the enterprise video superguide - …...superguide the enterprise video superguide may 2014...

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THE ENTERPRISE VIDEO SUPERGUIDE

PLATINUM SPONSOR

VOLUME 1, NO. 3 OF A SERIES OF BUYER’S GUIDES TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

SPONSORED CONTENT MAY 2014 streamingmedia.com

A recent survey of corporate

communications professionals by research

and training organization Melcrum

revealed that 93% of respondents believe

video has become a vital tool for internal

communications. Additional research

from the leading business associations and

publishers for corporate communicators

shows that medium and large corporations

across all industries are actively searching for

ways to leverage video to enhance executive

messaging, improve the effectiveness of

training, connect the distributed workforce,

and enable knowledge sharing.

With the inevitable increase in use of

on-demand video and live webcasting

inside the enterprise, organizations

will need to select an enterprise video

platform that can serve as an engaging

social portal, as well as a content

management solution that simultaneously

solves the unique distribution challenges

associated with streaming content across

corporate networks. The current situation

at many companies—where videos for

marketing, HR, internal communications

and sales live in disconnected silos—must

give way to a centralized approach with

a single, easily-managed repository that

provides robust analytics and enterprise-

grade controls.

At MediaPlatform we frequently

encounter companies leveraging separate

solutions for internal presentations,

marketing videos, internal webcasting,

and external events—with no integration

between the tools and no single interface

for managing the content. MediaPlatform

provides a suite of fully integrated

technologies designed to serve as the

single location for all streaming media

content inside the enterprise, while

simultaneously solving the challenges of

managing, creating, and distributing video

across corporate networks.

MEDIAPLATFORM PRIMETIME MediaPlatform PrimeTime is the best-

in-class enterprise video platform, a.k.a.

enterprise YouTube. PrimeTime is the

industry’s most advanced enterprise rich

media management and video portal. It

is the central place where your employees

and partners can search, view, manage,

rate, and share streaming video through

an intuitive, channel-based portal.

MEDIAPLATFORM WEBCASTERMediaPlatform WebCaster gives your

organization the tools to easily produce,

broadly distribute, and monitor deeply

interactive live, mock live, and on-demand

rich media webcasts to audiences of

unlimited size. MediaPlatform WebCaster

lets you stream live video presentations to

anyone, anywhere, on any device.

MEDIAPLATFORM SMARTPATHMediaPlatform pioneered a unique

approach to webcasting that enables a

pervasive delivery of presentations across

virtually any type of delivery scenario.

MediaPlatform SmartPath provides a

framework to define the particular set of

media distribution and failover rules that

makes sense for your organization.

MEDIAPLATFORM SMARTEDGEMediaPlatform SmartEdge is an

enterprise-grade CDN (eCDN) that is

focused on the acceleration/optimization of

HTTP(S) video delivery within the enterprise

network. SmartEdge provides enterprises

with a cost-efficient solution for deploying an

eCDN specifically catering to videos served

from MediaPlatform’s applications, namely

PrimeTime and WebCaster. MediaPlatform

SmartEdge contrasts with generic HTTP

optimization devices such as those from

Riverbed and Bluecoat, which focus on

generic caching of all HTTP(S) traffic, are not

generally focused on video traffic, and have a

very high implementation cost.

THE MEDIAPLATFORM ADVANTAGEDEPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY

MediaPlatform was built for the cloud

and requires no hardware installs. We also

support on-premises and hybrid-SaaS

deployments. MediaPlatform has spent

years developing and deploying a world

class, enterprise-grade video platform

for live and on-demand video streaming,

webcasting, and video asset management.

We offer complete deployment flexibility

to suit the varying needs of small, medium,

and large enterprises.

While SaaS and hybrid SaaS deployments

for an enterprise video platform have become

the preferred architecture for most enterprises

today due to the many benefits including

lower costs and accelerated deployment,

MediaPlatform understands that for some

customers an on-premises deployment is

still the only viable option. MediaPlatform’s

systems can be installed as virtual machines

and deployed on virtual servers. Each

component of the MediaPlatform application

is its own virtual machine.

The Enterprise Video Platform as the Future of Corporate Communications

Superguide 3: THE ENTERPRISE VIDEO SUPERGUIDE MAY 2014 SPONSORED CONTENT

SECURITYMediaPlatform provides enterprise-

grade security and governance by

authenticating users via enterprise

single sign-on (ESSO). The first layer of

security is at the application sign-on layer.

