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MAINTAIN VIEWERSHIP AND KEEP YOUR LIVE STREAM UP-AND-RUNNING

bsp-admin-1 on September 11, 2018

Without a doubt, the most important part of a live stream happens in the preparation. It’s key that you have tested your equipment and come up with a Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D.

Once you’ve done the prep and the day of your event arrives, what then? The following best practices will help you stay up-and-running and maintain viewership throughout your stream (and perhaps even increase your audience while you’re at it).

BEFORE THE LIVE STREAM

If there is one component to line up first, it’s a dedicated, wired internet connection with backup internet options, just in case. Test your internet on the day of your event and make sure your backup internet is ready in case you need it.

Also, consider the internet signal that your viewers will use to watch your event. If you’re streaming an internal corporate event, like a CEO town hall, it’s likely that many of your viewers will be tuning in from the same place, potentially overloading the network. If you don’t have an eCDN lined up to avoid network bottlenecks, consider hosting a viewing party so that many viewers can watch together, rather than bogging down the network by watching individually.

A reliable power source is every bit as essential as maintaining a strong internet connection. The day of your event, make sure the many elements that power your live stream are plugged into a variety of power sources. The last thing you need is a blown circuit taking down your entire set-up.

If something does go wrong, have a slate ready. If worse comes to worst, it looks much more professional to broadcast a “Technical Difficulties” or a “Be Right Back” slate than static or a blank screen.

Pro Tip: Don’t leave your stream running so people watch you set up. Create a Pre-Event slate that has a countdown clock or promotes your next session.

DURING THE LIVE STREAM

Even if your live stream goes off without a technical hitch, a common goal of streaming is to reach a wide audience. Assuming you’ve promoted your event far and wide—and viewers know when, where, and how to tune in—be sure to start on time so they don’t tune out before you’ve even begun. When it comes to your content, address any potential gaps or pauses during a run-through beforehand and mix in graphics or interactive elements to keep things moving at a steady pace.

Pro Tip: If you don’t catch the attention of your audience within the first two minutes of your live stream, they are likely to drop off and not return to watch the rest.

It’s possible that no matter how well you’ve promoted your live stream, some of your customers and prospects won’t know that it’s happening. The key to capturing those viewers is a blended distribution strategy. Start by live streaming to social media simultaneously, then your followers will be notified automatically when you’re live. Next, consider expanding your strategy to include paid distribution. These days, it’s possible to stream to thousands of publications across the internet via players embedded within banner ad placements. Reaching the right audiences no matter where they are is what takes viewership to the next level.

Your event page is the centerpiece of your strategy, so as you gather viewers across channels, make sure you’re giving them a reason to click through to your page. Offer exclusive content to viewers on your main event page, like behind-the-scenes access, influencer or celebrity interaction, a live Q&A, or a special download.

As your event goes on, there are bound to be attention-grabbing moments. Use live clipping functionality to clip and share across social media to show viewers what they’re missing. Once viewers arrive on your event page, collect user-level data and tie it to your marketing automation stack. That way, your relationship with each viewer doesn’t end when the live stream is over—this is an essential step for making your live stream worth the effort.

AFTER THE LIVE STREAM

As your event draws to a close, you’ll probably breathe a sigh of relief—but the work isn’t quite over yet. The next step is to turn your live stream into video-on-demand assets that maximize your return on investment.

AVOID THE SILENT TOWN HALL WITH INTERACTIVE CORPORATE VIDEO

bsp-admin-1 on September 6, 2018

Workforces are rapidly decentralizing and getting more global by the minute. This creates even more need to employ new techniques to bring employees together and engage them with better communication tactics. One way to accomplish this feat is with corporate video. Hosting regular Town Hall live streams can bridge the distance gap, no matter where your employees are sitting.

Town Halls are typically hosted by the CEO as an update for the employees on the state of the company. For many employees, this is the only interaction they will get with the CEO. So, it’s extremely important these corporate video events run flawlessly and are optimized for employee engagement. Without participation, the Town Hall investment is lost.

WHY DO TOWN HALLS FAIL?

Aside from technical failures (watch this video on-demand to learn how to properly prepare for a live event, Town Halls often fail to deliver authentic content. The CEO’s part is predictable and well-scripted. Employees expect that, but it doesn’t usually inspire audience participation. Following the presentation, there is the ceremonial Q&A.

“Let’s open the floor to questions,” the CEO says.

Crickets.

After an awkward silence that, without fail, goes on for far too long, the CEO says, “You sure there aren’t any questions?”

