Cloud Archives - MediaCP

Vimeo Alternative

Matt — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 06:00:50 +0000

Why MediaCP Cloud is a Great Alternative to Vimeo

When it comes to choosing a video hosting platform, both MediaCP Cloud and Vimeo offer robust solutions. However, MediaCP Cloud stands out as a more affordable option for users with large video collections or high bandwidth utilization. Here’s why:

Cost-Effectiveness

One of the most significant advantages of MediaCP Cloud is its affordability. Vimeo’s pricing can become quite steep for users with extensive video libraries or those who require high bandwidth. For instance, if you need to use more than 2 TB of bandwidth per month, you would have to opt for Vimeo’s Enterprise plan, which can come with a significant cost. MediaCP Cloud offers competitive pricing plans that cater to various needs without breaking the bank. This makes it an excellent choice for businesses and content creators looking to manage costs effectively.

Scalability

MediaCP Cloud is designed to handle large-scale video collections efficiently. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, MediaCP Cloud can scale with your needs. Its flexible storage options and bandwidth management ensure that you only pay for what you use, making it a cost-effective solution for growing video libraries.

Bandwidth Utilization

High bandwidth utilization can quickly drive up costs on platforms like Vimeo. MediaCP Cloud, on the other hand, provides more affordable bandwidth options, allowing you to stream high-quality videos without worrying about exorbitant fees. This is particularly beneficial for users who expect high traffic or need to deliver content to a large audience.

User-Friendly Interface

MediaCP Cloud offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that simplifies video management. Its comprehensive dashboard allows you to upload, organize, and analyze your video content with ease. This ease of use can save time and reduce the learning curve, making it accessible even for those who are not tech-savvy.

Advanced Features

Despite its affordability, MediaCP Cloud does not skimp on features. It includes advanced functionalities such as automated scheduling of VOD-to-live content and fallback videos that create a unique 24×7 linear live channel. These features enable you to maximize the impact of your video content and engage your audience effectively.

Customer Support

MediaCP Cloud is known for its excellent customer support. Whether you need help with setup, troubleshooting, or optimizing your video strategy, their support team is readily available to assist you. This level of support can be invaluable, especially for users who are new to video hosting.

Price Comparison

MediaCP Cloud vs. Vimeo: Key Feature Comparison

Here’s a focused comparison between MediaCP Cloud and Vimeo based on the number of videos, storage, bandwidth, and number of recordings:

MediaCP Cloud Plans

Broadcast Plan: $99/month
- Number of Videos: Unlimited
- Storage: 50 GB (additional storage at $0.25/GB)
- Bandwidth: 1 TB (additional bandwidth at $0.08/GB)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited
Premium Plan: $149/month
- Number of Videos: Unlimited
- Storage: 100 GB (additional storage at $0.20/GB)
- Bandwidth: 2 TB (additional bandwidth at $0.06/GB)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited
Business Plan: $299/month
- Number of Videos: Unlimited
- Storage: 250 GB (additional storage at $0.15/GB)
- Bandwidth: 5 TB (additional bandwidth at $0.05/GB)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited

Vimeo Plans

Starter Plan: $25/month
- Number of Videos: 60
- Storage: 100 GB
- Bandwidth: 2 TB (higher usage requires Enterprise plan)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited screen recordings
Standard Plan: $46/month
- Number of Videos: 120
- Storage: 1 TB
- Bandwidth: 2 TB (higher usage requires Enterprise plan)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited screen recordings
Advanced Plan: $132/month
- Number of Videos: 500
- Storage: 5 TB
- Bandwidth: 2 TB (higher usage requires Enterprise plan)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited screen recordings
Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing
- Number of Videos: Custom
- Storage: Custom
- Bandwidth: Custom (for more than 2 TB/month)
- Number of Recordings: Unlimited screen recordings

Conclusion

While Vimeo is a well-known platform with a range of features, MediaCP Cloud offers a compelling alternative, particularly for those with large video collections or high bandwidth needs. Its cost-effectiveness, scalability, and robust feature set make it an ideal choice for businesses and content creators looking to manage their video content efficiently and affordably.

