by Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen
October 15, 2009

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To say we were pleasantly surprised by the interest in the inaugural Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Awards would be the understatement of the year, right up there with “The economy took a bit of a dip, didn’t it?” and “Maybe British MPs shouldn’t include moat cleanings in their expenses.”

We’ve had a successful Readers’ Choice Awards program in the U.S. version of our magazine since 2007, but we weren’t sure how well it would go over on this side of the pond, given that it came less than a year after we launched the European edition. Turns out we had no need to worry. Readers and vendors nominated more than 200 products and services to be considered, and when all was said and done, more than 5,500 total votes were cast by more than 2,700 readers of the magazine and StreamingMediaGlobal.com.

That shines a spotlight on just how vital and vibrant the online video (and audio—let’s hear it for internet music!) remains, even in the midst of this economic, er, dip. Clearly, people are more excited about online media than ever, whether from the consumer angle or the perspective of a technician working a webcast in the field.

Before we get to the winners, here’s a little look behind the scenes. In May, we asked readers and vendors to submit their nominations on 12 categories. Once those nominations were sorted—occasionally, products were nominated in an inappropriate category and so had to be moved—we posted the nominees on StreamingMedia Global.com and opened voting in July. Voting closed on 21 Aug., giving us time to weed out the obviously bogus email addresses (you know who you are!) before we announced the top three finalists in each category on 7 Sept.

Of our 12 categories, the online video platform category received the largest number of both nominations (26) and votes (1,030). To our surprise, the best live webcast category pulled in the fewest nominations—eight—while the reporting and analytics category garnered the fewest total votes, 290. What was perhaps most heartening about both the nominations and the results was the mix of startups and established players, as well as the variety of countries they represent. Clearly, no single country dominates the European online video space—and only one winner is based outside of Europe (though it has a strong European presence).

Note that we’ve listed the winner and top two runnersup in each category, along with the percentages of total votes each received in that category. And so, without further ado, here are the 2009 Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Award Winners!

Best Live Webcast
Winner: FlyOnTheWall—2009 G20 London Summit (28%)
Runners Up:
Global-MIX—World's First 3D Webcast for Keane (18%)
Highwinds—U.S. Presidential Inauguration (13%)

Best Streaming Innovation
Winner: Flumotion—Flumotion Streaming Software (30%)
Runners Up:
BeBanjo—Sequence (22%)
LiveU—LU-30 Mobile Live Video Uplink Service (7%)

Delivery Network
Winner: Global-MIX—Global Mix CDN (25%)
Runners Up:
Limelight Networks—Limelight Content Delivery Service (15%)
Oversi—OverCache MSP (11%)

Music & Audio Delivery Platform
Winner: I2i Online—Show Me How to Play (59%)
Runners Up:
Glastonbury Broadcasting Ltd.—Glastonbury Radio (17%)
Spotify—Spotify (13%)

Online Video Platform
Winner: StreamCity Ltd.—Magic Publisher (19%)
Runners Up:
Datmedia, Ltd.—Datpresenter (12%)
Vzaar—Vzaar Video Hosting Service for Online Merchants (10%)

Reporting & Analytics
Winner: Nedstat—StreamSense (28%)
Runners Up: Actus Digital—Insight (19%)
Sawmill—Sawmill (17%)

Streaming Services Provider
Winner: FlyOnTheWall—Live and On-Demand Streaming Media Production and Distribution Services (15%)
Runners Up:
Global-MIX—Global-MIX Media Services (12%)
Ipercast—Ipercast Streaming Solutions (11%)

Transcoding Solution
Winner: G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH—G&L Encoding (17%)
Runners Up:
Digital Rapids—StreamZ/DRC-Stream (11%)
Telestream—Episode Series (6%)

TV Over IP Solution
Winner: BeBanjo—Sequence (38%)
Runners Up: Ankeena Networks (formerly Nokeena Networks, Inc.)—Media Flow Director (12%)
Snap.tv—SnapTV (8%)

User-Generated Content Platform
Winner: Stream UK Media Services—Stream UK Crowdsourcer (31%)
Runners Up
Dailymotion—Dailymotion.com (29%)
Never.no—Community TV (19%)

Video Advert Platform
Winner: SundaySky—Automated Video Solution (39%)
Runners Up:
Videoplaza—Monetizer (27%)
Adswizz SA—Adswizz (20%)

Webcast Platform
Winner: Sonic Foundry—Mediasite (34%)
Runners Up:
Datmedia Ltd.—Datpresenter (24%)
BGA Group—ims*Meeting Software (14%)