The Town Hall wraps up and not one employee has asked a question. Their sole opportunity to have an authentic interaction with their CEO has come and gone. The next Town Hall comes around, and the same thing happens. The precedent is set that questions are not expected.

HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT?

To get more people actively involved in your Town Hall you need to level the playing field. At the very least, in-person and remote attendees need the same access to ask questions. This ensures no one group of individuals is pressured to ask a question over the next or steamrolled by another group. Everyone should feel like they are a part of the event.

We’ve seen that including interactive elements within your corporate video event can dramatically impact participation rates for exactly this reason. Live Q&As, live polls, feedback, and interactive agendas can all take a Town Hall from a broadcast to a true engagement tool.  Take a look at this case study with Medtronicfrom our partner Pigeonhole Live, to see how this type of solution can really work.

A fluid Q&A where attendees can respond to the CEO’s remarks and allowing spontaneous questions to be asked in-person and online through an interactive chat are a great start, but remember that you’ll also need to be sure that your moderator is paying attention to the questions that arise in both formats.

HOW TO GEAR UP, PREPARE FOR, AND PROMOTE YOUR LIVE STREAM

bsp-admin-1 on September 5, 2018

Live streaming an event (or a series of events) can seem daunting. But if you break the process down into steps, live streaming becomes approachable for even small teams. To get started, you’ll need to line up your equipment set-up and then promote your live stream to build an audience.

SETTING UP YOUR LIVE STREAM: EQUIPMENT AND MORE

The right set-up will depend on the event location, how many speakers or angles you want to shoot, and whether you’re including additional visuals like graphics or presentations. Even the most basic live stream requires a few non-negotiables in order to get off the ground:

  • Camera: Your shoot can range from very simple—a single camera on a tripod—to as complex as your budget allows. A more advanced set-up will include multiple cameras and a switcher.

  • Audio source: This can range from the microphone on your camera to a set-up with multiple microphones and a sound board.

  • Capture card or device:  At Brightcove, we often use Blackmagic’s products; they’re affordable and work well.

  • Encoder: This can be a piece of software, like Wirecast or Open Broadcaster Software, on your computer, or a dedicated hardware encoder for more demanding events.

  • Internet: Live streams should almost always run over a hardwired connection with speeds of 10mbps or greater. The best case scenario is Gigabyte ethernet, with your live stream prioritized using QoS at the main router, and redundant ISPs.

  • Content Delivery Network (CDN): For a seamless viewing experience with minimal buffering, you’ll need a high-quality CDN like Akamai. A CDN may be bundled with other video solutions, like your online video platform (OVP) or player.

  • Player: Whether your player is embedded on your website, in an app, or on a secure VPN, it should be an immersive, high-quality experience for viewers. Your player may also support interactivity, like a chatroll, via tools like Pigeonhole Live.

Video Live Stream Hardware and Software equipment setup

From here, your set-up can get exponentially more complex, to include cloud encoders, hardware encoders, and multiple internet connections. Are you monetizing your live stream? Then you’ll need to add Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) or some kind of paywall authentication.

Advanced Setup, with Redundancy

Once you’ve decided on a set-up, it’s essential to test it. When it comes to live streaming, the unexpected almost always happens—and it’s much better to figure out a solution beforehand. Come up with back-up plans in case the internet goes down, check and re-check your equipment, and save IT’s phone number just in case.

PROMOTING YOUR LIVE STREAM

After you’ve figured out your equipment and set-up, it’s time to build an audience for your live stream. After all, you want people to see the fruits of your labor, right? Start by setting up a landing page or registration page for your live stream, so people can sign up to attend. Include a calendar invite, so attendees’ time is blocked off, and schedule a reminder to go out the day of the event.

Besides the registration itself, design your pre-event page in a way that begins to bolster community and build excitement:

  • Social media: Include links to your social media—or embed your social feeds within the page itself to boost engagement.

  • Countdown: Including a countdown to the live event is a good way of confirming to your visitor that they’re in the right spot, but that the stream is not yet live.

  • Homepage: When  the page is built, make it easy to find by featuring it on your homepage.

  • Calendar: Make sure your live stream appears in your website’s calendar of events, with a call-to-action to register.

Women of Brightcove Live Broadcast Video Player

Now that the building blocks of your event are in place, you can start sharing it with your audience. Aim for low-hanging fruit first. Identify existing customers and prospects that might be interested in the topic of your live stream and target them via email and paid social media campaigns (or in-product notifications if possible). Post about your live stream organically too—and if you are partnering with influencers, other brands, or guest presenters, be sure they’re also sharing the live stream news on their social media pages.

