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What’s New in Kollective IQ?

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What’s New in Kollective IQ?

Kollective IQ, our advanced analytics platform, has new dashboards that will reveal some key performance indicators (KPIs) commonly used to assess event performance. The dashboards have been redesigned to help better understand the impact and quality of your events, engagement across the enterprise, and so much more!

Kollective IQ contains three primary dashboards:

  1. Views & Experience
  2. Delivery & Consumption
  3. Network Performance

Views & Experience Dashboard

The views and experience dashboard displays the reach, stream quality, and engagement of an event. Top-level insights are easily digested through the six key performance indicators (KPIs) displayed in the dashboard. Users can drill down to explore data on specific users by interacting with the graphs. If you hover over a tile, there are options in the upper right corner that will allow you to download or explore the data, and even set an alert for metrics that could be of particular interest.

Kollective IQ Views and Experience Dashboard

Quality of Experience (QoE) Score is an aggregate rating, representing the overall stream quality for everyone that viewed an event. This score is a combination of two factors — the quality of video received (measured by bitrate) and the time to first frame.
Reach indicates how many unique viewers streamed an event.
Max Reach represents the greatest number of simultaneous viewers during an event.
Average View Duration measures the average amount of time viewers spent watching the event.
Reach by QoE is a pie-chart organizing viewers by the level of stream quality they experienced during an event. Scores are displayed on a graded scale, ranging from excellent to bad. Click on the pie-chart to explore specific segments in greater depth.
Event Reach Over Time reports the reach for every minute of the event. This indicates audience engagement, allowing one to easily identify changes in attendance over the course of an event. Monitor this graph while your event is running for engagement insights.

With the views and experience dashboard, your team will understand:

  • How many people attended an event
  • When attendees joined and left an event
  • How engaged employees were during an event
  • Any issues with buffering and stream quality

Delivery & Consumption Dashboard

With hybrid work becoming the new norm, it’s crucial that businesses understand where and how their content is streamed to ensure video communications are successfully delivered throughout the enterprise. This delivery and consumption dashboard does just that. The intuitive graphs and interactable map enable the rapid identification of locations that experienced buffering problems during an event.

Kollective IQ Delivery and Consumption Dashboard

Delivery Map shows everywhere your event was viewed. Larger circles indicate areas with greater viewership. Users can explore and interact with the map directly. Click on clusters to view detailed data for specific offices or locations.
Views by Location are a series of four separate bar graphs that are broken down into geographic segments (external IP, locality, country, and city). Each graph lists the top ten places with the most event views. These charts include QoE dots that represent stream quality for each location. See a region with poor stream quality? Click on the corresponding bar graph to explore the data in more detail, uncover potential trends, and develop a resolution plan.
Views by OS details which operating systems were used to stream an event.
Views by Browser displays which browsers were used to stream an event.

With the delivery and consumption dashboard, your team will understand:

  • Where an event was streamed
  • Which offices participated most in an event
  • Where issues with stream quality and buffering occurred
  • What browsers and operating systems were used

Network Performance Dashboard

The network performance dashboard shows how much bandwidth was saved by using Kollective’s enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) to deliver the event. Kollective IQ’s dashboard offers a unique lens into network performance, allowing users to monitor an event’s impact on their network in real-time as an event runs and after it ends.

Kollective IQ Network Performance Dashboard

Total Savings is the total bandwidth savings for all viewers of an event, including those not capable of peering.
Capable Savings is the total bandwidth savings for all viewers of an event that were capable of peering.
Peerable Savings is the total bandwidth savings for all viewers that successfully peered an event (joined a cluster with other peers).
Peering Efficiency displays the percentage of bandwidth that was delivered through peering in relation to the size of each peering group.
Bandwidth Over Time shows the amount of bandwidth that’s consumed over the course of the event. This graph is an excellent indicator of the ECDN’s performance. The green portion of the graph represents the amount of bandwidth that was pulled from your network, while the blue portion displays the amount saved from peering.

