By Darian Germain
In this second in our three-part blog series, we explore the profound impact that intelligent video delivery can have on the success of live webcasts originating from Microsoft environments.
As we mentioned in our first blog today’s pandemic-driven hybrid workforce has widely adopted live video communications to stay connected and they use it from any number of devices and myriad network connections – from VPNs to home internet providers and mobile hotspots. As they return to the workplace, they’re also accessing video again via company Wi-Fi and the LAN/WAN. For a live webcast to be successful, each viewer must receive the best quality video that their device and network connection can handle at that time – a complex and technically difficult challenge that’s often the cause of most live webcasting failures.
Meeting vs. Streaming Video
Microsoft Teams offers low-latency technology for synchronous communications, which is ideal for daily, interactive meetings with few participants. However, when the audience expands beyond a few hundred (or fewer) viewers, the experience degrades
or falters completely.
Streaming video, on the other hand, uses HTTP/S technology which traverses digital network bandwidth much more efficiently and buffers video to protect video quality across fluctuating network conditions. For this reason, streaming is the best choice for premium-quality, highly scalable live audience webcasts to thousands of viewers.
Enterprise Video
Streaming video within the enterprise presents unique requirements and challenges. Unlike consumer streaming, enterprise streaming networks have finite bandwidth and the information being shared requires viewer authentication and stream security.
Fortunately, Microsoft users can use intelligent video delivery to stream premium-quality, bandwidth-efficient and secure live webcasts…and they can do so using Microsoft’s new Peer5 WebRTC peering service.
Intelligent Video Delivery with Peer5
Recognizing massive video use among its installed base, Microsoft recently acquired Peer5 to offer its customers an Office 365-integrated, highly efficient video delivery technology. Peer5 uses WebRTC peering to reduce the bandwidth needed for video by a whopping 90% – allowing for massive video use while preserving network capacity for other mission-critical operations.
MediaPlatform is the exclusive enterprise video integration partner for Peer5. The companies serve joint Fortune 500 customers worldwide, which benefit from their multi-year technical and go-to-market relationship.
Here’s how MediaPlatform’s intelligent video delivery with Microsoft’s Peer5 works:
1. Microsoft users tap MediaPlatform’s cloud enterprise video platform to create a high-profile enterprise video event – such as a CEO Town Hall, User Group, Partner or Sales meeting;
2. They create highly customizable, dynamic event experiences using MediaPlatform Broadcaster that include remote speakers, multimedia, and interactive elements. Broadcaster automatically encodes video into multiple bitrates and video resolutions and shares the optimal stream with viewers based on media player data;
3. Microsoft users tap MediaPlatform’s Smartpath rules-based, network routing overlay engine for intelligent video delivery. Smartpath rules include peering via Peer5, as well as multiple failover delivery options including edge caching devices and CDNs. Microsoft customers can specify specific streams for IP ranges, viewing rooms and specific viewers (like Board members);
4. During live webcasts, MediaPlatform’s intelligent video delivery lets network technical teams monitor, diagnose and remedy network delivery issues, with drill-down capabilities within IP ranges or down to individual devices;
5. MediaPlatform’s deep integration with Peer5 allows the companies to track down network delivery issues via synchronization of Peer5 analytics with MediaPlatform’s Video Business Intelligence network quality of service analytics platform.
6. Post-event, Microsoft users have access to extensive analytics that help them assess and document the success of every webcast. These include viewer data (who registered, who attended, how long did they stay and characteristics such as device/OS/location); viewer sentiment (MediaPlatform Event Success Dashboard offers icons that show audience reaction to content); and webcast-wide quality of experience statistics per viewer across Peer5 and all video technologies specified in Smartpath rules.
Microsoft customers planning for increased video – and particularly live video events – will be positively and significantly impacted by Microsoft’s acquisition of Peer5. If you’d like to learn more about how to plan for Microsoft Peer5, drop me a note dgermain@mediaplatform.com.
In our third blog, we’ll explore how Microsoft users can create dynamic, interactive and highly customizable live video Viewer Experiences that shatter meeting-fatigue and keep viewers at the edge of their seats.