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IBM Cloud Video as a secure platform for delivering live content
January 25, 2017

IBM Cloud Video as a secure platform for delivering live content

Steven Janak | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Streaming Manager for Enterprise (Ustream Align)

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cloud Video

The service quality of the live component has been outstanding. The primary goal of securing live content within our organization has been achieved. Ustream is a best of breed product for live streaming. If an organization is considering Ustream for both a live streaming platform and a CMS for recorded and archived content, other products are also worth taking a look at.
Usability is an area that Ustream shines at. A persistent URL (channel) can easily be created for recurring events. Since Ustream is integrated with SSO solutions, event organizers need only to send out the URL to viewers. With secure live streams, the coordinator can easily limit who can watch. My only complaint about usability is the volume on the player is set at 50% by default. My most frequent comment from viewers is that that the stream is not loud enough. They are not always aware of the volume button.
Ustream is used across the organization to connect to entire teams or globally across the company for all hands meetings. The platform provides a consistent place where users can go to easily view recurring meets and events. Over VC platforms, links are not torn down at the ends of meetings, the UI is clear and easy to understand, the encoding of the audio and video can be fine tuned by our team to deliver high-quality content.
  • Integrate well with single sign on solutions.
  • Recurring meetings and events are easy to access at the same URL.
  • The reliability of the live component is exceptional (up time).
  • The QA functionality allows viewers to easily engage with presenters.
  • There is limited CMS functionality for recorded content.
  • While Ustream is responsive in communicating, sometimes platform issues require multiple communications to fully resolve.
  • There are limited ways that all of the available live programming can be laid out and presented to the company.
The ability to chapter mark VODs allows viewers to easily return to a specific part of a recording. This saves company time. The main outcome has been having content be more secure within the organization. Content that needs to be shared throughout the company (all hands, product updates, open enrollment information, etc.) is easy with Ustream. As an organization grows, the platform will be utilized more and more.
IBM Cloud video is incredibly well suited to deliver content when delivering content that is confidential and secure, in mission critical scenarios and where ease of use is required. Ustream has the ability to easily accept a backup ingest for the primary stream. If the primary encoder or connection to Ustream fails, Ustream starts pulling from the backup stream and pushing it out to viewers almost instantaneously. Frequently our team is engaged because of the quality and ease of use of the service. Over VC products, Ustream is a much easier way for viewers to have a quality viewing experience. This is due to the fact that that there are far fewer settings the user needs to be familiar with.

Evaluating IBM Cloud Video (including Ustream) and Competitors

The main reasons I would recommend Ustream over other competitors are: SSO integration, how accessible/responsive support is, the ease of use for the viewer, the consumption/seat model is easy to understand, server side encoding to multiple bitrates/qualities, ability to connect with QA functionality, ability to generate a backup stream from an additional encoder.