With the network performance dashboard, your team will understand:

  • How much bandwidth Kollective’s ECDN saved your network
  • Bandwidth utilization over the course of an event
  • How well your event was peered

Kollective IQ – A Perfect Addition to Your Communication Platform

Adding an advanced analytics platform like Kollective IQ supercharges your broadcast event reporting, yielding actionable insights to help you understand employee experiences and maximize performance.

The post What’s New in Kollective IQ? appeared first on Kollective Technology .

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Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms?

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Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms?

Today’s solutions for corporate communications are more robust than ever and Microsoft remains a top player by continuously innovating the Microsoft Teams video platform . New product features are amazing but can often confuse the end user. Do you know when to use a Teams Live Event vs. Teams Meeting with Overflow vs. Teams Webinar? The Enterprise Video Strategy (EVS) team at Kollective will help you navigate the best solution for your particular use case.

Microsoft Teams Live Events

Teams Live Events are an extension of Teams meetings that allows users to deliver video and other content to large audiences. It’s Microsoft’s primary one-to-many communication tool and is ideal for events where the host needs complete control of the content being presented – like a CEO Town Hall or All Hands Meeting.

In a Teams Live Event, presenters and producers handle sharing audio, video, or their screen with the audience and only one presenter can be active at a time. The audience can interact with presenters via moderated Q&A sessions or in Yammer. Attendees who are unable to watch the event live can view the recording after in Teams, Stream or Yammer.

Another benefit of Teams Live Events is that they fully integrate with enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) technology. An ECDN enables organizations to scale high-quality live and on-demand video behind the corporate firewall by optimizing bandwidth consumption. This is especially important for enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMB) with offices challenged by network capacity, remote locations and/or bandwidth limitations.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams Live Events?

Pros

  • Host up to 20,000 attendees through December 31, 2021
  • High production value
  • Equal access of features
  • Full ECDN functionality

Cons

  • Limited interactivity
  • Takes some training to understand how to use

When to Use Microsoft Teams Live Events

Teams Live Events remain the gold standard for large-scale, one-to-many communications. Choose to host a Live Event for meetings where audience interactivity is not necessary and executive polish is required.

Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow

While typical Teams meetings allow you to host up to 250 participants, Teams Meetings with Overflow expands that, now enabling up to 10,000 attendees to join your meeting. The first 1,000 users that join get to enjoy the same Teams Meeting experience they know and expect: they can share their own audio and video, view shared content, and interact in chat. Attendees that join after the 1,000-user capacity is met enter in view-only mode with reduced interactive capabilities.

View-only attendees cannot take part in chat or view PowerPoint Live files, or files shared using individual application shares. They are also not included in the event analytics, making it difficult to gain full insight into meeting performance.

The only way to know more about your Overflow attendees and their quality of experience is by deploying an ECDN. When used during a Teams Meeting with Overflow, an ECDN scales content and collects analytics for all view-only users.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow?

Pros

  • Higher attendance capacity than a standard Teams Meeting
  • Collaborative environment
  • Easiest set up of Teams video solutions

Cons

  • No analytics collected on overflow attendees without Kollective ECDN
  • ECDN only scales Overflow viewers
  • Technical limitations

When to Use Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow

Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow should only be used when you require the same level of interactivity as a standard Teams meeting with over 250 users. If your network does not have the capacity to scale live video to 1,000 employees, opt for a Teams Live Event instead.

Microsoft Teams Webinar

Micrsoft recently released its new Webinar tool for Microsoft Teams . Designed to compete with top virtual event platforms, Teams Webinar offers many of the same benefits, including event registration pages, breakout room configurability and a dashboard that displays attendance data relative to registration details.

Teams Webinar does support ECDN functionality, scaling video for viewers behind the corporate firewall. An ECDN also supplies advanced analytics for all attendees, so you know who, what, where and when your Webinar was consumed.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams for Webinars?

