouTube and Facebook are blocked on a lot of school's ICT systems so they struggle to access content on there, Ustream/IBM Watson always works.
Johnny Ringo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We live stream our women's wrestling matches to audiences that pay for it.
  • Customer Service
  • Platform is easy to understand
  • Lower price
The pages between the Ustream and IBM platform still even confuses me. Thankfully, I have the login page on my computer, but it's not always easy to find. One simple unified login page would probably be best if you have not went this way already. My primary thing is price. $99 per month for basic is probably still high, so I will most likely shop around for the best price. Perhaps if you are not using premium features like overlays and some of the other bells whistles, you could break things up into a more basic package, say $19 or $29 per month.
October 04, 2019

Pretty good product.

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We stream our weekly services.
  • Stores media
  • Transfers to Youtube
  • Download capability
  • Support
  • Too Expensive
  • Downloads take too long.
You can get the same service with Youtube for free. Editing video is tedious and time consuming.
Sound quality could be improved. The service is mostly plug and play. When data limits are reached streaming shuts off. Users need basic understanding of editing. Could use more tutorials. Changing text is not intuitive. Menus options could be clearer.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Each week we livestream our Sunday service to viewers who are unable to attend in person, including a number who don't even live in our area.
  • The streaming service is relatively easy to set up and is reliable.
  • For those occasional weeks when we lose our internet connection, I appreciate the ability to upload our locally saved version of the video so our regular watchers can still access a video via the IBM site.
  • In past years we've had occasional interruptions in our livestream (that weren't directly attributable to our local internet connection), but the reliability has improved over the last year or so.
  • Some weeks I need to download the livestream video for our local archive. This process takes much longer than I would expect (multiple hours before the video is available for download).
  • While this product offers many features for editing and promoting our videos, we do not use those services and will likely research less expensive options for our limited needs.
This product would be well suited for organizations that have multiple videos to manage, edit and promote, but not necessarily cost-effective for smaller organizations that manage fewer videos.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Its being used by all departments. It provides great search-ability functions that are highly utilized. It is an excellent tool to provide all staff and the public access to council meeting livestreams and minutes that has an excellent timestamp feature that saves a lot of staff time when reviewing previous council decisions.
  • Time stamp feature - saves time during review
  • Split screen view - great feature that shows the minutes or the agenda in a split screen view with the livestream video
  • Easy to schedule live stream events - one click on the agenda build page schedules an event in YouTube
  • It would be great to have the ability to pause the livestream event and then resume again. Currently you can only start/stop the event on YouTube.
  • The 'show video' tab for entering time stamps on the minutes page would be more user-friendly if the video window was larger. Currently it either a very small window that is un-scaleable, or full screen mode.
  • A default option to always have the 'show timestamps' button clicked for every set of minutes, so the user doesn't have to remember to click that option every time minutes are done.
Well suited for organizations that often refer back to the minutes and livestream for reference, who do more than one meeting per month, and who need to provide the public with access to their minutes and meeting videos.
September 26, 2019

School Broadcast

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We stream our morning announcements to 480 students and 60 staff members.
  • Stable connection.
  • Simple management controls.
  • Great customer service.
  • Easy editing.
  • Ability to postpone subscription over summer break and not lose data.
Easy to use, great support. No ads.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our sports association organizes a mountain running race supported by many sponsors. The day of the race we set up a live stream of the race with connections to different crucial points of the racetrack connected with long-range wireless devices and all media is collected in a streaming manager software that mixes images with ads that encode and stream the content to IBM servers.
  • Easy to integrate with many streaming software.
  • Powerful statistics.
  • Good control of embedded content and it makes it easy to avoid other sites embedding your content without your permission.
  • I don't feel comfortable with the pricing model.
IBM Watson is well-suited for professional streaming situations where you don't want to deal with limitations and risks that most common social media implements.
September 04, 2019