Are you considering switching to MediaCP Cloud, or do you have any specific questions about its features? Get in touch with us or try it out for free

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Live Events on Cloud Video

Reeve — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 04:43:23 +0000

What are Live Events?

Live Events are a new feature available to our Premium and Business customers. Live Events have been designed to enhance the live streaming experience for both broadcasters and viewers. Utilizing this feature, broadcasters can easily set up one-time or recurring live events that can automatically start, stop, and record channel(s) at scheduled times.

The configuration process is straightforward: simply create a new event in the Live Events section of the Media Control Panel, where you can specify the event’s title, summary, channel(s), and schedule. The channel(s) assigned to the event will then be displayed on a dedicated public page with a countdown to the event’s start.

One of the key benefits of using MediaCP’s live event feature is its ability to automatically record events, ensuring that no moment is missed and content is available for later viewing. Recorded content can also be scheduled into TV Channels, or shared as on demand content. The feature also supports automatic email reminders for subscribers, keeping your audience engaged and informed.

Why choose MediaCP for your live events?

MediaCP Cloud Video is a white-labeled enterprise video streaming service, offering high availability with a 99% uptime guarantee. This means you can focus on growing your business without worrying about server management or additional costs. With MediaCP, you can deliver CDN-powered video to an unlimited audience size, making it an ideal solution for service providers aiming to scale their operations and reach global audiences.

How to Create Live Events

Before you can use live events, the feature will need to be enabled on your plan. Once enabled there will be a new section titled “Live Events” on the side navigation bar, where you can manage and create new events.To create a new event you can simply select the “Add Event” button and configuring your event in the popup window. You’ll need to provide a title and summary, set up the channels that will be part of the event, and schedule the start and end times.

You can also configure the options for automatic start, stop, and recording features, ensuring that your event runs smoothly and is recorded for later viewing. Additionally, you can customize reminder emails for viewers and find the link to the dedicated public page with a countdown to the event start.

For a more detailed guide on setting up live events and all of the features, you can refer to the Cloud Video User Manual.

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Stream Recording on Cloud Video

Reeve — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 03:23:36 +0000

Cloud Recording is available on Live & TV Channels and allows you to record your encoder broadcasts to be archived or rebroadcast. With MediaCP Cloud Video, you can easily enable recording for your streams and access them from your Media Content dashboard. From there you can download, delete, publish and share your recordings with others. Recording is useful for creating video-on-demand content, archiving your live events, or scheduling on your TV Channels.

How to Record

To use cloud stream recording, you need to enabled on your channel the MediaCP Cloud Video dashboard. After enabling the feature select “Start Recording” to set the recording status to “Ready” this will ensure all live encoder broadcasts are automatically recorded. If you would prefer to mange this manually you can also start and stop recording manually.

Once you enable and start recording, your encoder broadcasts will be automatically recorded and stored in your Media Content.

Access Recordings

You can manage your recordings from the Media Content tab in the dashboard. Recordings can be downloaded, published on demand, and scheduled on TV Channels. Recordings will be automatically tagged with “RECORDING” allowing you to easily use this tag when creating VOD playlists or scheduling recordings on you TV Channels. We have a full blog post on TV Scheduling by Tags if you would like more information.

For more information on VOD on MediaCP Cloud Video your can see our full writeup Video On Demand Streaming. And for more information regarding Recording and other cloud features visit our Cloud User Manual.

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3 reasons to switch from on-premise to Cloud Video Hosting

Matt — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 22:00:18 +0000

1. It can reduce costs

Operating a server comes with a tonne of costs such as server fees, backup fees, software licenses, and even your own technical staffing requirements to manage all of this infrastructure.

