The 2019 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award Winners

There's no shortage of awards in the online video industry, but the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards is still the only one where the winners are chosen by the people who matter most—the end users who use these products and services every day.

This year, more than 2,700 voters cast nearly 28,000 votes in 28 categories that run the gamut from analytics to webcasting and everything in between. After discarding votes from obviously phony email addresses—as well as votes by employees casting ballots for their own companies’ products—we identified the winners and two runners-up 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 simply didn't get enough votes.

The winners were announced November 20 at Streaming Media West at the in Los Angeles. This year's awards are sponsored by AWS, Discover Video, Magewell, and PTZOptics.

Analytics/Quality of Experience Platform
Winner: Nice People at Work (NPAW) YOUBORA Suite
Runners-Up:
Kaltura Advanced Analytics
Mux Data 

Analytics/Quality of Service Platform
Winner: Telestream iQ Solutions Surveyor
Runners-Up:
Interra Systems ORION-OTT
Nanocosmos nanostream Cloud Analytics and Metrics 

Cellular Bonding Solution
Winner: LiveU LU300 HEVC
Runners-Up:
Mushroom Networks Streamer Pro
Teradek Link Pro Backpack

Closed Captioning Solution
Winner: Amazon Web Services Amazon Transcribe
Runners-Up:
IBM Watson Media Captioning
Telestream CaptionMaker

Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Service
Winner: Amazon Web Services Elemental MediaLive
Runners-Up:
Bitmovin Encoding
Telestream Cloud with Flip and QC 

Content Delivery Network
Winner: Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform
Runners-Up:
Amazon Web Services Amazon CloudFront
Verizon Media Multi-CDN

DRM/Access Control Service Provider
Winner: castLabs DRMtoday
Runners-Up:
BuyDRM KeyOS Multi-DRM Platform
EZDRM Universal DRM

Education Video Platform
Winner: Kaltura Video Platform
Runners-Up:
DaCast Online Video Platform
Discover Video DEVOS All-in-One Streaming Platform 

Encoding Software
Winner: Telestream Vantage Transcode Pro
Runners-Up:
Intel Corporation Media SDK
Mux Video

Enterprise Video Platform
Winner: Kaltura Video Platform
Runners-Up:
Brightcove Enterprise Video Suite
Haivision Media Platform 

Hardware ABR Encoder
Winner: Amazon Web Services Elemental Live
Runners-Up:
Haivision KB Video Encoder Series
Wowza Media Systems ClearCaster 

Hardware Input Devices for Live Production
Winner: LiveU LU300 HEVC
Runners-Up:
Magewell USB Capture 4K Plus
Teradek Ace 500

Live Streaming Software/Service
Winner: Wowza Media Systems Streaming Cloud
Runners-Up:
Red5 Pro
Telestream Wirecast 

Media Server
Winner: Wowza Media Systems Streaming Engine
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DEVOS All-in-One Streaming Platform
Red5 Pro Server

OTT Video Platform
Winner: Kaltura TV Platform
Runners-Up:
Akamai Media Services Live
Harmonic VOS360 SaaS

Per-Title Encoding Platform
Winner: Amazon Web Services Elemental QVBR Encoding
Runners-Up:
Bitmovin Per-Title Encoding
Brightcove Context-Aware Encoding

Portable Multicam Streaming Solution (Less Than $1,500)
Winner: Telestream Wirecast Pro
Runners-Up:
Sling Media Sling Studio
vMix 4K 

Portable Multicam Streaming Solution (More Than $1,500)
Winner: Telestream Wirecast Gear
Runners-Up:
Discover Video Spider Encoder
Epiphan Video Pearl Mini

PTZ or Network-Controlled Camera
Winner: Sony BRC-X400
Runners-Up:
Panasonic 30x Zoom PTZ Camera
PTZOptics PT20X-SDI

Quality Control/Monitoring Platform
Winner: Telestream Aurora
Runners-Up:
Interra Systems BATON ABR & ORION-OTT
ViCue Soft VQ Analyzer

Server-Side Ad Insertion Solution
Winner: Amazon Web Services Elemental MediaTailor
Runners-Up:
Brightcove SSAI
Verizon Media Smartplay 

Single- or Dual-Stream Encoding Appliance
Winner: Haivision Makito X4 Video Encoder
Runners-Up:
Amazon Web Services Elemental Live
Extron SMP 300 Series

Small/Medium Business Platform
Winner: DaCast Online Video Platform
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DV Express
Clevercast Corporate Portal 

Video Player Solution/SDK
Winner: THEO Technologies THEOplayer
Runners-Up:
Akamai Adaptive Media Player
Wowza Media Systems Player

Video Quality Metrics Solution
Winner: Telestream PRISM
Runners-Up:
Elecard Video Quality Estimator
Video Clarity ClearView 

Video Switcher/Mixer
Winner: NewTek TriCaster TC1
Runners-Up:
Blackmagic Design ATEM Constellation 8K
Roland V-02 HD

Webcasting/Presentation Solution (Cloud)
Winner: Kaltura Webcasting
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DEVOS Cloud All-in-One Streaming Platform
IBM Watson Media Video Streaming 

Webcasting/Presentation Solution (On-Prem)
Winner: Telestream Wirecast Pro
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DV Express All-in-One Streaming Platform
Sonic Foundry Mediasite