Pros

  • Host up to 1,000 attendees
  • Registration page integration
  • Disable/enable cameras and microphones (globally or individually)
  • Configuration of breakout rooms before the meeting
  • Breakout room timers, room retention, and attendee reassignment
  • Dashboard displays registration and attendance data

Cons

  • Focused on external customer engagement, not internal use

When to Use Microsoft Teams for Webinars

Microsoft Teams for Webinars is best for meetings where you want a high-level of interactivity and tracking for up to 1,000 attendees. While Webinars can be used internally, it is especially useful for external communications and marketing activities.

Choose the Right Tool for the Task

To determine which option in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem is right for you, consider the purpose of your event and how you want your attendees to engage. For events where a high-level of interactivity is needed, consider Webinars or Teams Meetings with Overflow. However, for one-to-many communications and large-scale internal broadcasts, Teams Live Events will serve you best.

Learn more about Microsoft Teams video solutions and virtual event best practices from our team of experts. Sign up for a FREE one-hour consultation with Kollective’s Enterprise Video Strategy team. We will review your requirements, help you navigate the platform and help you choose the right Microsoft Teams video solution.

The post Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms? appeared first on Kollective Technology .

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Webinar Recap: What Great Analytics Reveal About Microsoft Teams Live Events

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Microsoft Teams Live Events have become an indispensable tool for enterprise communications. From high production events like company-wide town halls to crisis communications requiring quick turnarounds, Teams Live Events can engage and connect distributed workforces. To ensure these communications are successful, Live Event reporting is crucial.

In a recent webinar, What Great Analytics Reveal About Microsoft Teams Live Events , Garrett Gladden, Director of Product Management at Kollective, outlined the importance of understanding Live Event reporting data, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) for Live Events and how adding an advanced analytics platform provides those insights where and when you need them.

Let’s Talk Teams

Teams Live Events are an extension of Teams Meetings meant for one-to-many communications. With Live Events you can broadcast to up to 100,000 attendees no matter their location or device.

Garrett was joined by Raphael Barini, Microsoft Modern Workplace Technical Architect at the time of the recording, who ran a quick demo on creating and running a Teams Live Event.  In the demo he covered:

  • How to set-up a Live Event in Teams
  • A breakdown of the different options you have when creating your event
  • Best practices for inviting attendees
  • Starting and managing the event as a Producer

The ease and simplicity of Teams Live Events allows anyone in the organization to set-up an event to relay important messages efficiently and at scale.

Data Needs Meaning

Teams Live Events produce a large amount of data. To be of any value in running a successful event, that data needs meaning. Finding that meaning, Garrett explained, requires two things – recency and relevance. Recency requires accessing the data when you need it which, to be actionable, is during the event. To achieve relevance, that data needs to be surfaced where you need it, in a centralized and easy to use dashboard.

Meaningful (and Easy) KPIs

Teams Live Events provide Attendee Engagement reports you can download after the event but does not provide actionable data in a usable format while the event is in process. To access this data as well as additional insights into video performance and employee engagement in real-time Garrett recommended using an advanced analytics platform like Kollective IQ .

Using a Southeast Asia business strategy planning event as an example, Garrett detailed the metrics you can access from a Teams Live Event with Kollective IQ. The event was held during COVID-19 lockdowns with the majority of attendees joining the event from home. The high-level analytics pictured in the dashboard below show that the event was a success.

Teams Live Events metrics with Kollective IQ analytics

Quality of Experience (QoE) Score shows what the experience was for everybody receiving the event content. The score is a combination of two metrics – the bitrate or quality of the video they received and the time to first frame or how long they waited for the video to arrive.
Average View Duration measures whether viewers stayed for the duration of the broadcast or dropped off letting you know how much of the content was consumed.
Reach indicates the attendance rate for the event and is measured by unique viewers.
Bandwidth Savings is the amount of bandwidth saved by using Kollective’s Enterprise Content Delivery Network (ECDN) to deliver the live event.
Peering Efficiency is another indicator of the ECDN’s performance and in this example shows that high concentration regions were able to share content at the edge, pulling the Live Event from a peer rather than the network.
Geo Explorer shows where the content was consumed.