To keep your emails, social media posts, and landing page engaging, try making a brief promotional video to introduce the people who will appear in the live stream. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or highly produced—just hone in on the specifics that a viewer will take away from your event and explain how they can register. Take it a step further and introduce interactivity by allowing people to sign up within the promotional video itself.

TAKE IT LIVE

When you’re all set up and you have an audience, it’s time to go live. Stay tuned for our next post to find out from FORA.tv how to make the most of your content and ensure that your live stream is successful.

WHAT IS THE BRIGHTCOVE PLAYER TOOLBOX?

bsp-admin-1 on September 4, 2018

ABOUT THE BRIGHTCOVE PLAYER TOOLBOX

One of the missions of the core web player team here at Brightcove is to remove barriers to integration with the Brightcove Player. We aim to delight our customers with the Player’s flexibility, stability, and ease-of-use.

The fundamental architecture of the HTML5 web player has not changed much in the last five years or so. Players are managed via the Player Management API or the Studio (which uses the API), published on-demand, and hosted on our CDN at players.brightcove.net as stand-alone scripts.

In these past five years, web tooling has continued to grow more sophisticated and CDN-hosted JavaScript often does not fit into the new paradigms. Instead of pasting a <script> tag into their web templates or CMS, web developers and other advanced users expect to be able to install a package via npm, import it as an ES module, and bundle it into their application via webpack, Rollup, or similar.

Until now, most of these advanced users have been rolling their own solutions. What that tells us is that our Player ecosystem is not fully meeting our customers’ needs and these users are forced to work around us instead of with us. In order to better serve these users, we are now offering an optional suite of free, open source tools – all available on npm – that can be used with most modern web tooling stacks.

Collectively, we’re referring to these tools as the Brightcove Player Toolbox.

TOOLBOX PROJECTS

As of 2018, the Toolbox includes:

PLAYER LOADER

The Player Loader is our official, framework/tooling-agnostic, asynchronous script loader and embed generator for the Brightcove Player. It is independent of any specific toolchain and serves a dual purpose:

  1. It will generate any embed code with many options and support for customizations needed by some Brightcove Player plugins.
  2. It will download player scripts from our CDN asynchronously and automatically initialize any matching embeds.

This tool is entirely runtime-configured, meaning it will always download the latest player at runtime.

The Player Loader is available on npm as @brightcove/player-loader. Get started by reading the README or the Brightcove documentation.

EXAMPLE

NOTE: While this example uses ES modules, they are not required – you should be able to use CommonJS, AMD, or a simple script tag as well.

<body>
  <div id="player-container"></div>
</body>

import brightcovePlayerLoader from '@brightcove/player-loader';

brightcovePlayerLoader({
  refNode: '#player-container',
  accountId: '123456789',
  playerId: 'AbCDeFgHi',
  videoId: '987654321'
})
  .then(function(success) {
    // The player has been created!
    //   success.type will be "in-page" or "iframe"
    //   success.ref will be the player or the iframe element
  })
  .catch(function(error) {
    // Player creation failed!
  });

REACT PLAYER LOADER

The React Player Loader project offers users an official React component that can be used to embed and download a Brightcove Player using the Player Loader behind the scenes.

This component takes all options of the Player Loader (with some exceptions) and will handle disposing the player when the React component unmounts.

The React Player Loader is available on npm as @brightcove/react-player-loader. Get started by reading the README or the Brightcove documentation.

EXAMPLE (JSX)

NOTE: React/ReactDOM/global are NOT required, they are only used to show a working example.

import document from 'global/document';
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import BrightcovePlayer from '@brightcove/react-player-loader';

let brightcovePlayer;

// A success callback will offer two ways of accessing the underlying player
// or iframe.
const onSuccess = function(success) {
  console.log(success.ref);
  console.log(brightcovePlayer.player);
};

brightcovePlayer = ReactDOM.render(
  <BrightcovePlayer accountId='1234678' onSuccess={onSuccess}/>,
  document.getElementById('fixture')
);

PLAYER LOADER WEBPACK PLUGIN

The Player Loader webpack Plugin is our official webpack plugin for bundling the Brightcove Player. It has a single purpose: to prepend a Brightcove Player to a webpack bundle, avoiding an extra asnychronous HTTP request.

Unlike the Brightcove Player Loader, this tool does not create embeds.

