Advantages and Disadvantages of Streaming

Undoubtedly, streaming services are changing the way people consume video today since all kinds of events can be broadcast, such as sports, shows, conferences, politics, pay per event (PPV), among many other themes, really any theme or stage can be broadcast live thanks to the power of streaming.

As expected, internet giants such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube do not want to be left out of the game and are offering streaming to their users for free, other platforms such as Periscope, YouNow are also used by some projects seeking a positioning or venturing into this technology of live video content and this is where we make big mistakes, firstly because we know that nothing is free in this life and that in the end, it may not be the best for our project, therefore, the big question en Are these types of platforms really reliable? We will try to break down the pros and cons of this type of solution.

ADVANTAGE:

* It's free.

* Depending on your scenario, it can be easy to use.

* You can quickly generate audience since they are very well-known platforms.

DISADVANTAGES:

* It is not configurable: The ease of using the platform is really your real enemy, the lack of personalization of the signal will make your transmission reach others without the best quality available, or in the format most suitable for your audience.

* Advertising: This is where the phrase "nothing is free in this life" applies. These types of companies survive thanks to the advertising they charge to advertisers, so your signal will be flooded with commercials or banners that will undermine the credibility and seriousness of your transmission, or worse, they can show advertising from your competition!

* No Monetization: According to our experience, one of the main benefits of streaming is to make it economically profitable, as we mentioned in the previous point, you cannot enter your own sponsors, nor have broadcasts in the Pay Per Event mode, nor videos in pre-roll, or branding with the Video Player. Without a doubt, this is the biggest drawback of these free platforms.

* Without access control: Your signal is and will always be public. Can you imagine doing corporate streaming where sales analysis, campaign objectives, or boards of directors are discussed? Your live signal will be available to everyone, this is another limitation of free platforms.

* Non- existent VOD: Without a doubt, the success of streaming is having these videos on demand so that people who could not see the live event can play them later, or simply want to watch it again, there is no way to have a well-organized catalog by themes or categories that are fed day by day from all your transmissions, on free platforms such as YouTube, Periscope or Facebook, only your last transmission is saved, and in some cases, they are deleted after 24 hours!

* No customization: The video players that these companies offer you cannot change, they generally bring links to their pages and bring their information, colors or logos of them. We know the importance of having your own player, without brands or using institutional colors, putting our logo as a watermark, all this is impossible to do with free streaming.

* Limitation in video and audio quality: To save bandwidth and support thousands of users, these companies limit the quality of the transmission, that is, you do not have a control to send your signal to "x" quality.

* Without technical support: Imagine that you are in the middle of transmission and you lose the signal, with free companies you have no one to turn to solve your doubts, much less do personalized monitoring of your event, nor will they tell you what the appropriate configuration is for the type of project you want to do, you will be unprotected against eventual failures.

* Without AddOns (Streaming plugins): Today we can increase the experience of viewing live content through Streaming, enabling a large number of tools that are mostly not available through free providers. Here are some examples:

or DVR enables the pause or reverse options in the live transmission, in this way the user does not miss a single detail.

o Preroll, allows us to inject our own video advertising into our live broadcast.

o Target Direct, allows you to duplicate your signal simultaneously within some social networks such as Facebook & YouTube, without having a limit of replicas, that is, you can multiply your signal to X number of accounts on Facebook (personal or Fan Page) and X number of accounts on YouTube.

We can conclude that if you want to enter the world of streaming, do it well, professionally, with experienced people who support you at all times for the success of your event, as well as the viewer having the best streaming experience and being a recurring consumer. of your content.

Well, streaming is one of the major factors in the video industry, there are many devices on which you can stream online, but amongst them, Roku is one of the best devices which home theater PCs, game consoles, or other internet-connected devices, Roku streaming media players have always focused on providing a dead-simple way to access streaming video and audio content on a TV. Roku setup is very easy to get along with.

Author's Bio: Salman Hashmi is a passionate content writer and singer. He likes to write on Technology, currently, he is writing blogs on how to set up a Roku account.