MediaPlatform will integrate with the

enterprise Active Directory system and

require the user to authenticate with the

enterprise itself prior to being allowed

into the MediaPlatform environment. This

integration is accomplished via the SAML

2.0 standard.

FULLY INTEGRATED RICH MEDIA WEBCASTING FROM THE CLOUD

MediaPlatform is the only leading

enterprise video platform that can deliver a

pure SaaS solution for peer-assisted multicast

streaming of live video without requiring

client installs. This breakthrough technology

makes it possible to securely reach thousands

of employees with high-quality video without

installing anything behind the firewall.

Peer-assisted multicasting, or P2P

multicasting, is 100% browser-based. It

requires no client installs, and in many

scenarios requires no media server behind

the firewall. The value of leveraging peer-

assisted multicasting from the cloud includes

all of the benefits of a SaaS solution—nothing

to install or manage, a very low total cost of

ownership, and a rapid return on investment

(ROI). Additional benefits include moving the

video streaming traffic off of the wide area

network (WAN) and onto the cloud, which

minimizes network impact and eliminates

the need for additional media servers or

network infrastructure to support streaming.

PRIMETIMEMediaPlatform PrimeTime is a

robust, fully customizable, enterprise

video platform with an intuitive portal

interface for managing all video assets

inside the organization. PrimeTime is

fully integrated with MediaPlatform

WebCaster to form a cohesive video

content management solution.

PrimeTime is an excellent way to

manage corporate, or employee contributed

content, while building community and

user engagement with friendly video search

and browsing, video upload, video capture,

annotation, sharing, and more. This media

management software allows you to create

your own online enterprise video platform/

portal for delivering media content used

for corporate communications, training,

collaboration, and marketing.

PRIMETIME BENEFITS• Portal interface—Employees can

easily navigate the platform and start

uploading, searching and curating

content.

• Makes all media content accessible in

one place—PrimeTime eliminates the

risk of material getting lost in multiple

repositories.

• Increases the reach of video and

webcasts in your organization—

Employees can time-shift and watch at

their own convenience on PC or mobile.

• Increases the impact of video-based

training—Employees can comment

and share, generating views of the most

useful training media.

• Enables intelligent sharing and

preservation of knowledge—Channels,

playlists, and social networking features

let employees help one another find

valuable organizational knowledge.

• Uses Web Services—Integrates with

third-party portals and applications.

• Employee generated video content—

Allows easy sharing of knowledge from

desktop, tablet, or mobile device

PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTSEASY ON-DEMAND CONTENT CREATION

MediaPlatform PrimeTime is the

central repository for all your enterprise

video content. Video can be added to

PrimeTime via upload, webcam capture,

embed code, URL (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.),

or MediaPlatform WebCaster URL.

PrimeTime has built-in customizable

transcoding profiles and options to meet

all of your considerations—bitrate, file

formats, devices, and browsers. PrimeTime

also gives you the option to re-transcode

your video content when needed.

MOBILE STREAMING AND UPLOADINGToday’s information workers are

increasingly demanding the ability to

view and create video content on a variety

of mobile devices. MediaPlatform is the

leader in providing solutions that support

on-demand and live video consumption as

MediaPlatform PrimeTime


well as the creation of employee generated

content on iPad®, iPhone®, Android® and

Windows devices. MediaPlatform supports

adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming for HLS

and HTTP streaming for MP4.

ADAPTIVE BITRATE STREAMINGMediaPlatform provides optimal playback

by using adaptive bitrate technology that

automatically selects the most appropriate

flavor asset for playback, based on the viewer’s

specific connection and other parameters.

SOCIAL FEATURES MediaPlatform supports social sharing,

rating, tagging, and commenting. Custom

embed code can be generated, and deep

linking through the URL can be achieved

as well. Downloadable attachments can

also be associated with on-demand and

live video content.

PLAYLISTS Users have the option to create playlists for

organizing and sharing content relevant to a

particular topic. Playlists can be viewed inside

PrimeTime or embedded on a web page.

SEARCHMediaPlatform makes it easy to organize

all of your video assets with functionality that

lets users search content by type, channel,

contributor, rating, playlist, date, or duration.

