The 2017 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Winners

The Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards has grown along with the industry. Back when we first gave the awards in 2007, we had 16 categories, in which 120 nominations were submitted. In 2017, we’ve got 31 categories that reflect both the Streaming Media and Streaming Media Producer editorial purviews, and a total of 289 nominees.

This year’s contest drew more than 37,000 votes. After discarding votes from obviously phony email addresses as well as votes by employees casting ballots for their own companies’ products, we identified the winners and two runners-up in each category. Many of the names are familiar, event perhaps expected, but you’ll find more than a few surprises in the list that follows.

We announced the winners at Streaming Media West in Huntington Beach, and we present them for posterity here. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the voters who participated. A special thanks to the sponsors of this year’s awards—DVEO, LiveU, Teradek, Harmonic, and Magewell.

Analytics Platform
Winner: Conviva Experience Insights
Runners-Up:
Ericsson Integrated Video Insights
Nice People at Work YOUBORA Infinity

Capture Hardware
Winner: Magewell USB Capture Plus
Runners-Up:
Epiphan Video AV.io 4K
Osprey Video 827e

Cellular Bonding Solution
Winner: Teradek Bond
Runners-Up:
LiveU LU600 HEVC
TVU Networks TVU One

Closed Captioning Solution
Winner: Telestream Caption Maker
Runners-Up:
3Play Media Closed Captioning and Transcription
EEG Falcon

Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Services
Winner: Amazon Web Services Elastic Transcoder
Runners-Up:
Harmonic VOS and VOS 360 Solutions
IBM Cloud Video Streaming Manager

Content Delivery Network
Winner: Akamai
Runners-Up:
Amazon Web Services AWS Cloudfront
Verizon Digital Media Services Edgecast Content Delivery Network

DRM/Access Control Service Provider
Winner: Verimatrix MultiRights OTT Plus
Runners-Up:
castLabs DRMtoday
NexGuard File Delivery

Education Video Platform
Winner: Kaltura Video Platform
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DEVOS
Sonic Foundry Mediasite Video Platform

Encoding Hardware
Winner: Haivision Makito X H.264/HEVC Encoder Series
Runners-Up:
NewTek/Wowza MediaDS
Telestream Lightspeed Live Streaming

Encoding Software
Winner: Haivision KB Encoder/Transcoder
Runners-Up:
Bitmovin Video Encoding
Telestream Vantage Transcode Pro

End-to-End Workflow Solution
Winner: IBM Cloud Video Streaming Manager
Runners-Up:
Haivison Video Cloud
Verizon Digital Media Services UpLynk Video Streaming Service

Enterprise Video Platform
Winner: Sonic Foundry Mediasite Video Platform
Runners-Up:
Discover Video DEVOS
Panopto Video Platform

Field Recorders/Monitors
Winner: Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio Mini
Runners-Up:
AJA Ki Pro Quad
Atomos Shogun Flame

Live Streaming Platform
Winner: IBM Cloud Video Streaming Manager
Runners-Up:
DaCast Live Streaming and Video Hosting Service
Verizon Digital Media Services UpLynk Video Streaming Service

Media & Entertainment Video Platform
Winner: JW Player JW Publish
Runners-Up:
Comcast Technology Solutions Multi-Channel Publishing Platform
IBM Cloud Video Media & Entertainment

Media Server
Winner: Wowza Media Systems Streaming Engine
Runners-Up:
EvoStream Media Server
Unified Streaming Unified Origin

Mobile Device Video Production Solution
Winner: Teradek Live:Air Action
Runners-Up:
Padcaster
Wowza Media Systems GoCoder & SDK

OTT Platform for MSO and MVPD
Winner: IBM Cloud Video Media & Entertainment
Runners-Up:
Akamai Media Services
Verizon Digital Media Services UpLynk Video Service

Portable Live Streaming Appliance (Less Than $7000)
Winner: Blackmagic Design Web Presenter
Runners-Up:
SlingStudio
Telestream Wirecast Gear

Portable Live Streaming Appliance (More Than $7000)
Winner: NewTek TriCaster TC1
Runners-Up:
Epiphan Video Pearl 2
Haivision KB Mini HEVC Encoder/Transcoder

PTZ or Network-Controlled Camera
Winner: Sony Electronics SRG-360SHE
Runners-Up:
Panasonic AW-HE130
PTZOptics PTZ Camera

Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of Experience (QoE) Solution
Winner: Verizon Digital Media Services Smartplay
Runners-Up:
Cedexis Buffer Killer
Touchstream 24x7 Proactive Live Stream Monitoring

Small/Medium Business Video Platform
Winner: JW Player JW Publish
Runners-Up:
DaCast Live Streaming and Video Hosting Services
Kaltura Enterprise Media Management

Stream Stitching/Server-Side Ad Insertion Solution
Winner: AWS Elemental Delta
Runners-Up:
Brightcove Server-Side Ad Insertion
Verizon Digital Media Services Server-Side Ad Insertion

Video Optimization Solution
Winner: Harmonic EyeQ Real-Time Video Content Aware Compression Solution
Runners-Up:
Beamr Video
MediaMelon QBR Smart Streaming

Video Player Solution/SDK
Winner: THEO Technologies THEOplayer
Runners-Up:
Bitmovin HTML5 Player
JW Player

Video Switcher/Mixer
Winner: Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio HD and ATEM Television Studio Pro HD
Runners-Up:
Telestream Wirecast
vMix

VR/360° Camera System
Winner: GoPro Omni
Runners-Up:
Nokia OZO+
Orah 4i

Webcasting/Presentation Solution (Cloud)
Winner: Sonic Foundry Mediasite Video Platform
Runners-Up:
Kaltura Webcasting
MediaPlatform Webcaster

Webcasting/Presentation Solution (On-Prem)
Winner: Telestream Wirecast
Runners-Up:
Sling SlingStudio
vMix

Wireless Video Transmitters
Winner: Teradek Bolt
Runners-Up:
Dejero EnGo
Sling SlingStudio Cameralink