Tips & Tutorials

An expert in North Korea agreed to an on-camera interview with the BBC in March but a few seconds in, everything went pear-shaped.

First the man’s young daughter walked in and he gently tried to coax her out during the interview. Then his eight-month-old son strolled in on a squeaky walker. Finally, the man’s wife frantically tried to herd both children out of the room.

The clip went viral, to the point where Robert E. Kelly, the so-called “BBC Dad,” felt compelled to give a press conference explaining himself.

Most glitches during a live stream don’t rise to that level of comedic gold, with a lot of them related to delivery issues that could be corrected for through scaling as mentioned in this Scaling Video Delivery to Reach Massive Audiences white paper. Very often, though, unexpected problems during live streams leave the impression that the presentation is unprofessional. But presenters can salvage such moments by taking some cues from the world of improv comedy.

It’s challenging for enterprises to deliver internal video because streaming video consumes so much bandwidth.  For instance, if a 100-person company site has a 100 megabit-per-second internet connection, and just 34 people watch a live stream of CEO town hall at their desktops at the same time, they can cause a network outage.

Three main approaches solve the problem. One is unicast delivery, where a single video stream is sent from the source to an onsite unicast server, which caches the content and distributes it to hundreds or even thousands of viewers while minimizing the impact on the internet connection and network.

A second approach is multicast delivery, where a single stream from the video source is received by a specially-configured router, which addresses the video packets so that they simultaneously serve multiple viewers at a site.  Cable and telecom companies use multicasting because of its bandwidth efficiency.

When Taylor Swift launched her Wonderstruck fragrance at Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan, she was accompanied by hundreds of excited fans and dozens of media outlets. Also present was video production company Suite Spot, working in the background to make sure the event’s video live stream went off without a hitch.

Suite Spot regularly produces major events like this: filled with high-profile people, large viewing audiences and heavy logistical burdens on the people behind the scenes. While the events themselves can be formidable undertakings, the exposure and excitement generated by a live stream can be a major asset for any company.

Adam Drescher, Suite Spot’s cofounder and partner, explains how he and his team make preparations for success—before, day-of, and after the event takes place—and speaks specifically to the nuances of running live streams at a large scale. Armed with his suggestions, anyone can successfully execute their own live stream for a primetime audience.

Also, if you are looking for tips in bitesize form, be sure to check out our 5 Pro Tips for Live Video Production guide as well.

Producing video content? Looking to increase your view counts when a new video is published? This article discusses a video promotion strategy that includes 7 different methods to increase viewership. These range from how your content is shared to syndication efforts to bolster the number of viewable locations.

If you already have a video promotion strategy in place and are looking for more advice, also be sure to check out our 9 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Video Marketing Strategy webinar. This will give some additional advice, and pitfalls to avoid, as part of your video marketing strategy.

1. Embed your video in multiple places
2. Tweet your videos
3. Post you video to Facebook
4. Syndicate to YouTube
5. Create highlights for long-form content
6. Publish to a channel page
7. Add content to playlists

Please note, this article approaches this topic from a syndication angle. This means getting your content published and discoverable in places that will result in more views. It assumes that your content is already widely accessible regardless of the viewer’s device or connection speed. If you aren’t using IBM’s video streaming services and you aren’t sure if your content is, please read our How Adaptive Streaming Solves Viewer Bandwidth Issues white paper.

Think about today’s video viewing experience. Thanks to HD video, stereo sound, and high-pixel displays like the iPhone’s Retina feature — not to mention ever-higher bandwidth — entertainment and news video and audio is exceptionally clear, even for the lowliest smartphone or tablet.

Now, take that audience of viewers, accustomed to the very best HD video and deep stereo sound, and place them in front of a live streaming event that doesn’t have the same production values. Dark, blurry video and muffled audio won’t hold their attention, especially when you consider that online video drop off rates can run as high as 20 percent in the first 10 second of a video.

The good news for creators of live video is that even without a team of directors or a state-of-the-art video studio, it’s possible for organizations to up their game in terms of production quality. According to Jeff Irwin, customer success manager for IBM Watson Media, a few simple fixes and some strategic and affordable equipment purchases can make any live stream look and sound better. So read on to learn how to make a live video look professional with these 4 proven methods. If you find this article useful too, be sure to check out our 5 Pro Tips for Live Video Production guide as well.