This data quickly answers the questions:

  • Did attendees have the experience that we wanted?
  • Did people watch for the duration showing that we effectively communicated with them?
  • Did we reach the number of people that we targeted?
  • Did we reduce strain on our network?
  • Did Kollective’s peering do the heavy lifting instead of our network?
  • Where and by whom was the content consumed?

For a deeper understanding of the data or specific users, Kollective IQ allows you to drill down into and explore each of these metrics.

Teams + Kollective IQ

Microsoft Teams lets you produce and distribute live events to your entire workforce no matter their location or device. Adding an advanced analytics platform to the mix lets you visualize your attendee experience and network performance and make real-time adjustments.

Kollective IQ offers you:

  • Persona-based workflows with stellar UX
  • Delivery of ALL data to clients, with data mining, exploration, and custom
  • calculations
  • Custom visualizations and dashboards
  • Data exportability with many formats to many destinations

Test out Kollective IQ’s valuable and actionable insights for Teams Live Events today.

The post Webinar Recap: What Great Analytics Reveal About Microsoft Teams Live Events appeared first on Kollective Technology .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Webinar Recap: Delivering Live Video in Challenging Network Environments

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Global organizations rely on video communications to connect their dispersed workforces but providing a high-quality digital experience to every employee no matter their location is a challenge faced by many multinational enterprises operating in APAC countries. Legislative technologies like the Great Firewall of China, poor bandwidth and latency issues can be disruptive and prohibitive to delivering enterprise video at scale.

During our webinar Delivering Live Video in Challenging Network Environments , Stephanie Newman, Director of Channel and Alliances EMEA at Kollective, was joined by Luca Licata, Director of Technology and Engineering at wtv. and Garrick Ransome, Technical Director APAC at Kollective to discuss trends, challenges and possible solutions when delivering global video communications.

The Growing Demand for Video at Scale

From live event webcasting to day-to-day video conferencing, video has become standard practice in the enterprise. 2020 saw, on average, a 45% growth in live video usage, according to a recent IDG Market Pulse Survey and Luca Licata pointed out that utilization of wtv. EasyWebcast jumped from 950,000 visitors to 1.5 million during this time.

The use of video has allowed international workforces to communicate and collaborate in real-time. This, alongside initiatives like the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, has led many corporations to open up in China. As part of the Kollective APAC team Garrick Ransome has seen the ability to engage with employees in China become an “essential requirement” for many global organizations.

The challenges of engaging a dispersed global workforce

Video is a bandwidth intensive application and even in the best of circumstances can put a significant strain on the network. Low bandwidth and slow technology adoption in APAC are common challenges Garrick Ransome has faced working with customers in the region. To support video, IT often has to make compromises like reducing the quality of the video or, as Luca Licata experienced, splitting a webcast into multiple sections for each department.

China presents its own unique challenges due to infrastructure and legislative technologies. The Great Firewall of China negatively affects live streaming due to added latency, packet loss and congestion. Video applications that don’t have infrastructure located in China require users to pull streams from outside the country leading to an inconsistent experience, disconnects or failed delivery.

Engaging Employees Effectively with Video

The shift to video has been a challenge many networks have not been prepared for. While there is always the option of purchasing additional hardware and making costly upgrades Luca Licata and Garrick Ransome shared alternatives that organizations can quickly adopt to ensure quality video delivery in challenging environments.

Using platforms with infrastructure located in China, like wtv. EasyWebcast, bypasses the Great Firewall, Luca Licata said, and allows viewers to pull the stream from a nearby content delivery network point of presence (CDN PoP). He went on to add that the use of a China-based CDN will help reduce latency, but as employees begin returning to the office and pulling video simultaneously, network bottlenecking becomes an issue. To avoid this, he recommends adding an enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) to optimize the network for video delivery at scale. Kollective’s ECDN uses smart peering technology to distribute content efficiently and reduces up to 99% of bandwidth consumption.

