Video is everywhere these days, and businesses are no exception. Be it marketing adverts, online video calls, internal messaging, or company townhalls, video usage is never-ending in the corporate sphere. The trend is definitely justified, in any case.
According to a study, viewers retain 95% of a message when watching it in video form compared to only 10% through text.
How can you optimize your videos for fast, high-quality streaming across all devices and network conditions?
Optimizing your videos and ensuring compatibility with all major platforms and devices for fast video streaming is critical in providing a positive user experience. This helps enhance user satisfaction, reduces bounce rate, and even improves search ranking. Let us explore some of the ways you can optimize your videos for faster streaming.
For businesses looking to optimize video streaming while minimizing manual effort, an enterprise-grade video platform can be a game-changer. These platforms streamline live and on-demand video management, ensuring smooth playback, security, and compliance across global audiences.
Solutions like VIDIZMO, Brightcove, and Kaltura offer a range of features, including automatic transcoding, content delivery network (CDN) integration, and adaptive bitrate streaming. By leveraging these tools, businesses can enhance video performance, reduce buffering, and improve accessibility—without the complexity of managing technical configurations manually.
While each platform has its strengths, the key is to choose one that aligns with your organization's needs, whether it's advanced security, scalable global delivery, or seamless integration with existing workflows.
VIDIZMO allows you to make use of Azure Content Delivery Network (CDNs). You also have the option to use your existing CDN networks as well, with VIDIZMO supporting all major CDN providers like Akamai and EdgeCast.
A 2022 report by Cisco states that CDN-delivered video traffic will account for 72% of all internet video traffic by 2025, highlighting the importance of using CDNs for faster video streaming.
For enterprises wanting to combat bandwidth challenges while securely streaming their videos behind the company firewall, you can configure your internal on-premise servers to operate as eCDNs. You can easily cache your videos on these edge servers, which reduces network congestion and video loading time.
VIDIZMO supports live and on-demand video streaming using the latest video streaming protocols like HLS (widely supported on iOS and Android devices) and MPEG-DASH (supported on Android devices). HLS utilizes the multiple renditions created through transcoding for adaptive bitrate streaming, which ultimately ensures optimized consistent streaming without buffering concerns.
VIDIZMO allows you to integrate with third-party network optimization technologies like Riverbed, Blue Coat, and others. This will enable you to take advantage of WAN optimization techniques, including data compression, content caching, and latency reduction.
Being an end-to-end enterprise video platform, VIDIZMO has security at the forefront of its priorities. You will have SSO integration with more than 25 authentication providers. You may also opt for end-to-end encryption for complete content protection. Role-based access controls are available to limit the capabilities of users with different roles.
Content access can also be limited through the creation of user groups. Moreover, the flexibility of VIDIZMO allows you to have custom retention periods, custom privacy policies, and much more. Finally, VIDIZMO also fulfills a variety of compliances through various features, including audit logs.
In case you would like to host your videos directly without the help of an enterprise video platform, let us explore some fundamental ways of ensuring an optimized video streaming experience:
It is critical to have your videos transcoded into multiple formats, resolution levels, bitrates, etc. Transcoding is basically re-encoding your videos into these multiple versions through different codecs and settings. This is a must if you want your videos to be accessible from different locations worldwide with varying bandwidth conditions. However, you need to ensure that you have the best possible quality for your original “master” file. The re-encoded versions bring down the quality of the master file to create copies catering to different factors like bandwidth conditions.
Automatic transcoding as part of an enterprise video platform is a lifesaver and absolutely crucial in ensuring optimal video quality. VIDIZMO does it seamlessly for multiple videos at once. In addition, transcoding enables multi-bitrate streaming, allowing viewers to choose a resolution level that best suits their particular internet speed.
Adaptive bitrate streaming is the technology used to deliver multi-bitrate streaming, which requires an adaptive video player.
An adaptive video player is able to automatically detect bandwidth and CPU processing capacity on the user’s end. The video player then pulls the rendition that suits this capacity to deliver the best possible video quality consistently without any buffering or other errors. In simple words, it is just the “auto” option in the video quality settings on YouTube. Therefore, choose a video platform that offers this functionality as it is of utmost importance for optimized video streaming.
Utilizing the right video streaming protocols is critical in ensuring that your video is optimized for playback on all major platforms, devices, and browsers. The two main video streaming protocols are:
The main reason why these two protocols are ideal is that they both have adaptive bitrate streaming as one of their key features. HTTP live streaming (HLS) is also widely used as it uses HTTP for transport, which is the most common protocol used on the internet. Hence HLS streaming is compatible with almost any device or server.
For live streaming, a high-speed internet connection is critical. It is recommended for you to opt for a wired ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi. The reason being that Wi-Fi can turn out to be highly unstable at times. Plus, it would be best to have a broadband connection that has an upload bandwidth twice the live stream’s bitrate.
It is recommended to do an internet speed test before starting any live stream. Pay close attention to the upload speed, which is the most critical for a live stream.
Even if you do not want to transcode your videos, you must have them compressed to a version that can support streaming for low-bandwidth users who do not have a high-speed broadband connection. It is critical to do so in a way that does not distort the video and make the audio be out-of-sync.
In 2020, there has been an estimated 179.4 million viewers of videos on cell phones in the USA alone. While a study conducted by Statista in 2018 showed that most viewers (62%) watch videos on mobile phones. Hence, it is critical to resize and optimize your videos and page content for different screen sizes, especially mobile phones.
Optimizing video streaming requires a combination of techniques: using CDNs, transcoding for adaptive bitrate streaming, selecting the right protocols, and ensuring accessibility. While enterprise video platforms like VIDIZMO can streamline the process, businesses should evaluate their needs and explore multiple solutions for the best results.
Contact our team for more information or opt for a free trial to explore our solution yourself!
What are the best practices for video streaming optimization?
Best practices include using adaptive bitrate streaming, implementing CDNs or eCDNs, leveraging video compression, transcoding into multiple formats, and utilizing modern streaming protocols like HLS and MPEG-DASH. Platforms like VIDIZMO can automate many of these steps.
How do I optimize video playback for different internet speeds?
You can optimize playback using adaptive bitrate streaming, which detects users’ internet speeds and device capabilities and then serves the most suitable video quality version. This minimizes buffering and ensures smooth playback.
What is the role of transcoding in video optimization?
Transcoding re-encodes your original video into multiple renditions (different formats, resolutions, and bitrates), making it adaptable across varying bandwidths and devices. This is crucial for global delivery and accessibility.
Why is a CDN important for video streaming?
A CDN (Content Delivery Network) caches your videos across multiple geographically distributed servers, allowing faster and more reliable access for users by minimizing latency and buffering times.
What streaming protocols should I use for high-quality video playback?
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and MPEG-DASH are widely supported and enable adaptive bitrate streaming. These protocols ensure compatibility with most devices and browsers, improving user experience.
Can WAN optimization improve video delivery in corporate environments?
Yes, integrating WAN optimization tools (like Riverbed or Blue Coat) can compress data and reduce latency and cache content across corporate networks—resulting in smoother internal video playback.
How can I optimize video streaming for mobile viewers?
Ensure your videos are mobile-responsive, use adaptive streaming, compress files efficiently, and verify that video players are compatible with all mobile operating systems and browsers.
Is there an easier way for enterprises to handle video optimization?
Using an enterprise-grade video platform like VIDIZMO can streamline the process by automating transcoding, enabling secure delivery, managing access control, and integrating with CDNs and WAN optimization tools.