However, it can be used with the Player Loader. In this setup, the webpack plugin will pre-populate a player while the Player Loader will be used to generate embeds. The Player Loader will not re-download Brightcove Players it has already downloaded or detected in memory ahead of time, so any Players prepended to the bundle will not be re-downloaded.

The one caveat with this tool is that it will only download the player at build time. In other words, if you re-publish your player, your webpack bundle will need to be re-created before the player updates on your website.

The Player Loader webpack Plugin is available on npm as @brightcove/player-loader-webpack-plugin. Get started by reading the README.

EXAMPLE

The following example code would be placed in your webpack.config.js file.

const PlayerLoaderPlugin = require('@brightcove/player-loader-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {

  // Other webpack configuration here...

  plugins: [
    new PlayerLoaderPlugin({accountId: '123456789', playerId: 'AbCDeFgHi'})
  ]
};

CONCLUSION

We hope this new collection of tools is helpful to our customers working with the Brightcove Player in modern toolchains.

While the Brightcove Player is neither free nor open source, the tools that comprise the Brightcove Player Toolbox are all free and open source and they fall under the Apache-2.0 license.

In other words, they are not officially supported by Brightcove, Inc. and feedback or bug reports should not be directed at Brightcove Customer Support.

With that caveat out of the way, it’s worth mentioning that our engineers are no strangers to open source and we are committed to doing our best to be responsive to feedback, bug reports, and pull requests on GitHub.

We welcome and encourage anyone to contribute to these open source tools to make them better for everyone!

REFERENCES

REPOSITORIES AND OPEN SOURCE DOCUMENTATION

BRIGHTCOVE SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION 

WHY VIDEO CONTENT WORKFLOWS MATTER

bsp-admin-1 on August 30, 2018

There’s an infographic making waves right now in the LinkedIn community that illustrates the demand for a more connected, innovative, and adaptive workplace. Put simply, The Evolution of the Employee illustrates the needs of a new generational workforce. Driven by applications like Slack and Google Drive, online remote working, and paperless office policies, it’s clear the future of good business is online, collaborative, and adaptive—and video workflow is no exception.

Evolution of the employee visual diagram

It’s no surprise that video has become the new document; it is extremely effective at at converting, educating, training, and entertaining viewers. However, keeping up with the company-wide demand for video content is challenging for internal video teams who often feel bogged down by complex, clunky processes.

So the question is: how do businesses future-proof their video workflow to: 1. Scale video production and; 2. Ensure their teams are happy, efficient, and collaborative?

WORKFLOW INGREDIENTS FOR EFFICIENT TEAMS

Video making involves a lot of people and activity: internal and external production and post-production teams, team review cycles, stakeholder and executive approval, and hosting and publishing for various audiences. Video teams need a workflow that adapts to their needs and saves them valuable time. A workflow that:

  • Allows teams to work remotely from around the world, and quickly find and upload the files
  • Enables creative teams and non-technical collaborators to quickly and intuitively get involved
  • Creates a transparent and collaborative creative process that is tied to video outcomes

Step one is an absolute must—cloud-based software must connect global teams and make it easy to upload, download, and share clips freely within a workspace that synchronously updates with their content library as well as their video editing tools.

Step two involves making it easy for executives and stakeholders to review and approve video content and ensure it’s on-brand. Nobody has time to download a video and markup comments in email anymore.

The final step is about making sure these collaborative workspaces are adaptive, transparent, and integrated into the tools of the modern workforce. Say goodbye to siloed workspaces and hello to software that integrates from the first revision to the final published file—while also making it easy for your team to make data-driven creative decisions based on that video’s performance.

YOUR NEW CONNECTED, COLLABORATIVE VIDEO WORKFLOW IS HERE

Forward-thinking companies are quickly adopting cloud-based video platforms that combine best-in-class video workflow and publishing all in one future-proofed workspace.

“When producing over 400 videos annually, every moment we save by using Wipster and Brightcove together via the cloud means more time optimizing content and delivering results to our stakeholders.” – Pat MacFie, Global Director of Media at Xero

No one wants to waste their valuable time digging through emails, hunting for files, or logging in to various platforms to edit or publish content. Connected platforms should give you time back in your day—which is why Wipster’s integrated Brightcove Look Folder provides teams intuitive and transparent access to their entire Brightcove Video Cloud, which then syncs with the Wipster platform for collaborative workflow, review, and approval. Once your team’s video content is finalized, you simply publish to Brightcove with one click and distribute it to the appropriate audience.

