Preventing Live Event Failures
During the COVID-19 pandemic, live video usage skyrocketed as organizations shifted from in-person to remote work. As companies return to the office full-time or in a hybrid capacity, video communications remain an integral tool to inform and engage the workforce. However, as employees return to in-person work, businesses have experienced live event failures. Many networks are not prepared for employees simultaneously streaming bandwidth-intensive content on-site. In hybrid models, employees are not coming to the office as regularly as they were pre-pandemic. However, when they do come, it is often en masse and unpredictable, creating peak demand problems for corporate networks that are challenging to anticipate and manage effectively.
These failures occur on networks that are not optimized for distributing the increased consumption of on-site video due to return to office plans and the rise of hybrid work. Luckily, these failures are preventable. With the right technology in place, effective testing, and live analytics, you can confidently deliver flawless live video across the enterprise.
Live Event Failures are on the Rise
Enterprise communications and IT teams that successfully delivered live events to a fully remote audience are now struggling as employees return to the office. Companies rely on live video to connect and engage with employees more than they did prior to the pandemic. Since February 2020, the time spent in Teams meetings has increased by 252% for the average user. This is problematic for many businesses as most pre-pandemic networks are not prepared for the increase in live video and the amount of bandwidth it requires. Streaming live events over networks that aren’t prepared to deliver video at scale risks event failures and can impact business-critical applications running on the same network.
Network Volatility Causes Live Event Failures in Hybrid Workplaces
In a hybrid work scenario, the number of employees on-site is in constant flux, giving businesses a false impression of their network’s capacity. We’ve seen companies with even a small fraction of their employees exceed the capacity of their corporate network while streaming video. However, the most common cause for network failures in the hybrid workplace is network volatility.
Network volatility refers to the change in demand that is placed on a network over time. Networks for businesses operating a hybrid work model may perform well during days of the week when the number of on-site employees is low. However, many businesses have coordinated in-person days in which a large percentage of the workforce comes to the office. Suddenly the network that performed well is at risk of failing when met with the increase in demand.
The Cost of Failed Live Events
Businesses invest time, money, and resources into live events. When live events fail, those efforts are wasted. The financial costs are reason enough to invest in systems to avoid event failures, but the communications repercussions can leave a lasting impact.
Live events deliver essential messaging, connect employees to leadership, promote company visions and values, and create organizational transparency and inclusivity. When employees can’t access these communications or are faced with a poor user experience, it is a lost opportunity to connect them to the company, leadership, and their peers. This lack of connection leads to lower engagement which, according to a recent Gallup report , costs $7.8 trillion in lost productivity across the globe.
Prevent Event Failures with Kollective
To prevent failed events, networks need to be prepared to accommodate live video with an enterprise content delivery network (ECDN), properly tested, and monitored during events. Kollective provides the tools you need to quickly and easily ensure your next event is a success.
Kollective Edge Accelerator
The modern business has unique network requirements that can be affected by a variety of circumstances like office locations and bandwidth availability. Kollective’s ECDN, Edge Accelerator , can optimize your network for live video delivery no matter how complex your environment. Edge Accelerator can flex to meet any network’s needs with three intelligent delivery solutions:
- Browser-Based Peering – A WebRTC based solution that solves the most common live video delivery needs.
- Agent-Based Peering – An agented solution that excels at delivering on-demand video and contains advanced security controls
- Edgecache – A caching solution that brings video closer to the viewer that is useful for businesses that need to reach remote locations or connect with viewers in China
Network Readiness Testing
Once your network is prepared to deliver live events with an ECDN, Kollective’s Network Readiness Test can give you the peace of mind that your next event won’t exceed network capacity. Simulating a high-quality live event that replicates your event’s specific conditions gives you the opportunity to fine-tune prior to the live event. The Network Readiness Test provides detailed data on event performance:
- Quality of Experience (QOE)
- Bandwidth Savings
- Peering Efficiency
- Reach
- Duration
Live Event Analytics
When you are ready to go live you can rest assured that you will have the information you need to make adjustments in real-time with Kollective’s Edge IQ Analytics. With an intuitively designed dashboard, Kollective Edge IQ Analytics allows you to quickly find the data you need to:
- Track employee engagement
- Monitor stream quality
- Identify buffering by location
- Track bandwidth usage
Live event failures can derail your efforts to connect the people in your organization. By incorporating an ECDN, preparing for events with network testing, and using real-time analytics to monitor performance, you can quickly and easily prevent event failures from plaguing your communications. If you are struggling to deliver a successful live video, start a free trial of Kollective’s Browser-Based Peering solution before your next event.
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