Diagram of traditional CDN content delivery versus Kollective ECDN

How to deliver live video events in china

Many enterprises rely on a multi-tool strategy for communications and some of those platforms do not have infrastructure inside of China. Garrick Ransome brought up the example of Microsoft Teams and Stream which do not have local CDN PoPs and yet are heavily adopted by global organizations. He detailed two scenarios to use these applications in China:

  1. Bypass the Great Firewall by routing through wide area network (WAN)
  2. Go through the Great Firewall

In the first scenario, what can deter organizations from using this is the cost of the WAN links. For this solution to be viable for video at scale, traffic must be reduced. In this situation he recommends using Kollective’s Browser-Based Peering to:

  • Lower transit costs
  • Optimize network performance
  • Reduce bandwidth consumption

Scenario two comes into play for many companies that do not have the infrastructure to route through WAN or their corporate policy mandates they connect through the Great Firewall. Going through the Great Firewall means added latency, unpredictable packet loss and congestion which can lead to a poor experience or event failure. This scenario requires the use of a latency tolerant solution like Kollective Agent to:

  • Provide persistent caching
  • Communicate over a latency tolerant UDP-based protocol
  • Add an extra buffer to help recover packet loss

speak with an expert on enterprise video delivery

If you’re having difficulties delivering live video in challenging network environments, Kollective can help. Speak with an expert today to learn more about the solutions available to you.

The post Webinar Recap: Delivering Live Video in Challenging Network Environments appeared first on Kollective Technology .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Network Testing for Live Video: What You Need to Know

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When offices closed and workers became remote in 2020, businesses turned to video to keep connected. This increased adoption led to a 45% surge in live video usage, according to a recent IDG Market Pulse Survey , as video became critical for enterprise communications.

With 75% of executives expecting to see half of their workforce back on-site by July 2021, according to the January 2021 PwC Remote Work Survey , hybrid workplace scenarios and physical distancing limitations will require the continued use of live video. The influx of on-site viewers paired with the demand for enterprise video will put a strain on networks many will not be prepared for. To be certain networks will not be put at risk, video-specific network testing must be implemented.

Video’s Impact on Network Capacity

As the high use of live video continues and the number of employees on the corporate network increases, the impact on network performance will be significant. Video is a bandwidth-heavy medium. If a network’s bandwidth is insufficient, it can quickly become overwhelmed leading to event failure, or in worst-case scenarios, impact business-critical applications.

For context, live events created in Microsoft Stream get a fixed encoding profile:

  • 720p – 3.5 mbps
  • 540p – 2.2 mbps
  • 396p – 1.4 mbps
  • 288p – 850 kbps
  • 216p – 550 kbps
  • 192p – 200 kbps

What’s important to note is that video playback is not a static number and will change according to:

  • The video’s original resolution, bitrate and content
  • A user’s available bandwidth
  • Size of the player

Estimates on the impact of video on a network can be made by measuring and sampling the bandwidth of a typical piece of content and extrapolating that data across the anticipated number of viewers. The more viewers, the higher the bandwidth, leading to network spikes that impact the viewing experience as well as every application relying on the same network.

Organizations familiar with the pressure delivering live video at scale puts on their networks utilize an enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) browser-based peering platform . With browser-based peering, one user accesses the video and shares it with those nearby, reducing bandwidth consumption and ensuring live video does not take down the network.

Why Traditional Load Balancing Technology Isn’t Enough

To prepare for the increased strain, 93% of IT managers say they have tested their networks, according to the IDG survey. With 59% of those respondents expecting a modest to moderate impact and only 28% anticipating a significant impact, the threat is being underestimated.

When tests send pings across the network between two endpoints, they’re usually looking at time to live (TTL) and round-trip time (RTT). It’s more difficult and less common to simulate the load that a 720p video stream at scale causes. The ramp rate for the data is extremely unpredictable, and a load balancer’s ability to scale when you’ve got a large meeting is hard to simulate.