Wipster Video Interface

But the job’s not finished—how did that video perform? Finally, creative teams can see video performance data directly on the asset instead of emailing the marketing team or crunching a bunch of numbers. Playback and analytics data from your Brightcove account is aggregated and fed back to your Wipster workspace to give your team insights into how your video is performing in real-time. Now you can see how things are landing, and better iterate for future content.

TOOLS AND TEAMS THAT WORK IN HARMONY

As you hire and expand your video team, what kind of workflow are you going to bring them into? Does it unite or separate? Does it create time or waste it?

We believe a key component to happy and collaborative video teams involves providing them with powerful and connected tools that work for them—not against them. Which is why we’re excited to offer deeper integrations that help you meet the demands of your growing teams and allow you to scale your video content strategy.

DEFINE YOUR VIDEO STRATEGY IN 3 SIMPLE STEPS

bsp-admin-1 on August 28, 2018

The three questions in this video can set you up for success when it comes to creative ideas around your video strategy.  Follow the exercise in this video to generate executable ideas with legitimate ROI potential.

“Video Strategy.”  Everyone’s talking about it.  We all need one. Yet everyone seems a bit foggy on how to actually define it. Before you get started, ask yourself these three questions—their answers will lay the foundation for your video strategy.

  • What do we want to talk about?
  • What is a video best at?
  • Where should this video live? What is the goal?

These may seem like simple questions. However, by answering them thoughtfully, you will be setting yourself up for success and avoiding many of the tangles that slow us down when creating good videos.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT?

The most common answer to this is “my product.” After all, how can we sell our products or services if we don’t tell the world all about them, right? The truth is, we all love to talk about our products, but that’s not necessarily what our customers want to hear.

During a recent “Video Strategy Workshop” I conducted, we came up with the following list of topics that our customers might actually care about.

  • ~Your product/service~ (we took that one off the board, remember?)
  • Your industry: Subject matter expertise/thought leadership
  • Industry events: Trade show coverage or major news, like GDPR
  • Common challenges: Especially ones your organization can solve for them
  • FAQ about your industry: What are the most common questions your sales and support teams hear?
  • Your customers: Case studies/credibility
  • Company updates: The latest news about what you are doing to be relevant and successful
  • “How to”  or “For Example” content

As you can see, there are plenty of topics to cover, and they’ll be different for every company and industry. Take a few minutes and add your own ideas to this list.

WHAT IS VIDEO BEST AT?

Both a Ferrari LaFerrari and a tractor can have approximately 900 horsepower. However, they use it very differently. You don’t want to plow a field with the Ferrari and you won’t win any races with the tractor. The same goes for video and any other type of content. So what is video’s sweet spot? What is it really good at?

  • Connection. Video is personal. The right video can forge a connection between the viewer and your service/product/company.
  • Emotion. It makes you feel something.
  • Entertainment. It’s a fact—we love video and watch tons of it, sometimes simply because it’s fun.
  • Education. Video can explain complex ideas quickly.

WHERE SHOULD THIS VIDEO LIVE, AND WHAT IS ITS GOAL?

The final destination of your video and how it will be used in your campaign can help determine what type of video you’re making. They all have a different feel, different production value, and a different purpose. Below are some examples of different uses of video and the goals of each of those destinations.

  • Teaser video. The goal of this video is to drive traffic from outside sources to your site. This needs to be engaging and evoke curiosity.
  • Video email. The goal is to educate and inform customers, and drive them back to your landing page. This can be a bit less formal.
  • Social-only video. Think of this video as your first introduction to the world. Its purpose is to establish empathy and awareness, and so these can often get away with somewhat lower production value to feel more personal and approachable.
  • Video campaign for segmenting purposes. You can use a top-performing video in a campaign simply to identify who is interested in a specific topic. This video needs to be on a single topic and very specific to a targeted group.
  • Support video. You can provide quick self-service access to support information. In this video, focus on making the info clear and do it quickly. These kinds of videos can help reduce incoming support requests.
  • Homepage video. This video needs to catch someone’s attention early and keep it. This is where you’ll want to spend some money hiring a professional team. This is your billboard, and it needs to look good.

While there’s more to fleshing out a complete video strategy, many fail to set a proper foundation and then struggle through the rest of the process. Use the questions above as a kind of litmus test. Start by spending some time on your own or with your team answering these questions. Then go make those videos.

BENEFITS OF JUST-IN-TIME PACKAGING AND DYNAMIC VIDEO DELIVERY

bsp-admin-1 on August 23, 2018

In 2017, Brightcove rolled out a new media delivery system called Dynamic Delivery. This has fundamentally improved the media delivery performance of the Brightcove Player for hundreds of our customers.