With simplified operating costs, video in the cloud makes it really simple to plan your costs, customer packages and pricing margins. Your customers will also appreciate a simplified fee structure.

Our case study on how the cloud will reduce your costs shows that when streaming up to 3 TB of data per month, cloud video is the least expensive option. As your business grows with on-premise, so do requirements for additional software licenses, servers, redundancy, backups and especially staff. This can be mitigated with cloud video hosting as costs are simply linear with data usage; there are no surprise costs and your business overheads are simplified greatly.

2. Performance, Scalability & Redundancy

Performance in the cloud is reliable, fast and unmatched no matter how big you grow; from 10 viewers to 1 million or more, the result will be the same reliable and fast platform

With Akamai Adaptive Media Delivery CDN, your broadcasts are replicated across thousands of edges around the world which means it is always available at the lowest possible latency no matter where your viewers are located. On the contrary, a virtual or dedicated server is subject to regional network issues, increased latency when distance is involved and slow downs when the system becomes busier.

A video engine installed on-premise a server has limited Scalability, typically it involves growing the capacity of a single server holding hundreds of customers which becomes a huge data liability. Scaling horizontally with multiple servers is tricky, inefficient, and also expensive.

If you do manage to scale with multiple servers, how do you reliably ensure that your streaming services are accessible all the time and ensure redundacy? Having one server go down and another take over is one thing, but what happens if the network between continents is disrupted? Video in the cloud ensures reliable delivery throughout the entire globe.

3. Simplifying Support

Traditionally an on-premise solution would require support from the MediaCP, Wowza or Flussonic, and your Data Center. When a problem arises, which vendor do you contact? Are you sure you have contacted the right vendor to solve your problem?

Dealing with multiple vendors typically means finger pointing between vendors and drawn out resolutions to critical problems. Operating your Video Stream Hosting business in the cloud means dealing with 1 vendor for support instead of multiple.

The post 3 reasons to switch from on-premise to Cloud Video Hosting appeared first on MediaCP.

Cloud Video can reduce reselling costs

Matt — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 07:12:21 +0000

Are you using the MediaCP to resell video channels to your customers? Then this article is a must read.

We’re now offering a revolutionary online video streaming platform designed first for hosting companies, with no servers or licenses involved. Designed specifically for your business to sell video streaming and not worry about managing servers, software or licenses. This is the only cloud based platform designed first for hosting companies.

This article is designed for hosting businesses selling video channels and consuming up around 5 TB of bandwidth per month. If you’re business is consuming more than this, I highly recommend considering the pros and cons of cloud video in your business or project and reaching out to our sales team.

How can MediaCP Cloud reduce costs?

For a business of any size, operating in the cloud simplifies your business overheads and can even save you some money.

One Provider, Simple Billing – No more datacentres or dealing with multiple companies, our cloud costs consists of a flat fee paid each month.
No Shock Bills – We’ve built in default limits to stop bill shock. Need more? Simply login to our client portal and follow a simple process to increase limits, or contact us for more information.
No Service Fees – Since there are no servers involved there is no servicing, no maintenance, no software or server upgrades.
Reduced Technical Requirements – Your business no longer needs to hire someone to manage servers or software, you can focus on growing your business and hiring customer service agents rather than engineers.

Comparing Operating Costs

The immediate cost to run the MediaCP with a Professional Streaming Engine (such as Wowza Streaming Engine) and Dedicated Server Hosting can cost over $300/mo for a VPS and at $450 per month with a dedicated server if you include adequate backups (you really should!).

When streaming with 3 TB or less per month, the MediaCP Cloud Video is either cheaper or similar to operating a budget VPS however you’ll be getting so much more out of the cloud then possible with on-premise (Global Broadcasting, CDN, etc).