Network Readiness Testing is the Last-Mile Load Balancer for Live Video

Traditional network testing does not cover all the variables created by live video. Kollective’s Network Readiness Test was developed to bridge that gap and provide event-specific insights on your network’s performance.

By simulating a high-quality live event, the Network Readiness Test allows you to replicate the unique conditions of your upcoming event and provides detailed performance data like:

  • Quality of Experience (QOE)
  • Bandwidth Savings
  • Peering Efficiency
  • Reach
  • Duration

The Network Readiness Test provides seamless network testing with no additional software necessary. Running silently in a hidden browser, there is no impact on end users while testing is in process.

Know Your Network is Ready

As employees return to the office and stream live and on-demand video at their desks, corporate networks that have not been properly tested are at risk of exceeding capacity. Network Readiness Testing takes the guess work out of network impact and creates peace of mind when delivering large events across the enterprise.

For more details on the benefits of our Network Readiness Test for your ECDN, read the Solution Brief .

 

The post Network Testing for Live Video: What You Need to Know appeared first on Kollective Technology .

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Use Live Video to Encourage Collaboration Among Hybrid Employees

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Organizations all over the world were faced with an unprecedented challenge after COVID-19 forced nearly two-thirds of employees to work remotely . Without much warning, employers had to find a way to shift their entire staff to remote work. However, many were unprepared to face this unprecedented challenge.  

Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the usage and demand for video collaboration tools has skyrocketed. Even so, with vaccinations ramping up and a return to office on the horizon, it’s clear that hybrid work will continue well into the future. Some employees will continue working from home in order to accommodate safety recommendations, where others will return to the workplace to take advantage of in-person collaboration and advanced technology. 90% of human resources leaders surveyed by Gartner said they plan to let employees work remotely at least part of the time, even after a vaccine is widely adopted. But regardless of where you’re working, one thing is certain – the modern workplace will never be the same.

FEELING CONNECTED 

When employees start trickling back into the office, most organizations will adopt a hybrid work model. For example, your Sales team may continue working from home, but your IT department will be in office. For this setup to function properly without leaving anyone behind, it’s up to you to keep communication lines open and make sure that everyone feels included and connected. 

A simple and cost-effective way to make sure your employees stay connected is with video communications. Most remote workers appreciate face time with their colleagues, and in-office employees will benefit from a streamlined communication platform. Given the new state of the hybrid workforce, you want every member of your team to feel included, regardless of location.  

Plus, if someone misses a meeting, video on demand (VOD) services allow employees to catch up on important meetings or company-wide communications even after the meeting has ended. The more connected teams feel, the better they’ll be able to work together. Research firm Gigaom says 87% of remote team members feel more connected to their team when they can use video conferencing.

INCREASING COLLABORATION AND PRODUCTIVITY 

Maintaining strong employee collaboration has been one of the largest workplace hurdles IT and Communications teams have had to climb during the pandemic. While convenient, communicating via email or an instant messenger can lead to miscommunications and unnecessary, time-consuming work. Instead of relying on text-heavy communications methods, utilizing a video conferencing software will allow both in-office and remote employees to quickly and clearly communicate with one another in a more collaborative way. 

In addition to being a way for employees to feel connected with one another, video meetings can be much more time-efficient, since the need for back-and-forth email chains are reduced. Many video conferencing programs, like Microsoft Teams , also allow for cross-collaboration and make file sharing, discussing, reviewing and sending documents a lot more streamlined, especially for employees who are working in different locations. 

MAXIMIZE TEAM BUILDING 

Enabling cohesion in the COVID age has been challenging. But one of the keys to building a high-functioning team is to establish trust and build rapport among your employees, even when not everyone is working together physically. Instead of deferring to email or chat, use video communication to better humanize the way we work together. Having the ability to actually look someone in the eyes and catch up before or after a meeting can make a significant difference in a hybrid team’s ability to bond with one another. 

If you’d like more insight on how video can help connect your distributed workforce, read our white paper “The Visible Boss.” We cover everything from tips for getting started to best practices from executives thrive in front of the camera. 

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