Concept
In the streaming world, the term “channels” has evolved into a new type of meaning. Before the fragmentation of the online entertainment world, channels generally meant “brand”. As viewers, we expected certain types of programming on channels. (I’m showing my age here, but, yes, there was a time when I had to get up and turn a knob to change a channel.)
In the IBM Video Streaming platform, designed specifically for businesses, channels now mean “themes”. By default, the system requires that you put your videos into one channel at minimum. Because you define this function, channels give you the opportunity to think about your growing library of videos and organize them into viewer-centric categories.
Business Use Cases
Here are some business- and viewer-centric category ideas. In the example lists below, IBM Video Streaming for Enterprise offers the potential of categorizing videos for internal (employee) use. IBM Video Streaming is a secure internet-facing subscription service for external audiences such as vendors, partners and customers.
Internal
- Town Hall replays
- HR
- Leadership
- What’s new (sales enablement)
- Marketing
- Tech Talks
- Training
External
- For partners (sales enablement)
- Customer Service
- Tips and Tricks
- Product Training
- Vendor or Contractor Training
Multiple Categories
Wondering if you can have the same video in more than one category? Yes, absolutely. IBM Video Streaming makes it easy. When you save a live broadcast or upload a video, you assign it to one channel. You can then use the copy function to make it available in other channels.
Internal Security
Organizing videos into channels raises interesting questions. For example: can you restrict channels to specific employees (for example, those in a leadership cohort)? Yes. IBM Video Streaming for Enterprise lets you respect existing directory or network account organization.
Search
If your video library of broadcasts and pre-recorded videos is large enough, even assigning them to a variety of channels can give you many videos in the list. Good news: viewers can keyword search descriptions to narrow the list automatically. Watch for the search icon and try it.
Interactive Examples
For this article, we’ve used the channels that we’ve set up for other demonstrations. For a quick comparison of how channels can be structured, try the Demo Search-in-Video and IBM Watson Media in Canada channels. And be sure to try the search function in the IBM Watson Media in Canada channel. Try “green” or “employees” as search words.