Leveraging just-in-time packaging, Dynamic Delivery allows content owners to achieve greater device reach, reduced storage costs, and CDN flexibility and security. Those are just the inherent benefits.

Dynamic Delivery further reduces costs and improves user experience when used in conjunction with Brightcove’s Context Aware Encoding (CAE) technology and Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) monetization capability. That’s why we’re encouraging all our customers to transition 100% of their content over to our Dynamic Delivery system.

How does this process work and what considerations are there? Let’s break down how all this is possible.

HOW STATIC DELIVERY WORKED

To fully appreciate the benefits of Dynamic Delivery, it’s important to understand the challenges of static delivery.

In the world of static delivery, you send one source file to Brightcove and indicate the various media types needed at the time of ingest. This includes rendition encoding settings (bit rate, resolution, etc.) as well as package types (package format, DRM/encryption settings, etc.).

All these settings are layered on and applied at the time of ingest to create a comprehensive set of renditions. Even a moderately complex use case can end up with dozens of renditions which are stored on an origin server for delivery.

Then, at the time of playback, the appropriate rendition is selected and played. As you have to support more devices and formats, the more complex and expensive it becomes to prepare the content for delivery.

Another pitfall of static delivery is the rigidity of the update process. Since all of the packaging happens at the time of ingest, adding any new formats requires you to go back and completely re-transcode your library. This means every time a new format emerges or an existing format has released updates you have to go back and re-package your entire back catalog of content to get the latest and greatest technology.

HOW DYNAMIC DELIVERY WORKS

Now, when you send Brightcove the source file we create all of your desired renditions (different resolutions, different bitrates) and store them in a format-agnostic state. This means these renditions aren’t stored in a particular package (HLS, DASH, etc.) but rather as fragmented MP4s (fMP4s).

When a user requests content from any given device, our just-in-time packaging generates the appropriate packages automatically. Just-in-time packaging generates packages based on the device requesting the content, automatically selecting the appropriate stream packaging and DRM formats.

This greatly reduces the cost and effort to accommodate future devices and formats. We’re only storing the “heavy part” once and our packaging is light-weight. Your cost of ownership can decrease drastically, especially if you have complex setting requirements like several DRM packages. Even in the simple use case of delivering clear content, you’d be cutting your storage costs in half by reducing duplication of having HLS and DASH renditions.

BENEFITS OF JUST-IN-TIME PACKAGING

FUTURE PROOF YOUR LIBRARY

Applying packaging at the time of request allows customers to easily adopt new package types and DRM formats, as well as updates to the existing formats.

Previously, if a customer wanted to take advantage of features available in new versions of packages or DRM formats, they had to re-transcode their entire library to update to the new format (or more likely to add the new format in addition to maintaining the old format). Now as formats evolve we update our just-in-time packager once to support them and they are instantly available for all the content in your library.

EXPAND REACH

Just-in-time packaging provides a much more flexible framework to control what shows up in the manifest at the time of playback.

One example is the ability to apply multiple audio tracks to a single piece of content which is a growing requirement among companies trying to reach international audiences that speak multiple languages. Adding multiple audio tracks also fosters a more accessible user experience for blind users by adding more descriptive audio tracks, expanding reach further.

Previously, having multiple audio tracks for a single piece of content required an immense amount of post-production work: adding an additional audio track, marrying that audio to the video, uploading the video as a separate video asset, then managing the complexity of presenting the right video for the right user.

Now, this can all happen at the time of packaging. Upload the video once with as many audio tracks as you need. Then these audio tracks can be presented in the player, similar to how caption tracks are. The user can choose which audio track they want or you can programmatically trigger it based on geography or other relevant metadata.

INCREASE FLEXIBILITY

Every business has slightly different requirements around CDNs and that’s why we made sure Dynamic Delivery was CDN agnostic. Our old system was much more rigid about which features were supported on which CDNs. Now, Dynamic Delivery is much easier to set up and implement based on your CDN requirements.

FEATURES MADE POSSIBLE BY DYNAMIC DELIVERY

In addition to the explicit benefits provided by Dynamic Delivery, the flexible architecture of the system allows us to add additional features quickly and easily. We’ve written about many of these in the past — follow the links to learn more!

Context Aware Encoding – Utilize machine learning and deep video analysis to achieve optimum quality for each video with the fewest bits necessary.

