Expanding Your Streaming Infrastructure

In terms of complexity, downloadable clips on Web servers are the simplest implementation, though not always successful for delivering quality content to remote offices. Streaming content delivered from a streaming server or servers is the next step. Then there’s adding an interactive Web interface. The most difficult is a global live Webcast. Which implementation is right depends on the type of content, the audience size, and the location(s). On-demand content with little traffic easily can be handled in-house. Add substantial traffic and concurrent users to the equation—i.e., a company-wide announcement or a live broadcast—and it becomes more feasible, and perhaps even necessary, to outsource to a CDN.

On-demand video gives you plenty of time to bring audio/video of marginal quality up to the required level and to prepare a media presentation for delivery. Non-linear editing systems are used to capture and edit the raw inputs, and encoding software (and sometimes additional hardware) is subsequently used to convert the inputs to streaming formats. Interactive features such as slide/URL flips, chapters, chat windows, and polling can be implemented to provide a custom presentation. The creation of interactive presentations spans many disciplines and can be daunting to the average IT person. Sometimes there are key individuals with a multimedia/streaming background who can create these types of presentations in-house. If not, this can be outsourced as well.

Live Webcasting, on the other hand, can be quite stressful. These broadcasts typically require a video production crew with a switcher for the multi-camera inputs, integrated titling and character generation, as well as a streaming team to take their feed, pre-process it, encode it, and distribute it into the network. Multiple encoders are needed to provide redundancy. Encoder settings must be set correctly and tested beforehand, as you only get one shot at a live event. Therefore, many companies outsource live events to rely on the pros to get it done right.

If an event absolutely has to be live, outsourcing to a CDN is the obvious choice unless your network is stream-ready. The $64,000 question is, does it really have to be live? If your company is global, many employees won’t be able to view the live event because of varying time zones. Taping the event, creating the presentation, and then staggering announcements to smaller groups can dramatically decrease the number of concurrent users, making it possible to stream in-house. In some instances this isn’t feasible and, again, outsourcing to a CDN is the best option.

Other instances of outsourcing may include video production crews for professional results (i.e., lighting, cameras, audio). Capabilities may not be available in-house for capture, pre-processing, editing, encoding, and integration into a Web-based presentation. All of these can be outsourced individually or to a streaming media production firm.

What you outsource obviously depends on what facilities and skills are available in-house. Some companies may have a stream-ready network and a studio/set with great cameras and lighting. Others may have skilled post-production artists that can take a master tape and turn it into a slick presentation but need a CDN to deliver it. Others may need to outsource it all.

Metrics and Measurement
Determining the reliability and quality of streams is vital to any enterprise deploying a streaming media system. CDNs provide usage reports that indicate how long it takes for a stream to start, average viewing and connection speeds, and the relative popularity of various media streams.

If they’re not using a CDN, enterprises need some sort of an information collection and reporting system for their streaming activity. Typically they go the manual route, assigning an IT person to pull the streaming server log files and manually create graphs or charts for visual statistics. This is a tedious task, and interpreting these stats can be a challenge (i.e., the proxy servers). Currently, there are few off-the-shelf solutions to address this—Sane Solutions’ NetTracker being one—indicating a gap in the industry.

CDN providers such as Speedera and Akamai, as well as third parties such as Keynote, have created advanced metrics packages to produce in-depth business analysis reports that enable enterprises to evaluate the effectiveness of their services, monitor and report on audience traffic, and accurately bill advertisers and content owners. Regardless of the approach—internal, third-party, or CDN—usage metrics are an essential tool for evaluating the effectiveness of their streams and delivering ROI.

Conclusion
Streaming media has been around for more than a decade now and no longer has to prove its value. Statistics show it is being used and consumed on a broad and ever-expanding scale. In today’s business climate of globalization, cutbacks, and offshoring, a streaming initiative can provide substantial value in faster time-to-market for products/services, cost-effective training applications and regulatory compliance, and higher productivity, to name just a few benefits.

The key challenge facing enterprises, then, is to reach a stream-ready state. Every instance will be different based on current network capability, in-house skills, and particular streaming requirements. In the interest of cost savings, more effective communications, and leveraged business applications, executives should consider allowing their in-house experts or external systems integrators to evaluate the state of their streaming capabilities and create a roadmap to a stream-ready infrastructure. If not, they’ll be far behind their competitors and will be spending more for less.