In an effort to provide all IBM video products and services under a single brand, as of 2019, all solutions formerly marketed under the name IBM Cloud Video are now part of the IBM Watson Media product family.
As a result, IBM’s video streaming services now fall directly under the IBM Watson Media umbrella, joining other already available solutions including IBM Watson Captioning, IBM Watson Video Enrichment and more.
Products and services
A range of solutions exist under the IBM Watson Media name, some of which are coming over from IBM Cloud Video. Together they represent a scalable, trusted and AI-driven video ecosystem designed to solve today’s media challenges. From solutions for enterprises to entertainment, IBM Watson Media gives the tool to power more engaging video experiences.
Below is a list of these products and services, along with their former IBM Cloud Video equivalent if available.
IBM Enterprise Video Streaming
Formerly IBM Cloud Video Streaming Manager for Enterprise
An end-to-end offering for corporate comms, allowing for the creation of live and on-demand video content. Security for assets are done through SSO (Single Sign On) methodology, with corporate directory support for a solutions such as Okta and OneLogin. Includes the ability to create an Enterprise Video Portal, customizable and turn key in nature.
IBM Video Streaming
Formerly IBM Cloud Video Streaming Manager
This is an end-to-end solution for external facing content, from video marketing activities to large scale live events. This utilizes the same basic interface as IBM Enterprise Video Streaming, but with a different audience in mind and extension options for monetizing video content. Through utilizing the Organization feature, companies can manage both types of accounts quickly, switching between internal comms and video marketing activities for example.
IBM ECDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network)
Works with either IBM Enterprise Video Streaming or IBM Video Streaming to scale delivery on a local level. This is achieved through installing a virtual machine at a location, which then caches live and on-demand video content. That content is then served to viewers at the location, reducing strain on the network from what might normally be 50-100 instances, fully dependent on viewership, to virtually just one.
A standalone offering that can provide closed captioning solutions for live or on-demand content. For live material, a hybrid method is deployed, allowing broadcast networks to schedule content and train the artificial intelligence for higher accuracy. For on-demand material, a strictly cloud based solution is available, allowing users to login and train IBM Watson around specific captioning tasks.
A solution that helps to create personalized video streams in order to keep audiences watching longer, boosting video views and ad inventory. Is able to surface engaging video to end users through leveraging algorithms that analyze context, consumption and audience data to deliver personalized content.
Through utilizing cloud-based software that dramatically streamlines workflows for the production of highlight clips, IBM Video Highlights is capable of providing an engaging create-it-yourself experience for sports fans, allowing them to quickly produce and share their own highlight reels.
A solution that uses industry-leading AI to analyze multimedia content, both on an audio and visual level. From this analysis it then builds searchable metadata packages for virtually every asset in your library, automating what traditionally was a very time consuming activity.
The OTT Video Management solution from IBM unites intelligent content distribution capabilities, for direct and third-party OTT streaming services. It includes granular access controls, to monetize virtually every user, and methods to manage your multiscreen content strategy from a single framework .
Social profiles
The social profiles of the two brands have been merged, leaving a single account for each social network. For those looking for the latest news, product updates and more, please follow IBM Watson Media through these social handles:
Shift to IBM domain
The solutions that used to be IBM Cloud Video will also be shifting to the IBM.com domain. Right now both the dashboard and resulting channel pages are accessed through the ustream.tv URL. This will change.
In the coming weeks, the dashboard, encountered after logging into an account, will be accessed from a video.ibm.com domain. Functionality will not change as part of this transition.
Later in March, the channel pages will move to the video.ibm.com domain as well. Enterprise Video Portals will also move to video.ibm.com. Functionality will not change, and furthermore all existing links will redirect to the new domain. So bookmarks, links and other active elements leading to the current URLs will still be valid. Current embed codes will also continue to work even after the domain transition.
Why the rebrand?
In April of 2017, the Ustream brand shifted to be known as IBM Cloud Video. Four months later, a new brand was launched known as IBM Watson Media. Debuting in August of that year, the IBM Watson Media brand was unveiled around work being done for the US Open Tennis Championships using video and AI. Initially the two brands were separated, with IBM Cloud Video at the time working on end-to-end video streaming solutions while IBM Watson Media was addressing ways to introduce IBM Watson into video workflows.
As time went on, though, it become clear that the difference between what used to be two different brands was starting to diminish. In fact, functionality from IBM Watson Captioning has already been integrated inside IBM’s video streaming offerings, presenting a way to tap into AI for automated speech to text processes. Looking at the roadmap, with more planned integrations, it seemed unavoidable that confusion would arise on where IBM Watson Media starts and ends in relation to IBM Cloud Video. As a result, a decision was made to unify the brands around IBM’s video solutions.
This presents a clearer path for organizations to leverage cutting edge video offerings. From virtually complete solutions for internal comms to the ability to tap into industry leading AI as part of video workflows, IBM Watson Media offers a wide range of services built to take an enterprise’s video strategy to the next level. Interested in putting to work some of these solutions for your own organization? Contact us to learn more.
Update 2023: All references to IBM Watson Media products can now be found on ibm.com under product pages for IBM Video Streaming or IBM Enterprise Video Streaming.