Server-side Ad Insertion (SSAI) – Dynamically stitch targeted ads into your content to deliver a stunning, TV-like experience and defeat ad-blockers.

Delivery Rules – Harness the power of Dynamic Delivery to customize delivery behavior to meet your unique business objectives.

GETTING STARTED

Dynamic Delivery is fully integrated into the Brightcove Player and is API compatible for both ingest and delivery. Additionally, Dynamic Delivery content can live alongside non-Dynamic Delivery content in the same Video Cloud account so you don’t have to worry about a mass conversion.

USING VIDEO PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS TO UPGRADE ENTERPRISE COMMS

bsp-admin-1 on August 15, 2018

As a company grows in size and spills across continents, connecting teams and employees to one another can be impossible. But that’s not the case at Deloitte, the world’s largest consulting firm with 280,000 employees in 150 countries. Why? Because they’ve leveraged a team of just three in-house experts to create a video strategy that connects, engages, and educates Deloitte team members around the world.

I recently spoke with Michael Weinstein, Manager Multimedia at Deloitte, & Rollo Wenlock, Video Workflow Designer at Wipster, to discover how Michael’s three-man team overcame video production challenges, leveraged in-house talent, established approval workflows, and scaled distribution in order to effectively share their work with the entire company.

VIDEO: A NO-BRAINER FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

No matter how big or small, every company needs to onboard new employees, train teams on new products and systems, and share messages from company leadership. Increasingly, enterprise video is the obvious channel to address these needs. Employees are already engaging with video online—in a survey, 55% of people reported that they watch online video every day, and 59% of senior executives said they prefer to watch video instead of reading text when given a choice.

Ways to start using video internally

Deloitte uses a video-first internal communications strategy as a more human way to connect across its vast employee network. It’s more engaging than traditional communication channels, and it can communicate complex ideas in a short amount of time. Plus, once a video has gone live, metrics are always available, allowing Michael and his team to effectively track the performance of their communications. And with the right platform, video distribution can easily be scaled across teams and regions.

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL TEAMS

No matter how large the enterprise, video departments are often made up of just a few team members. 85% of webinar attendees work with a team of six or fewer—and those few people face a number of challenges including budget constraints, multi-phase approval processes, and executive buy-in. Here’s how Michael and his team of three solved those challenges:

  • They brought video expertise in-house, giving them direct access to key stakeholders and the ability to experiment, and giving the entire organization access to video resources
  • Using Wipster, they designed a more effective video production workflow, enabling streamlined collaboration that empowered the right people to pitch in at the right time and helped drive higher quality outcomes
  • With Brightcove, they scaled video distribution to all 280,000 employees across the globe via the firewall-protected Deloitte TV Network, with a multi-tab player that arranges content into playlists and channels

With these solutions in place, Michael and his team were empowered to produce more video than ever before, including a ten-episode series called Inside the Executive Studio. 75% of Deloitte employees engaged with the series, which required minimal executive resources yet connected high-level company leadership with employees on a human level.

USING VIDEO PRODUCTION WORKFLOW TO LEVEL-UP YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

As a Video Workflow Designer at Wipster, Rollo Wenlock knows that the most effective video workflows cover the entire process, from brainstorming to results. This comprehensive approach streamlines content creation and delivery, allowing team members to focus on making their best work and scaling up production. Here are Rollo’s four pillars of video workflow:

  • Strategy. It’s much easier to scale your video production up exponentially if you laid out a plan to do so right from the beginning. Plus, an effective strategy will identify the goals of your video plan, tell producers who the audience is, and show stakeholders how video can impact the bottom line.
  • Creation. A systematized, templated production process leads to greater efficiency and performance. Plus, collaborating is easier when each team member knows their role and where they fit in the process.
  • Publishing. Why bother with a seamless production workflow if it grinds to a halt after approval? Including publishing in the process increases delivery speed and decreases the potential for human error. Performance metrics should also be accessible and actionable once publishing is complete.
  • Media Asset Management. A comprehensive, searchable media library makes everyone’s job easier. It saves time, leverages evergreen content, avoids repetition, and can spark new ideas.

When your strategy, workflow, performance metrics, and media are seamlessly integrated, your team is able to think creatively rather than getting bogged down in the process. The time and money saved on chasing down assets, approvals, and results can go toward scaling production instead. And when a small team is capable of producing and distributing video content at scale, companies are able to connect, engage, and educate their employees across the globe.