CHANNEL-CENTRIC ASSET MANAGEMENT Asset management has a channel-centric

approach. With channel management

permissions, users with the appropriate

authorization can create and edit new

channels or add content to existing channels.

MediaPlatform gives administrators the

ability to grant or deny access to specific

pieces of content.

MediaPlatform provides options for

corporate and user channels.

ANALYTICS Analytics are available for uploads,

embeds, archived MediaPlatform

webcasts, and URLs hosted inside

the platform. Available information

includes top videos, top contributors,

top viewers, browser, and

operating system.

CAPTIONING/TRANSCRIPTION MediaPlatform offers automated or

full-service captioning and transcription

services. Subtitles and captions are fully

searchable. Interactive transcripts are

available to supplement captions and

subtitles by enabling users to navigate,

search, and interact with the video in any

language. Captions and transcripts also

increase video SEO.

ROLES-BASED PERMISSIONSWith role-based permissions,

MediaPlatform gives enterprises the ability to

control who can create and manage content

and view channels, content and analytics.

LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENTLife cycle management is a workflow

feature specific to the enterprise and

typically not available in online video

platform (OVP) solutions. As the amount

of video content increases so does the

complexity of managing the media.

MediaPlatform gives administrators the

ability to schedule asset lifecycle events.

Once these events are scheduled they will

execute automatically, which allows for

easy management of an asset’s full lifecycle.

Asset lifecycle events include activation,

deactivation, delete, feature, or unfeature.

AUDIT LOGGINGThis is a critical feature for the enterprise.

MediaPlatform provides a graphical interface

that allows your organization to access the

activity around video assets. Events include

settings events, asset life cycle events,

representation events, and login events.

WEBCASTERThe need to communicate and connect

with employees and customers has driven

the evolution of presentation technologies.

Fueled by an ever-greater demand for a

richer, more engaging, interactive multimedia

experience, organizations are increasingly

moving away from older web conferencing

technologies and towards solutions

that incorporate video and rich media.

MediaPlatform WebCaster is fully integrated

with PrimeTime.

With WebCaster you can reach

audiences in excess of hundreds of

thousands of live concurrent viewers

with presentations that feature streaming

video, PowerPoint® slides, audio, surveys,

polls, and screencasting. WebCaster is

designed for demanding, live webcasts

with multiple presenters in remote

locations or sophisticated pre-recorded

presentations. MediaPlatform WebCaster

is fully integrated with MediaPlatform

PrimeTime.

WEBCASTER BENEFITS• Powers Teamwork—WebCaster is

designed for media professionals tasked

with designing, building, and running

webcasts in demanding production

conditions.

PrimeTime Social Features


• Enables Simply Perfect Presentations—

Webcast to internal or external

audiences.

• Integrates with Enterprise Systems—

Web services architecture facilitates

broad application connectivity.

• Delivers Enterprise-Wide Deployment,

Scalability and Redundancy—

WebCaster is suited for stand-alone

as well as large-scale webcasting

operations.

• Handles Multiple Webcasts—

Administrators can simultaneously

operate multiple events.

WEBCASTER HIGHLIGHTS

EASY WEBCAST CREATION Events can be created, deployed,

and managed by a single webcast

producer. WebCaster makes teamwork

easy by giving users the ability to assign

production roles to separate individuals,

matching the makeup of your production

team. Multiple administrators can also

simultaneously operate one or more

webcasts.

CUSTOM PLAYERS AND SKINS

Webcaster’s

portfolio of

templates allow

for branding and

customization.

Polls, surveys, Q&A, and social media can

be embedded in the player.

MULTIPLE REMOTE PRESENTERS AND SOURCESFeature multiple presenters in-studio,

on webcam or the phone. Mix in pre-

recorded video or audio streams. Support

for screencasting.

LIVE CONTROLWebCaster provides an easy-to-use

interface for controlling and monitoring

the elements of your live webcast, such as

video, slides, Q&A, polls, and attendance.

MOBILE COMPATIBILITYCreate live and on-demand webcasts that

can viewed on any tablet or smartphone.

AUTOMATED NOTIFICATIONSWebCaster’s built-in email functionality

facilitates easy automation of registration

notifications, event reminders, and archive

availability.

AUTO-ARCHIVINGWebcast recordings are available

immediately following the event.