Product	Costs	Total
Virtual Private Server	Server Cost - $60/mo MCP Video - $60/mo Wowza Streaming Engine - $195/mo Backups - $12/mo	$327 Per Month
Dedicated Server	Server Cost - $150+/mo MCP Video - $60/mo Wowza Streaming Engine - $195/mo Backups - $50/mo	$455 Per Month
Cloud Video Premium	No Server Cost Premium Plan - $149/mo Includes 2 TB Bandwidth + 1 TB Bandwidth - $60	$209 Per Month

What about other costs?

When it comes to running your own server, there are many additional costs that may come up which are no longer relevant with a cloud platform. The below list is sure to be costing you each year.

MediaCP Software Updates
Server Migrations due to upgrades or system failures (recent CentOS 8 EOL is a great example of this).
Wowza StreamLock Install or Renewal
Service charges from the datacentre
Premium Support from Wowza or Datacentres
Server Admins or Technical Staff

Do I need to change billing and plans?

Absolutely not! Our Cloud Video platform is designed to give you freedom on how you bill your customers. You can continue billing with a fixed price model, for example a plan with 1 Channel and 1 TB bandwidth for $x per month.

Our new platform is flexible when it comes to billing, you can configure pricing for your customer plans in 3 different ways:

Fixed Pricing – For example providing 1 Live Channel, 500 GB bandwidth for $x/month
Metric Billing – Automatic billing per GB and per Channel
Hybrid Billing – For example a plan that includes 5 Channels and 1 TB Bandwidth. If user exceeds 5 channels or 1TB Bandwidth then they will be billed per GB and per additional channel.

You can also choose which features to provide with each plan, including Stream Recording, DVR/Rewind, Channel Types and more.

What about larger bandwidth usage?

For larger bandwidth usage it’s time to think of the bigger picture and consider the benefits of the cloud video platform and the growth of your business or project.

A fixed pricing model (i.e., 1 channel w/500GB) limits your customers growth and limits your revenue generation. With the traditional model, your customer knows that there is a limit and will make sure they don’t use more than their limit.

What if your customer could create as many channels as they wanted, use as much bandwidth as they wanted without their service being cut off? Then they are billed automatically for their usage at the end of the month. Usage based plans as above give your customers more freedom to grow. When your customers use more than 1 channel, they will start generating more bandwidth and in turn more revenue for your business.

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Introducing Cloud TV Station

Matt — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 04:37:58 +0000

We are happy to announce the launch of TV Channels in our serverless Cloud Video platform. Now is the time to update your business model and ditch your physical server or VPS. Our Cloud Video Platform means no more servers, licenses, software updates, server maintenance or security concerns.

TV Channels allow you to upload videos and broadcast to your website or social platforms as if it was a live stream. For many customers it means they can create a 24×7 linear live broadcast comprised of uploaded video content.

Live Dashboard

The TV Channel dashboard provides you a live overview of everything happening on your channel including:

Live Video Player
Now Playing Video File
Coming Up Video File
Upcoming Events
Social Publishing overview
Viewer information

Media Content Library

This is the central management interface for your uploaded video files.

Easy Drag & Drop file upload
Automatic Media Processing for optimal delivery
Tag & Organise Video Files

Advanced Scheduling

Create once-off or recurring events with our powerful Scheduling Calendar.

Schedule Recurring Events
Schedule Live Broadcasts
Loop Media or Play Only Once
Drag and Drop Rescheduling
Duplicate Event Playlists

Playlist Management

This is the central management interface for your uploaded video files featuring a Drag & Drop file upload, Automatic Media Processing for optimal delivery, and the ability to tag and organise your video files.

Broadcast Live Content

Broadcast live to your channel in a scheduled slot, or even at any time. The broadcast will automatically switch over to your live stream and return to playlist content after your live stream is finished.

Off-Air Fallback Video

Want to ensure your channel never has dead air? Configure a video to play when there is no scheduled content and no live broadcasts.

A fallback video creates a 24×7 linear live channel by playing on loop when there is no encoder connected.

Have a question? Ask us.

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