WHY DOES THE BRIGHTCOVE PLAYER VERSION 6 INCLUDE VIDEO.JS 7?

bsp-admin-1 on August 2, 2018

We have recently made a change to our version number policy in the Brightcove Player that has confused some of our customers. I’m writing to let you know what we changed and why we did it.

OVERVIEW

Changes made to Video.js when it was updated from version 6 to version 7 did not significantly alter the behavior of Brightcove Player (details below). These changes didn’t require the kind of special attention and manual opt-in we would usually require with a major version update of Brightcove Player. This is why it’s a major version update for Video.js, but not for Brightcove Player.

We recognize this now takes the Brightcove Player major version out of sync with Video.js, and we recognize this can be slightly confusing to those looking carefully at player internals. But we felt the alternative would have been much more disruptive — to release a Brightcove Player 7 requiring all customers to opt-in to a manual update.

QUICK SUMMARY

  • Changes to major version numbers (first number before the dot) indicate large changes, especially those that break compatibility.
  • Brightcove Player is a superset of Video.js, meaning Video.js forms the core.
  • Starting with version 5 we synchronized major versions to make it easier to keep track of which versions go together; Minor version numbers were never synchronized.
  • We updated the major version of Video.js to 7 because, among other things, we removed Flash support and added HLS support.
  • We decided to keep Brightcove Player at version 6 since we added back Flash support (for IE 11 on Win7) on top of Video.js 7 and since Brightcove Player has always included HLS support (this wasn’t a change).
  • With these additions to Brightcove Player we felt the changes weren’t as huge and didn’t require the kind of special attention and manual opt-in we would usually require with a major version update. This is why it’s a major version update for Video.js but not for Brightcove Player.
  • We’re sorry for the confusion this caused, but we felt keeping the major version at 6 correctly communicated the fact that we expect no disruption with the upgrade from Brightcove Player 6.

WHAT CHANGED?

As of version 6.20 we have now incorporated Video.js 7 as a dependency. In versions 5 and 6 we kept the major version of Video.js and the Brightcove Player the same. Now they’re out of sync again.

OUR OBJECTIVE

Our objective with the Brightcove Player is to provide customers the best user experience with the latest fixes and improvements with the least disruption. Our automatic update system is designed to make sure each version we release has the highest quality and continues to work on our customers’ web sites. We try hard to make every update compatible with existing implementations so our improvements can have the greatest positive impact for our customers.

WHAT MAJOR VERSION NUMBERS MEAN

We use changes in major version numbers (the first number before the dot) to indicate major changes, especially changes that make our player incompatible with existing integrations. A change to the major version number generally means our customers should take note and special care with the upgrade. For example, with the update from version 5 to 6, we decided we would not automatically upgrade any players — we required customers to opt-in to the change. Since version 5, we have also tried to keep the major version of Video.js the same as the corresponding Brightcove Player version, which we felt made it somewhat easier to track, although minor version numbers (the rest of the version numbers after the first dot) have never been synchronized.

VIDEO.JS 7 IN BRIGHTCOVE PLAYER 6

In Video.js 7 we made several major changes including removing Flash support and support for all browsers that require Flash support (older versions of IE). We also added HLS playback support to the core player. These are major changes for Video.js that could have a significant impact on integrations and plugins, which is why we changed the version number.

Brightcove Player is a superset of Video.js, meaning we start with Video.js and add other components to make it easier to use, especially for Brightcove Video Cloud users. As we released Video.js 7 we asked if there was a way to make the improvements in that version available to current Brightcove Player customers without introducing breaking changes that would require an opt-in or other disruptive update. Since Brightcove Player has always had HLS support included by default, the addition of HLS in Video.js 7 was not a change for Brightcove Player 6. Also, by adding Flash support (for IE 11 on Windows 7) in the Brightcove Player superset bundle we determined we could produce a Brightcove Player that was 100% compatible with Brightcove Player 6.

In effect, this means that what is a major, potentially breaking set of changes in Video.js is not nearly as major or potentially breaking for the Brightcove Player. We felt keeping Brightcove Player at version 6 was an accurate way to indicate this and to communicate that there is no reason to take special note or to change integration code.

We recognize this now takes the Brightcove Player major version out of sync with Video.js, and we recognize this can be slightly confusing to those looking carefully at player internals. But we felt the alternative would have been much more disruptive — to release a Brightcove Player 7 requiring all customers to opt-in to a manual update.

I hope this provides you some insight into our decision and why we’re including Video.js 7 with recent Brightcove Player 6 versions. Our goal remains to provide the best user experience with the least disruption with each new version update.