Archives live at the same domain as the

live broadcast to make it easy for your

audience to view webinars they could

not attend or for sharing recordings with

their colleagues.

SOCIAL Easily share, rate, tag, and embed

archived webcasts. Twitter feeds can

also be embedded on the viewer

interface to allow the audience to

engage with your content via the

popular microblogging site.

REPORTING AND ANALYTICS Reporting and analytics

functionality gives you dynamic,

graphic displays of attendance, length

of viewing, operating system, and other

indicators of audience engagement.

Analytics also provides a graphical

display showing where your audience is

viewing your presentation.

CERTIFICATIONSWebCaster is able to automatically

generate a certificate of attendance to

confirm that an audience member has

viewed a webcast. This functionality

is perfect for training programs and

continuing education.

WebCaster Templates

The WebCaster Production Interface


VIDEO DELIVERY

MEDIAPLATFORM SMARTPATHMediaPlatform offers enterprises the

unique ability to webcast to virtually

any end user, regardless of location or

content distribution technology. We call

this MediaPlatform SmartPath.

SmartPath provides an “overlay

network” which combines all of the

media distribution technologies that are

applicable in different situations. For

instance, audience participants on the

general internet may be good candidates

to receive their stream from a content

delivery network (CDN) such as Akamai,

while other viewers may be good

candidates for Adobe Multicast Fusion.

Each audience participant will receive

the media stream that makes sense for

them (e.g. HTML5 over HTTP streaming

or Flash video over RTMP) delivered

over the most efficient and network-

safe technology possible (e.g. a CDN or

eCDN or WAN Acceleration device, and

so forth.)

MediaPlatform SmartPath solves the

challenges of delivering live content

to all audience members through an

abstraction layer which leverages all

necessary distribution options when

appropriate. This approach, which

we call pervasive webcasting, uses a

rule-based IP address analysis to assign

a compatible stream to each delivery

technology dynamically.

To illustrate how SmartPath works,

consider how you would efficiently

webcast a presentation to a dozen

locations behind the firewall, some of

which are multicast enabled, others

that are accessible to an enterprise

CDN (eCDN)—and still others that not.

You would need to reach people in the

public, as well as those on iOS devices.

Using MediaPlatform’s SmartPath, you

could leverage all existing delivery

solutions in tandem with suitable

delivery mechanisms where needed.

For example, for locations that lacked

eCDN service, you could do peer-to-peer

webcasting from a cloud-based media

server. MediaPlatform’s WebCaster

can be configured to match streams to

deliver solutions by IP address range and

other factors.

MEDIAPLATFORM SMARTEDGEAs enterprises increasingly leverage

video for corporate communications,

training, knowledge sharing, and

collaboration, the ability to deliver

streaming media content without

negatively impacting corporate

networks is increasingly important.

MediaPlatform SmartEdge is an eCDN

that provides network-friendly delivery

of secure, high-quality, on-demand

video and live rich media webcasts to

any desktop, tablet, or mobile device.

MediaPlatform SmartEdge works in

conjunction with cloud or on-premises

deployments of the MediaPlatform suite

of products, which combine to form

the leading enterprise video content

management solution on the market.

SmartEdge lets you distribute video in

multiple formats and enables delivery

of content to your global workforce with

support for adaptive bitrate streaming.

SmartEdge provides a network with

advanced streaming and dynamic

caching features to optimize your

existing infrastructure, and can function

as the sole video distribution platform

or integrate with other CDNs. Minimize

network load and maximize cost savings

by pre-positioning on-demand video

content and maintaining a single stream

across the WAN or LAN for live webcasts.

SmartEdge nodes can be deployed at

as many edge locations as desired. With a

central location for tracking distribution,

running reports, and managing your

SmartEdge topology, SmartEdge lets you

easily manage your infrastructure.

MediaPlatform includes a security

framework that ensures enterprise-grade

control over delivery of your corporate

video. This security overlay allows

administrators to govern privileges

throughout the supported workflows

to only allow authorized users to

request, receive and publish content.

Authentication and access control is

provided via integration with a corporate

user directory such as Active Directory (or

any LDAP compliant directory system).

