Ep. 5: The Growing Role of Live-Streaming and Digital Video

Video distribution needs and how workplaces communicate within and outside of an organization have undoubtedly changed since the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Globally, IP video traffic will be approximately 82% of all traffic for both consumer and business in the year 2020,” said Joe Finkenbinder, Southeast Territory Manager for Z-Band Technologies, Inc..

It’s safe to say, digital video and livestreaming are here to stay.

“[For] most organizations, livestreaming hasn’t been a routine practice. The events of 2020 have almost made it unthinkable for any of the organizations to not be livestreaming events and content,” Finkenbinder said.

Traditionally, live broadcasting was used for streaming news or sporting events. Now, we’re seeing a diversity of content published from content creators, schools, hospitals and consumer brands.

“Everyone’s looking at how they can best harness livestreaming, weather that’s meetings and conferences, new product releases like this one, fundraisers [or] community events. [Those] are just a few applications that we’re seeing,” Finkenbinder said.

Livestreaming can be part of a sales and marketing strategy through live Q&As, announcing product launches, demonstrating expertise and running flash sales.

There are long-term benefits to migrating to livestream content distribution in order to expand customer reach.

“With this product or encoding in general, it is becoming more readily available. And, with that, I think there are some challenges like limited on-site expertise,” said Meredith McNutt, Director of Sales, Midwest for Z-Band Technologies, Inc.

Z Band provides A/V expertise to help clients distribute their content to the end user.

Audience engagement is a big piece of livestreaming, and Z-Band’s latest product, the Z-IP Encode LS, helps with that.

“There is a management software built into the Encode. [It] allows you to pick and choose which sources you do want to send that content out to. You could send it out to YouTube Live, you can send it out to Twitter, and you can send it out to Facebook all at the same time,” McNutt said.