As technology advances, it is important for video production house to use software applications that are compatible and allow users to view any videos (live or post-event) in their mobile devices or their computer. Thus Microsoft has software such as Microsoft stream and Microsoft Azure that can allow videos to be upload easily so the viewers to see the videos online.
Microsoft Azure
It is a live streaming solution design by Microsoft that allows the video production company to capture and record the video for live events in real-time and broadcast it to consumers. Common examples are such conferences, trade shows, streaming interviews and sporting or entertainment events online. Using this software, the video is captured using a video camera and sent to a channel input endpoint which the channel will receive the live input stream and makes it available by streaming through a streaming endpoint to a web browser or mobile app. By doing so, the channel will provide a monitoring endpoint for preview purpose and validate the stream before the video is sent for further processing and delivery. The channel can also record and store the content for streaming later aka video-on-demand.
The main advantage of using this solution is that it is built on the Azure managed services known as Content Delivery Network and Media Service which run in a highly available environment that is patched and supported to allow viewers to focus on the solution rather than the environment they run in.
Other features of Microsoft Azure is that it comprised of Video-on-demand digital media which is a basic video-on-demand software that allows viewers the option to streamed and record any video contents online to the video-capable endpoint device, desktop browser or mobile application. The video files are then uploaded to the storage known as Azure Blob which is then encoded to a multi-bitrate standard format before distributing the data via all the adaptive bit-rate streaming protocols such Smooth, HLS or MPEG-DASH to the Azure Media Player client.
Another feature of using the Microsoft Azure is the ability to allow users to use the keyword search, speech to text and OCR (Optical Character Recognition). A speech-to-text solution allows the user to use their voice to command input and the software will aid the user by identify their speech in the static video files and manage it as the standard content, This will allow users to search within the specific content within the video by speaking a particular words or phrases to allow users to navigate to the specific time and moment in the video quickly. This feature allows the host to upload the static videos to the Azure website as the Azure Media Indexer uses the Speech API to index the speech within the videos and stores it in SQL Azure. The user can also use the Azure Web Apps in their mobile devices to search for the keywords or phrases to get the desired results which in turn will enable the user to see the part in the video which the word or phrase is mentioned.
Microsoft Stream
This is another solution created by Microsoft which has certain similar functions as compared to Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Stream is a video service on the enterprise level that is user-friendly and convenient for any companies to share, upload and manage their corporate videos within their organization from a common hub in a secured manner.
In the near future, Microsoft Stream will include a live streaming feature that users are able to produce, schedule and deliver live events which are more effective and efficient. Using the Seamless integration function in the Office 365 application allows the producers to use Stream to deliver the videos for the events in high-quality content and the receiver will be able to view in their computers using the same software regardless of their location.
Other advantages include the fact that the organizer or producer can easily use this application to monitor the audience engagement in real-time. Able to toggle quickly between the audience and producer views by using multiple screens to view the event from different angles for monitoring and analytics purpose.
Easier integrations between this solution and the production company who are in charge of providing encoders to connect the video cameras, content sources and video feeds to produce high quality and professional looking videos for the live events. This, in turn, will aid the event producers to optimize the network bandwidth and support successful live or on-demand streaming.
Other additional features of the Microsoft Stream which will be added in the future are explained below;
• Able to use the use of facial recognition to detect detection and identify the speaker and easily skip to this particular speaker in the recording.
• Speech-to-text function and closed captions to capture the event via a readable form and allow the content to be more accessible to everyone.
• Timecodes and transcript search functions that allow the viewer to search and find the particular moments in the video easily and efficiently.
Thus in a long run, to produce a quality live streaming or video-on-demand videos for any corporate reasons, it is vital for video production house to adapt on the technology demands and use suitable platforms like Microsoft to allow easy access for their users online.
