Video Streaming Solution: 7 Steps To Choose The Right Solution

It's no secret that the video streaming market has become a billion-dollar business in today's world. Digitalization is rampant and plenty of video streaming solutions have hopped into the potential profit bandwagon.

Whether it's information or entertainment, audiences have been drifting to the best video streaming solution. If you have a business that could benefit from a media streaming solution, I bet that you are overwhelmed with the number of options out there.

But since videos are the best way to capture your audience’s attention, you have to make an informed decision. In this post, we are going to talk about 7 ways to choose the best video streaming solution for a business. But before that, we are going to highlight why should you choose video streaming software for business growth.

Why Choose Video Streaming Services for Business Growth

The post-pandemic era has caused a boom in the market of educational explainer videos. Students from different academic fields have been using online streaming platforms more than ever now that the virtual world has taken over. This is just one example of why it's important to make streaming more accessible.

The same thing goes for several OTT platforms such as Netflix Amazon prime, and so on when it comes to entertainment. On that note, let's take a look at why you should choose video streaming software for business growth.

1. Build Trust and Credibility

Online streaming solutions help in building trust and credibility. If your videos are polished and presentable, it leaves an indelible brand impression in the mind of the audience. This increases trust and credibility. For instance, if you are sharing your expertise through your videos, your audience will come back for suggestions and advice.

2. Increased Brand Awareness and Conversions

A large segment of your audience is not interested in gawking their eyes on huge chunks of text. Media streaming solutions present the same knowledge in a more appealing way which is likely to catch retention. Streaming Video solution raises brand awareness by putting the word out there. If your audience likes what they see, it increases conversions and further enhances your ROI.

3. Versatility

It doesn't matter what's the nature of your business. Whether you produce entertainment content on your media streaming solution or you are a retailer. It all comes down to good visual appeal and ease of use for your audience. For instance, webinars on a good video streaming platform are a great way to shorten the distance between buyers and sellers.

These are just three of the wide variety of benefits the right video streaming solution can offer for your business. Now, let's move on to how you can make the right choice according to the nature of a business.

Best 4 Online Video Streaming Services

Knowing the 7 ways to choose the right online media streaming platform for your business must have provided you with some handy insides. To help you further along with your decision-making, I am going to list the top best video streaming services.

1.YouTube

With its user base crossing billions, YouTube has become synonymous with infotainment. It has helped plenty of brands maximize their reach, thanks to a plethora of features. However, latency is a big disadvantage along with a compromise in the quality of some videos.

Moreover, if you decide to go live on YouTube the lack of tools can affect the user experience. Fortunately, there is plenty of alternative video streaming software available.

2.VdoCipher

VdoCipher is one of the emerging YouTube alternatives and is a leading online video streaming platform for modern-day businesses. It’s a secure video hosting solution for media, e-learning, and LMS platforms.

The high-end encryption in this video streaming software prevents downloading and screen recording of videos. It offers a customizable video player where you can change speed, add subtitles, forward videos, and rewind them.

3. Vimeo

Vimeo offers a free basic version along with a premium version users can choose from according to their requirements. The former offers a maximum upload limit of 500 MB whereas premium users have 5 GB as their upload limit.

Users can browse a wide range of content free of cost. Some of the formats this video streaming solution supports include FLV, MPEG PS, MOV, MP4, AVI, MPEG4, WebM, WMV, and 3GPP.

4. Dailymotion

Dailymotion is another media streaming platform similar to YouTube which offers a platform for users to upload and host video content. The platform offers Copyright protection tools and is ideal for content creators. There are a few limitations when it comes to video analytics and monetization tools.

7 Steps to Choose The Right Video Streaming Service for Your Business

Choosing the right online streaming platform for your business doesn’t mean that you have to understand the intricacies of how the technology works. Let’s take a look at a 7-step checklist to help you make the right choice.

1. Assess Your Business Requirements and Document Them

Do you think it is a good practice to buy something without knowing what you need? If you are looking for a video streaming platform, the first step is to assess your business requirements.

What's your aim with your streaming services? Is it training, communications, monetization, or something else? When you ask these questions it will help you determine the features that are a must-have in your video streaming software. For instance, what's the bandwidth you will need?

Once you are done assessing your business requirements, it's time to document them. Some details you should document include video security features, video monetization options, video quality, content delivery network, ease of use, and how robust the customer support of an online streaming platform is.

2. Carry Out a Competitive Analysis

Let’s face it. Every business has some competitors that they want to outrank. This calls for a need to carry out a detailed competitive analysis before opting for the best media streaming platforms. Find out the equipment your business needs by checking out what others are using in your industry. The same goes for bandwidth requirements.

3. Compare Prices

Your budget can make or break your plans of opting for a streaming media solution. Therefore, it’s important to determine how much you can afford at the beginning itself. The important thing to know is that media streaming solutions don’t cost a fortune any longer. However, the price tag is still there.