IBM Watson for broadcasting

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use video streaming to broadcast and record our sermons for our weekly Sunday worship services across our entire organization including campuses in California and Michigan. We also utilize the service to broadcast and record our training sessions for future classes and for those who are unable to attend during the live stream. The service allows us a simple way to broadcast, organize, and record our content in a way that is easily accessible by our congregation members.
  • The streaming quality is outstanding and we have never had any issues with buffering due to a slow server. Our problems usually lie with our local internet provider.
  • I appreciate the quick and easily accessible customer service. We had a couple of occasions where we needed help and I was able to access a customer service representative quickly.
  • We also like the different channels available within our service. This allows us to customize our streams based on our target audience.
  • We would like to see the ability to slipstream the broadcast thus allowing a viewer to join a live stream after the start time and still start in the beginning. Similar to a DVR system for home, this would be great for timing since we stream to multiple locations who may not be ready at the exact start time of the broadcast.
The platform works well for churches wanting to publish their messages and content online. The platform seems to have enough bandwidth to keep up with demand and we haven't run into any particular slowdowns. Where the platform would be limited is for streaming to smart devices like a Roku, Apple TV, or a Chromecast. There is no support for a Ustream app on those devices so people would not be able to easily access the streams from their home televisions. This also limits the usage of Ustream to do live-streaming to other televisions on campus in an economical way. A user would have to purchase individual computers to run a stream window for the live broadcast.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used to live stream our Sunday services and events where some family member can't make the service. The services are then available for on-demand viewing.
  • Very few issues with connectivity to the servers. I think in the 10 years we have used it, we only had one case where the service was down. Can't say that for our sister church that uses Facebook. Seems to be one event per quarter with them.
  • The ability to trim the video down to remove extra content from the live broadcast. Would be nice if we could trim out elements in the middle.
  • Nice analytics.
  • Wide range of methods to get the servers.
  • The ability to edit or trim out content in the middle of the recording. The Trim feature is great for removing content from the beginning and end, nothing for the middle. If we could have in/out markers to put on the timeline, that would direct the player to only play those segments between the in/out markers.
I think it is sited well for all live presentations and education applications.
Barry A Farnsworth | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We started with Ustream many years ago. It worked great. We transitioned to IBM when they bought out Ustream. It worked OK for five months and then fell apart. We broadcast all our services at Victory Baptist Church over the web. People can watch from around the world.
  • I can't say it does anything particularly well now, except pass the buck and make excuses as to why their stuff doesn't work.
  • Videos are "jerky." Audio and video are out of synch.
  • Videos uploaded to YouTube now do not have any audio. They blame this on us, but our created product has not changed.
  • Videos that are downloaded are often unuseable because they are so far out of synch that it is distracting.
  • Customer Service's standard response is, "We've contacted engineering." Engineering never answers.
At its present level of service, it's not appropriate at all.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In the event world, we receive a lot of requests for streaming live events across campus. We use IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming to connect with audiences around the world. With our camera setup and a local streaming kit, we're able to bring our event to overflow rooms across campus, and stream online for anyone at home.
  • Adaptability. We're able to configure our livestreams to the needs of our clients.
  • Detail-oriented. There's a lot of options to look into, compared to the bare-bones packages that many of the competitors offer.
  • Cost. Many other services offer similar services at no cost.
  • Viewer hours. This is a confusing concept for our clients, and we don't like the idea of a limited number of viewer hours allotted each month.
  • Tiered membership system. This should be simplified.
Perfect for most of our needs. It's great for run and gun video streaming for events, moderated Q+A sessions, and live chats related to streamed material. Auto-record functions make it great for record-keeping purposes.
It's not great for large events with many viewers, and not great for events that may skyrocket in popularity, bringing up high viewer hours.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have various departments each over 10,000 employees that we host a live-streamed townhall for all to view.
  • Love the fact that each individual can view the product at a different quality depending on their internet capacity.
  • Ease of saving and posting to YouTube post-show.
  • Metrics are great.
  • Some parts are a bit too technical and over the head of an average person.
  • Price can be a bit steep for some of the things we have.
When we need to reach a large audience that is all over the world at one time.
August 24, 2019

Church Live Stream

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is primarily used by our AV Director and his volunteer team and me on the communications side. We use the video streaming to live stream our Sunday worship service to those who are unable to make it in person.
  • Clear video stream
  • Useful metrics
  • Ability to edit videos in the archive
  • Ability to auto-caption videos is a great new feature
  • Love the Call to Action option, but it is distracting to have up the whole time; wish there was a way to choose when/how long it is up.
  • Sometimes support questions take a long time to get answered/solved.
  • We aren't notified of changes to the software which causes things like our website integration to get unexpectedly broken.
  • Cost is pretty high.
Does well with live streaming and keeping an archive, but may be too high of a price tag for some people/organizations. I wonder what the benefit would be of choosing Ustream over a free service like Youtube or Facebook live.
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