Looking to increase your audience? Want more eyeballs on your product launch? Larger viewership on your live event? Inline video playback on social networks, like Twitter and Facebook, can be a way to bolster your audience size.

This article describes what is inline playback on social networks, the advantages of using it, how to do inline video and the end user experience while including demos.

A lot of the use cases for inline video playback are relevant to marketing. Not all types of video marketing will want to use inline playback, though. In particular, those that are directed at lead generation. Watch our webinar on 9 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Video Marketing Strategy to get some ideas on if your content is brand awareness focused, and would benefit from inline playback, or if it’s more directed toward lead gen.

• What is inline video playback?
• Advantages of inline video on social media
• Using inline video on social media with IBM’s video streaming
• Inline video user experience: Twitter
• Inline video user experience: Facebook
• Sharing on other social networks

Once an organization decides to present streaming video on a regular basis, carving out space—and budget—for an in-house studio makes good sense. The prospect may sound daunting, but the studio doesn’t need to look like the headquarters at CNN : It can be equipped with the basics for somewhere in the $12,000-$15,000 range.

Brian Malone, CEO of video production company Malone Media, travels around the country working with companies, nonprofits and government organizations to share their messages through video. Here, he explains how with help from the IT department (and some smart hardware and software purchases), organizations can deliver streaming video on a few minutes’ notice. But first, they need a basic setup and equipment, and this article discusses approaching a DIY video studio setup while being mindful of the end budget.

If you are looking for an expanded guide on this subject, please reference our Video Studio Recommendations white paper.

Notre Dame’s Eric Nisly guides live-streaming of commencement and other events using resources like this production truck.

Live-streamed video takes you to the heart of an event and lets you share in its emotion from wherever you are.

Maybe a friend or family member is crossing the stage to get a diploma, or an ensemble of musicians is playing passionately to win a prestigious international prize, or a university is interviewing teachers and students during an online fundraiser to share with alumni the kind of moments that make the campus special.

These are just some of the hundreds of annual events now streamed by the University of Notre Dame. The volume of streamed events has roughly doubled in the last three years as the public’s appetite for streaming video grows.

Notre Dame’s production team, including Streaming Engineer Eric Nisly, have learned from experience a few best practices that make a big difference in keeping glitches low, emotional impact high, and results solid. We asked Eric to share 9 of his top tips.

1. Get the word out
2. Plan to fail
3. Keep crew responsibilities narrow
4. Get the two most wanted camera angles
5. Ensure live support from your streaming platform
6. Better than selling DVDs: stream goodwill
7. Document success: crowdsource your streaming playbook
8. Build strategic vendor relationships
9. Keep raising the bar: put a point person on R&D

Live-streamed video, enabled by a cloud-based video platform, is having a big impact on the business world. That’s the conclusion of a new enterprise video guide, the Definitive Guide to Enterprise Video, a new 25-page eBook from IBM Watson Media.

One example of video’s impact, the guide notes, was at an 8,000-person financial company  with dozens of sites around the world. The company faced a sudden marketplace change, and its CEO asked employees to watch a live all-hands meeting over secured, streaming video. The executive described the company’s new strategy in the meeting, and employees got their questions answered through the video platform’s Q&A module in real time. The company pivoted in an hour, leading its field.

Looking to stop internal video streaming from overtaxing your network?

Join us tomorrow, Thursday June 23rd at 11:00am PT | 2:00p ET, for a LIVE interactive webinar on eCDN, Ustream’s new solution that allows companies to horizontally scale their video streaming and reach internal audiences without compromising the integrity of their network.

The webinar will:

• Explain how eCDN works
• Demo the admin portal that controls eCDN
• Explore Ustream’s Software Defined CDN (SD-CDN) technology and how eCDN and SD-CDN work together to deliver video deep inside corporate networks and to every corner of the globe.

Register now to learn more about the Ustream eCDN solution

REGISTER NOW