ENTERPRISE SECURITY Security is where an enterprise

video platform really differs from the

more consumer-focused online video

platform or OVP. Security is paramount

inside the enterprise and the key is to be

sure your content is protected at every

layer of the stack. MediaPlatform allows

organizations to apply enterprise-grade

security in any deployment scenario.

MediaPlatform provides enterprise

grade security and governance by

authenticating users via enterprise

single sign-on (ESSO). ESSO has many

advantages related to improving the

security of video content inside the

organization. With single sign-on,

authentication is handled by the

enterprise, so there is no need to manually

change permissions inside the video

content management solution. The first

layer of security is at the application sign

on layer. MediaPlatform will integrate with

the enterprise Active Directory system

and require the user to authenticate with

the enterprise itself prior to being allowed

into the MediaPlatform environment. This

integration is accomplished via the SAML

2.0 standard.

The MediaPlatform integration

method not only helps keep the content

secure but also provides the most

efficient method for passing information

regarding employment status changes.

If a new hire is brought on board at an

enterprise, one of the first steps is to

add the user to the enterprise active

directory. When the employee is put


into the active directory they will also

be able to log into MediaPlatform. If

an enterprise has channels in their

MediaPlatform instance that require

a certain career level or department

to access, when an individual is

promoted or joins that department

that information will be updated in the

enterprise directory and the next time

the user signs into MediaPlatform the

permissions related to the promotion

will be passed to MediaPlatform and

the user will automatically have access

to the correct channels. The same is

true when an employee leaves the

company; when the active directory is

updated the user will no longer have

access to the MediaPlatform application.

Authentication is handled on the

enterprise side and after authentication

attributes for the user are passed to

MediaPlatform. Taking this approach

allows the enterprise to maintain the

level-one security on the enterprise side

where it will be kept the most current

and up to date.

MEDIAPLATFORM SHAREPOINT INTEGRATION

The MediaPlatform integration

for Microsoft SharePoint transforms

SharePoint’s basic media functionality into

an engaging internal communications

solution with advanced media management

features. MediaPlatform provides a superior

video streaming experience for desktops,

the web, and mobile devices; sophisticated

video transcoding; customizable video

channels; advanced integrated search; live

video streaming; and more.

Users can upload videos directly

from the SharePoint user interface and

link to other SharePoint content, such

as related documents, from the same

publishing screen. Users can assign tags,

select or generate thumbnails, allow

ratings, and set permissions. Videos can

also be recorded directly from a webcam

to capture presentations, sessions, and

meetings.

Videos can be added directly to

channels created in MediaPlatform and

departmental permissions can be set

to allow or restrict viewing of content.

Individuals can also be given permission

to create their own channels for sharing

user generated content.

KEY BENEFITS

• Centralized management of all media

• Optimal video delivery to desktop,

tablet and mobile device

• Integrated video search

• Distribute rich media webcasts to all

employees inside SharePoint

• Enables employee generated content (EGC)

• Files stored outside of SharePoint, no

limit on video size

MEDIAPLATFORM FOR SHAREPOINT HIGHLIGHTS

• Secure - User access based on viewer

permissions

• Easy uploading - allows users to add

video in any file format. MediaPlatform

transcodes multiple output formats to

support all browsers and devices

• Superb video playback quality -

Use of adaptive bitrate streaming

technologies and Tier 1 CDNs

• Mobile - Video for mobile devices is fully

supported with automated transcoding

for iOS, Android, and Windows

• Custom Web Parts - Users can add

videos, playlists and channels to any

SharePoint page

• Link to SharePoint - Documents and other

files can be included when adding videos

• Social video - Functionality allows

commenting, rating, tagging and sharing

• MediaPlatform SmartPath - Reach any

user, anywhere on any device

ABOUT MEDIAPLATFORMMediaPlatform, Inc. is an enterprise video platform enabling on-demand streaming and live rich media webcasting for corporate communications, training, collaboration and knowledge sharing. MediaPlatform provides organizations with the tools to deliver streaming content to internal or external viewers anywhere on any device, regardless of location or content distribution technology.MediaPlatform for SharePoint

PLATINUM SPONSOR

For information on participating in the next white paper

in the Superguide series, contact:

Joel Unickow, Publisher [email protected] Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055TEL: 250.716.8815 MOBILE: 250.797.5635

2014

143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055

VOLUME 1 OF A SERIES OF BUYER’S GUIDES TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

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