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Meets Our Simple Needs But Offers Capabilities For Future Use
Updated August 09, 2019

Meets Our Simple Needs But Offers Capabilities For Future Use

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

Software Version

Streaming Manager (Ustream Pro Broadcast)

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

We are currently using it to stream our monthly funding meetings and council meetings. It is primarily used by the whole organization. Having this streaming service allows our project team members statewide to attend meetings virtually that they are often not able to attend in person.
  • Integrates well with our company website using embed code provided by IBM.
  • No complaints here!
We benefit from this on a monthly basis. We never have a projected viewership number at any given meeting and this product always meets our expectations whether we are hosting 3 viewers or 30.
To my knowledge, our organization has never utilized this capability.
We do not use these metrics currently.
We are not currently using this capability but plan to in the near future.
Well suited to live streaming meetings to a large audience.

IBM Video Streaming Feature Ratings

Not Rated
Lead generation
Not Rated
Video SEO
Not Rated
Video Platform Integrations ()
Not Rated
8.0
Video access controls
7
User management
8
Video link sharing
9
Internal video
Not Rated
External video
Not Rated
9.5
Player customization
Not Rated
Embedded videos
10
Video quality / Bandwidth controls
9
Mobile compatibility
Not Rated
3.0
Streaming quality reports
Not Rated
Per viewer tracking
Not Rated
Per video tracking
Not Rated
Video analytics dashboard
3
9.0
On-Demand video
Not Rated
Live streaming
9
Impact of streaming on network
Not Rated
Video upload & format support
Not Rated
Video library / File management
9
Video portal
Not Rated
Not Rated
Audience polling
Not Rated
Audience Q&A / Live chat
Not Rated
Video comments
Not Rated

Using IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

2 - We currently have two people on our IBM account that are tasked with running our Ustream. One employee makes sure that the videos are recorded and uploaded and the other employee ensures that these videos are available on our website. We currently use IBM Watson's embed code to display our archive of videos and play them, as well as watch them live.
2 - Both employees that are tasked with maintaining and supporting our IBM Watson account each have a harmonious yet distinct skill set. The employee tasked with running and uploading the video stream has a diverse background in servers/hardware/sound equipment. The employee ensuring that the live stream and archive is available to our public has skills in HTML/software troubleshooting/helpdesk.
  • Live streaming of our monthly meetings to users statewide
  • Archiving of meetings that correspond with our meeting minutes and allow for precise accuracy of minutes.
  • Future use is to live stream/archive user training sessions.
  • As a necessary resource for meeting minute accuracy
  • Definitely for live streaming end user training sessions.
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.
  • It has had a positive impact - it has allowed us to reach more people with our monthly meetings content.

Evaluating IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming and Competitors

  • Product Usability
I was not part of the intial decision to use IBM Watson Video Streaming, formerly Ustream. This decision was made by others at the time and I merely inherited access to it later. It may have been based on some research done by our IT tech working for us at the time.
I would research other products available and compare their services to what we currently have. I would also do an in-depth research on each product's reviews. If possible, I would reach out to other businesses that use streaming services and find out what they use and why they chose it and what feedback they have. I would talk directly to the individuals responsible for using/maintaining the streaming service.

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Implementation

  • Implemented in-house
  • None that I know of. I was not a part of the implementation.

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Training

  • Self-taught
Yes i thought it was easy to learn without the training. Self taught learning honestly depends on the person learning and how they learn best. If you already have some hardware/software experience or are tech-savvy by nature, then yes you can learn this product on your own. If you are not, then I would recommend some official training.

Configuring IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

I am neutral on this topic. When we started using the streaming service, I was not a part of the setup or implementation.
I do not. I was not a part of the implementation. I would recommend using your IT department to navigate the setup with you.
No - we have not done any custom code
No. Since i have been involved with Ustream we have done little to no customization.

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Support

So far, I would rate support at a 10. I give it this rating simply because in approx. four years of using this product, we have never had to contact support over any issue. I mentioned this briefly in another area of this review and I will expand on it now. A year and half approx. ago, the video player embedded in our custom site quit working and we could not live stream or replay any of the meetings. I went into the HTML code powering this particular page on our site and compared the embed code that we were using in our HTML to what Ustream was showing in the admin tools. These were not the same. Once i copied and pasted the correct embed code from the admin tools in Ustream into our HTML, the problem was solved. In my time of working with Ustream, this was the only issue that we encountered and it was easily resolved without even having to contact Ustream support.
ProsCons
None
None
No I cannot give an example for this question. I have never had to contact Ustream support. I have reason to believe that this is due largely to this being a reliable and dependable product that, with the proper internal knowledge, education, and experience, can be used and maintained with none to minimal issues.

Using IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Starting a streaming run
  • Saving the stream
  • Occasionally, meetings will need to be trimmed.

IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Reliability

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.

Integrating IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming

  • None yet
  • We plan to use the webex integration option soon
  • File import/export
I have no advice yet as we have not done any integration to date.

Relationship with IBM

I was not apart of the negotiation so I can't answer.
None to give. I was not a part of this process.

Upgrading IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming