The 2021 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Award Winners

Each year, the voting in the Streaming Media Readers' Choice awards brings plenty of surprises, and this year is no different. Sure, some of the winners might be ones we would have predicted, but there are just as many that defy expectations. And that's a good thing, a reminder that, when it comes to choosing solutions providers, the "obvious choice" isn't always the best one.

This year's awards brought in 200 nominees, which were then voted on by StreamingMedia.com readers. Nearly 2,000 readers cast 14,600 votes in 22 categories that reflect both the Streaming Media and Streaming Media Producer purviews. After discarding votes from obviously phony email addresses, as well as votes by employees casting ballots for their own companies' products, we identified top three vote-getters in each category. Many of the names are familiar, even expected, but you'll find more than a few surprises in the list that follows. And if you're surprised that a company isn't represented, well, all we can say is that it either wasn't nominated or didn't get enough votes.

Thanks to all who nominated and voted, and thanks to Discover Video for sponsoring this year's awards. We're looking forward to another in-person awards ceremony at Streaming Media West 2022!

Analytics/Quality of Experience (QoE)

Winner: Bitmovin Video Analytics

Runners-Up:
Datazoom Platform
Telestream Inspector Live

Analytics/Quality of Service (QoS)

Winner: Telestream Surveyor ABR Active

Runners-Up:
Touchstream Virtual NOC
Edgecast Smartplay Stream Routing

Best New Streaming Innovation

Winner: Bitmovin Fast Multi-Resolution and Multi-Rate Encoding for HTTP Adaptive Streaming Using Machine Learning

Runners-Up
BirdDog Cloud Connect
PTZOptics PT Superjoy G1

Cellular Bonding Solution

Winner: LU800 Production-Level Field Unit

Runners-Up:
Teradek VidiU Go
TVU Networks TVU One

Closed Captioning Solution

Winner: Telestream CaptionMaker/MacCaption

Runners-Up:
EEG Video Falcon and Lexi
Encoding.com Cloud Media Processing Platform

Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Services

Winner: Amazon Web Services AWS Elemental MediaLive

Runners-Up:
Bitmovin Bitmovin Cloud Connect
Wowza Media Systems Wowza Streaming Cloud

Content Delivery Network (Including Edge)

Winner: Amazon Web Services Amazon CloudFront

Runners-Up:
Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform
Google Cloud CDN

Corporate Video/Enterprise Video Content Management Platform

Winner: Haivision Media Platform

Runners-Up:
Brightcove Enterprise Video Suite
Kaltura Enterprise Video Platform

DRM/Content Protection

Winner: Amazon Web Services AWS Elemental Media Package

Runners-Up:
Bitmovin/Nagra Forensic Watermarking/Bitmovin & Nagra Integration
Verimatrix Multi-DRM Core

Encoding Hardware for Live Production

Winner: BirdDog - BirdDog 4K QUAD

Runners-Up:
Haivision Makito X4 Encoder
LiveU LU800 PRO 4 Multi-Camera, Production-Level Contribution Encoder

Live Streaming Service

Winner: Resi Live Stream and Multisite Platform

Runners-Up:
Amazon Web Services Amazon Interactive Video Service
LiveU Matrix Cloud Video Management and Distribution Platform with New Dynamic Share & Global Directory

Meeting/Collaboration/Webcasting Solution

Winner: Zoom Webcasting

Runners-Up:
Cisco WebEx
Telestream Wirecast

On-Prem Encoding/Transcoding Solution

Winner: LiveU LU800 PRO 4 Multi-Camera, Production-Level Contribution Encoder

Runners-Up:
Amazon Web Services AWS Elemental Live
Haivision Makito X4 Encoder

OTT Video Platform

Winner: Brightcove Brightcove Beacon

Runners-Up:
Kaltura Cloud TV Platform
Zype Video Infrastructure

Per-Title Encoding Solution

Winner: Bitmovin Bitmovin Per-Title

Runners-Up:
Brightcove Brightcove Context Aware Encoding
Harmonic VOS®360 Cloud Streaming Platform

PTZ or Network-Controlled Camera

Winner: PTZOptics PT30X-NDI

Runners-Up

BirdDog BirdDog P400
Panasonic AW-UE150

Quality Control Monitoring Platform

Winner: Akamai Broadcast Control Center

Runners-Up:
Encoding.com Cloud Media Processing Platform
Telestream iiVMS ASM

Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) Solution

Winner: Amazon Web Services AWS Elemental MediaTailor

Runners-Up:
Edgecast Channel Scheduler
Flussonic Flussonic Media Server

Single- or Dual-Stream Encoding Hardware

Winner: LiveU LU800 PRO 4 Multi-Camera, Production-Level Contribution Encoder

Runners-Up
Haivision Haivision Makito X1 Rugged Encoder
Resi Resi Single and Dual Channel Encoders

Video Mixer (Less Than $1,500)

Winner: Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Extreme

Runners-Up:
Roland V-8HD
Telestream Wirecast Pro

Video Mixer (More Than $1,500)

Winner: Blackmagic Design - ATEM Production Studio 4K

Runners-Up:
NewTek - TriCaster 2 Elite
Telestream - Wirecast Gear

Video Quality Metrics Solution

Winner: Telestream - iQ Video Quality Assurance

Runners-Up:
IdeaNova Technologies, Inc. - Inshow
SSIMWAVE - SSIMWAVE VOD Monitor

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