IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Brings Church to Travelers and Homebound Members
November 02, 2019
IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming Brings Church to Travelers and Homebound Members
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Streaming Manager (Ustream Pro Broadcast)
Overall Satisfaction with IBM Watson Media's Video Streaming
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.
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.