Choosing the right streaming platform can make or break your content – here’s things to look out for.
Whether it’s an on-demand video or an event that needs to be broadcast live, finding the right streaming platforms to sell your content to without losing quality or control over the end result is important.
There are many options out there – free and paid – that can do the job. However, they don’t all have the same qualities and features to make your content shine.
Choosing a professional platform allows you to stay in full control of your videos, ensure they remain of high quality and that you continue to produce valuable content.
What to Look for in a Streaming Platform
There are some prominent places where you can host your on-demand video for free, and there are others that allow you to live stream.
However, these free platforms have a few disadvantages compared to professional platforms.
When looking at a free option, ask yourself – “why is it free”. Often you’ll find that platform is either severely limiting in what you can achieve or is making money off your content some other way.
Advertising
Free platforms have to make money somehow, and a large part of this is through ads.
Whether they’re before your video, halfway through or surrounding the player, they’re disruptive and annoy viewers! It dilutes and distracts from your message, considerably impacting the number of people watching your video and staying until the end.
Worse, those ads are usually targeted to the viewer, delivering ads from the competition. Many free options have their branding on the player as a subtle way to promote their service to your viewers. A truly white-labelled player will make sure your brand and your video are always in focus.
Quality
You’ve invested in a professional setup for your production; you know quality matters and don’t want to lose that through the hosting or streaming platform.
Professional platforms will offer HD quality as standard. When you’re paying for a service, it’s easier to guarantee and to expect high quality than when it’s free.
You should make sure your platform includes access to an HTML5 video player, and this ensures your video can be viewed on all modern devices worldwide.
Control
Free platforms aren’t designed for professionals.
While many choose to use them, they’re designed to cater to the needs of hobbyists and amateurs and therefore don’t offer you the same detailed level of control over every step in the video streaming process.
This includes everything from who can view the video and where it can be embedded to the player’s look, feel, and size.
Multiple Campaigns
If you’re part of an agency or production company, you might be running multiple video campaigns for different purposes or clients simultaneously.
A professional platform will offer the ability to manage all of your clients’ files and live streams separately that can be organised entirely to your requirements.
Along those same lines, a professional platform’s campaign management system will also allow you to share previews with clients, inviting them to view and be part of the video campaigns that you are running for them.
Support
On-demand video is relatively straightforward; you upload, and you embed with a few options along the way.
Live streaming, however, can be technical to set up, with many external and environmental factors that need to be considered – this is often where video professionals will need the most support.
Different professional platforms offer different levels of support, but you should always expect to be able to get in touch with someone who can help you.
Whether it’s the basic setup or answering a complicated streaming question, you should expect a professional platform to offer you complete support as standard.
What are the Video Streaming Costs?
Most streaming providers offer tiered packages based on usage, but you should also check what features are available.
Usage is usually based on storage for your video files, and bandwidth, for the delivery of video across the provider’s network. Make sure the platform has flexible plans available so you don’t end up having to upgrade for extra bandwidth and paying for storage you don’t need.
You might think switching to a professional streaming platform is a significant investment, but it might also not be as expensive as you think – Zidivo offers all the benefits above for both on-demand and live streaming at just £20 a month.
They also offer a free 30-day trial period so you can get to grips with the platform and have a personal consultation with one of their streaming experts before you commit.
Learn more about Zidivo
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