Why businesses should be streaming video

All broadcasters and media specialists recognise that a television channel is, above all, a brand. The successful ones have a strong brand identity, and more importantly develop strong brand identification in the audience, so they will keep coming back.

That is exactly the goal for any business. The logical extension of this is to use video, or create a video channel, to reinforce the brand identity and build loyalty with the customer base. In short: corporate live streaming.

What is live streaming for business? It is putting out a range of video content over the internet, to a defined group of viewers. If you make the content attractive you will build an audience. You will harvest from the audience a lot of individual details, so you build an understanding of your customers, their interests and – most important – their purchasing criteria.

When we talk about professional live streaming, we do not necessarily mean that the content itself will be live, although in some cases that is a good thing. Shareholder meetings and major product launches are obvious cases for online events.

But a video streaming for business service means outputting content to a regular and published schedule, which might be across business hours, or when consumers can watch, or even 24 hours a day. You might do all three: internal events and training during the day, consumer content outside office hours. So a single streaming channel boosts staff capabilities and motivation, and delivers interesting and engaging content to potential customers.

These are some of the reasons behind the growing interest in live streaming for corporations – not to mention public bodies, streaming for governments, sports teams and federations, and houses of worship. All see the strong benefits of building audiences on their terms – they can watch when they want.

You will not need convincing of the power of video to get your message over. You will already be using video content to demonstrate and support products, and to engage staff and stakeholders. Over the last couple of years when physical meetings have become difficult, video presentations and discussions have seen exponential growth.

But you may be concerned that live, scheduled streaming might be a huge demand on resources, to run what is effectively a television channel. The answer is that it is much more simple than you would think.

PlayBox Technology’s automated streaming software is used by broadcasters around the world, and is available as a very cost-effective offering for corporate streaming. It runs on standard computers, and has a simple, intuitive, drag-and-drop user interface. You simply pull your content onto a timeline and the software does the rest.

It handles content formatting so everything looks its absolute best on your stream, which can be up to 4k Ultra HD quality, and tailored to multiple formats like YouTube and Facebook as well as your own streams. PlayBox also handles digital rights management to protect content from piracy. The company also has a professional services team to get you up and running if you need specialist support.

Developing your own live streaming output can give your business a real commercial edge, without capital investments or large dedicated staffs. Corporations and public bodies worldwide are already using PlayBox Technology systems to build brand identity and create communities. Now is the time to seize the opportunities that business TV streaming offer.