The 2023 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! Here we present North America's top tech solutions of 2023, as chosen by the readers of Streaming Media.

Tutorial: Advanced Live Streaming and Recording with the AJA HELO PLUS

Streaming engineer and strategist and Streaming Media The Video Doctor columnist Robert Reinhardt of VideoRx discusses some of his favorite features of the new AJA HELO Plus Advanced Streaming and Recording Appliance in this new tutorial video. A longtime user of the original HELO in his own professional live productions, discusses the new chassis design, new layout features for picture-in-picture and more, streaming to two destinations simultaneously, new SRT support, and more.

The 2023 Streaming Media 100: The Top 100 Companies in the Streaming Media Universe

The Streaming Media 100 is back—welcome once again to Streaming Media's annual list that foregrounds the industry's most innovative and influential technology suppliers, service providers, platforms, and media and content companies, as acclaimed by our editorial team. Some are large and established industry standard-bearers, while others are comparably small and relatively new arrivals that are just beginning to make a splash. All set themselves apart from the crowd with their innovative approach and their contribution to the expansion and maturation of the streaming media universe.

Generative AI and the Future of Media Tech

Incorporating generative AI into our workflows has the potential to impact almost everything in media technologies, and I'll examine several of the possibilities in this article.

The State of VVC Adoption and Implementation

If you're a video publisher who doesn't rank high in the VVC patent list, it's likely that you won't consider VVC until 2026 or later. If you're looking to augment your H.264 encodes with a more efficient codec before then, your most likely choices are HEVC and AV1, with LCEVC also an option. However, if you're a product or service provider in the streaming media ecosystem, it's long past the time to start considering where and when VVC is going to fit in for you and your target customers.

Review: Magewell USB Fusion

The USB Fusion is a device that can be used in a production environment for local content feeds/sources. It can be used to input various sources such as HDMI devices, webcams, USB microphones, videos, images, screenshares, and other items. The USB Fusion is touted as a tool to make your online lectures and virtual events more engaging and to easily combine numerous sources into attractive live presentations for remote education, webinars, live streaming, and video conferencing.

Review: Skyglass: Movie Effects Camera App

Want to generate and produce videos in dynamic, detailed, and customizable virtual environments using nothing but the built-in video capabilities of your smartphone plus a single subscription-service app? Skyglass Movie Effects Camera App makes it possible, and IEBA Communications' Anthony Burokas explains how.

A Broadcaster’s Cloud Migration Primer

This article offers a primer on how a traditional broadcaster could start to move services to a cloud provider.

Review: GoPro Hero11 Black

Well-known as an action camera for capturing on-the-go video, the GoPro is popular with those involved in sports, underwater activities, capturing va­ca­tion footage, and a host of other use cases. However, the GoPro Hero11 Black can also serve as a high-quality webcam for meetings or online conferences using web applications like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and GoTo Meeting, and it can be deployed in production streaming workflows for YouTubers and video podcasters.

Streaming Media’s Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023

A detailed guide to Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023.

The State of Education Video

Video's role in schools is taken for granted entering 2023, although we should expect to see changes, potentially disruptive, in the educational video market as schools continue to adapt to the aftermath of the COVID-19 state of emergency phase. Despite the widely held belief that video is essential to school operations, expect to see schools roll back their investments in video services, while educators seek out ways to go beyond the basics of video delivery, finding better ways to engage students both with synchronous and asynchronous video.

Review: Videon EdgeCaster EZ (w/ LiveEdge Core 8.5)

This review will highlight Videon's EdgeCaster video encoding appliance and explore its unique LiveEdge Compute technology for encoding and delivery, as well as how it works with popular video streaming platforms. I'll also discuss why many video production and remote production teams will likely move to a tool such as this in the future for streaming delivery.

Lessons Learned: What the Pandemic Taught Us About Remote Teaching

Although failing to enter the popular lexicon as of yet, the term "emergency remote teaching" (ERT) is intended to avoid conflating what we'd now call "traditional" online education with the improvised adaptation of face-to-face lesson plans and classroom experiences to the synchronous videoconferen­c­ing platform available to any given school dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 Streaming Media 50: The 50 Tech Companies That Matter Most in Online Video

Welcome to the 2022 Streaming Media 50, our annual list that foregrounds the industry's most innovative and influential technology suppliers, service providers, and platforms, as acclaimed by our editorial team. Some are large and established industry standard-bearers, while others are comparably small and relatively new arrivals that are just beginning to make a splash. All set themselves apart from the crowd with their innovative approach and their commitment to serve the customer and advance the industry. It's the fifth year we've capped the list at 50 companies.

Event Stream Team's Jimmy Reid Discusses Live Production with a Customized Blackmagic Kit

Jimmy Reid of Event Stream Team talks with Streaming Media's Tyler Nesler about his company's improvement in live production performance thanks to their upgrade to a customized Blackmagic ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD live production switcher kit and their transition to the Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 editing, grading, visual effect (VFX) and audio postproduction cloud-based software.

Streaming Toolbox: Mimir, DAIConnect, and Panopto

Streaming Toolbox is a regular feature that looks at cloud-based services that perform a wide range of functions for online video publishers, going beyond the marketing fluff and giving readers an understanding of how these platforms and services might help them.

Cutting-Edge Uses for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning In Streaming

The uses for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)—from text identification to contextual advertising to cultural sensitivity—are multiplying. Here's a look at some of the most compelling offerings on the market today.

The Three Tiers of Virtual Events

So, whether it's a quarterly meeting, an annual marketing show, or an industry event like CES or the International Auto Show, we still need in-person events. But how these events recognize and incorporate remote pre­senters and remote audiences will have to change from what was done pre-COVID. The future of events is hybrid, although these hybrid events will take different forms, depending on the event size, budget, and nature and complexity of the off-site elements. There are what I call "Three Tiers of Hybrid," which represent three different ways to bring local and remote presenters and attendees together.

The State of Education Video 2022

Now that students have returned to the classroom, schools and universities face an existential dilemma about the role video will play going forward.

Review: Teradek Wave

Anthony Burokas reviews the new Teradek Wave, which combines bonding, encoding, streaming, recording, and monitoring in a single compact devices that users control using Teradek's handy streaming app on its 7" touchscreen.