Now that you already have your requirements in a well-documented format, it’s time to start shortlisting video streaming software that offers them. Compare the prices and further narrow down the online streaming platform that offers the best value for your money spent.

4. Check Whether the Video Streaming Service Can WithStand Your Workflow

Even though you think you have found the perfect media streaming solution, if it can’t bear with your workflow, it won’t be of much use to you for the long haul. What is the frequency of your video streaming plan?

Have you hired an engineer for mixing the streams on your video streaming solution? Or are you directly planning on feeding the encoder with unedited videos? Are you working with one or multiple cameras? These are some elements of workflow you need to sort out before investing in streaming media solutions.

5. Eliminate Unsuitable Video Streaming Platforms

Knowing what not to buy is as important as knowing what to buy. You don’t want a media streaming platform that hogs up all your time and makes you do the hardest tasks. Always remember that you are buying ease of use and effortlessness with your hard-earned money.

Any video streaming software whose interface is not a breeze doesn't deserve to be on your list. Similarly, eliminate the options with compromised video clarity and reports.

6. Check For the Must-Have Essential Video Hosting Features

Sometimes, it’s possible to overlook some essential features while you are busy jotting down the features you want. A good business video streaming platform thrives with a high content distribution network or CDN. Choosing a video hosting platform that offers support for subtitles and captions can turn out to be advantageous.

Streaming media solutions with platform API goes a long way. The streaming platform of your choice should have impeccable tech support and customer support via multiple means.

7. Take Free Trials to Shortlist Options

Now that you have a crystal clear idea of the kind of media streaming platform you’re looking forward to, it’s time to do some testing. By this time, you should have a narrowed-down list of possible online streaming solutions.

Most effective video streaming software offers a free trial that provides users access to the most basic features. Usually, the trial periods are limited but not so restricted that you can't make an informed decision. At this step, things are going to get real.

You need to be more careful with eliminations and deciding on deal-breakers when it comes to shortlisting an online video streaming solution. Once you are done trying and testing your top picks, you are most likely to reach a conclusion.

Features To Look For In A Video Streaming Solution

DRM Encryption

As the name suggests, DRM or Digital Rights Management is all about managing the accessing rights of contents, including audio, video, document, and other digital content. DRM program uses specific technology to make a video private with an encryption key. Thereby ensuring that the digital content is protected from unauthorized users or pirates as they won’t be able to decrypt the video with an appropriate key.

A video hosting platform having a DRM encryption feature minimizes the risk of video piracy as it restricts the pirates from viewing, editing, downloading & or sharing the video with the public or to other portals.

Dynamic Watermarking

Dynamic watermarking, in simple terms, is an anti-piracy tool that provides an added layer of security to protect digital content. It involves embedding a text or image on content to offer it better protection over the internet. So, when content creators add a non-removable watermark to their video, it will dynamically display the watermark on the viewer’s screen.

Thus, a video hosting platform with a dynamic watermarking feature will make it easier for them to identify and catch a user potentially exposing their content on the web illegally.

Online Video Player

A video hosting platform offering the best online video player will allow content creators to have more control over their videos. In other words, it lets them understand how the videos are displayed and how users engage and interact with their content.

One of the best online video players to look for in a video hosting platform is the HTML5 Video Player. It is an exceptional player that allows users to play videos on their web browsers without additional plugins. Thus, making it comfortable for both mobile and desktop viewing.

Video API

A Video API is an application programming interface that allows a content creator to perform embedding and uploading of videos automatically. Video APIs are entirely flexible, and they can develop one for any purpose, such as live streaming, video playback, video on demand, and analytics.

Therefore, choose a video hosting platform having a video API that facilitates integration with databases of all kinds and supports custom development.

Video analytics

A video hosting platform providing excellent video analytics helps measure the success of video content. The video analytics feature lets a content creator view video heatmaps which will give a clear picture of the critical performance parameters of their content, such as user engagement, views, average view times, conversion rates, and bounce rates.

Using this information, they can optimize and work on the necessities and transform their site into a captivating video destination.

Scale Your Business With The Right Video Streaming Solution!

Explainer videos, animations, entertainment graphics, interviews, e-learning videos, webinars, and whatnot! Since video marketing is an integral part of businesses, you need the right video streaming solution to make the most out of the means mentioned above. Did this post help you to reach a conclusion? Sound off in the comments section below.

FAQs:

1. What are the advantages of streaming?

Using streaming solutions offers various benefits - No storage space is required for large content, and Users can instantly play the Videos anytime without downloading.

2. What are the fastest-growing video streaming services?

Some of the fastest growing online streaming solutions include Vdocipher, Vimeo

3. What are the most popular media streaming platforms?

The most popular media streaming platforms include YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.