March 06, 2019 ON24
For 93 percent of organizations, video-driven mediums, like webinars, are critical to driving effective internal communication programs. But enterprises face unique challenges when it comes to video behind their firewall — and it often comes down to a matter of security and bandwidth.
To help enterprises connect and engage with employees without massively impacting bandwidth, ON24 and Hive Streaming have partnered to develop innovations in enterprise-scale video delivery, ensuring their customers have the capabilities they need to deliver high-quality, efficient and secure video. As a part of this partnership, ON24 and Hive Streaming will co-market and advance their integration, including a joint presentation at Webinar World 2019 featuring the companies’ mutual customer, HP.
Central to this bandwidth-saving effort is peer-to-peer video streaming. To clarify what enterprise customers can expect from the partnership, we sat down with Mark Szelenyi, VP of Product Management at ON24. Here’s what he had to say:
Q&A:
How does peer-to-peer streaming work?
A: Peer-to-peer streaming looks at nearby PCs already viewing the same media stream and retrieves segments of the stream from these machines to reduce or eliminate additional traffic on expensive and lower bandwidth WAN connections.
Why would an enterprise be interested in this solution?
A: Enterprises are adopting peer-to-peer technologies in order to make use of solutions that demand higher bandwidth delivery of media and large file downloads to worldwide desktop PCs within their networks.
What are the advantages of peer-to-peer internal video streaming?
A: Peer-to-peer streaming relieves network congestion inside the enterprise enabling the use of high resolution video for live and on demand communications. Rather than a unique media stream for every viewer on the network, peer-to-peer technology is able to piece together the media stream from nearby PCs already viewing and reduce traffic on congested WAN links across the enterprise.
Why is network congestion such an issue for enterprises?
A: Enterprises that have grown organically and through acquisition have complex and far-reaching networks that connect to thousands and even hundreds of thousands of desktop PCs. Replacing this infrastructure is expensive and time-consuming; peer-to-peer technology provides a path to leveraging this existing investment with minimal change or upgrade.
How has the partnership between ON24 and Hive Marketing evolved?
A: ON24 continues to enhance the integration between the ON24 platform and the Hive Streaming solution by adding support for live, simu-live and on demand webcast types as well as improving scalability and reporting for the combined solution.
Is this sort of peer-to-peer video solution unique to internal comms, or can organizations use it for training as well?
A: Peer-to-peer technology can be used across many use cases however it excels in cases where many users are retrieving or viewing the same media stream simultaneously. This is most noticeable in large, live town-halls, but can apply to training and other solutions as well.
Are there any next steps or upcoming developments in this partnership?
A: ON24 continues to improve the integration through added support for advanced features of its platform supported through the Hive solution.