Microsoft in a blogpost has announced the launch a new video sharing portal for businesses, Microsoft Stream. In a free preview, the cloud-based video service claims to ease access and share, tag, discover video content at the workplace. It aims at creating a platform where enterprises can distribute and consume video content like on YouTube and similar platforms. “As one of the most consumed and shared content types on the internet, video is increasingly an important part of our personal lives,” the blog quoted.
James Phillips, Corporate Vice President, Business Intelligence Products group, Microsoft, said:
“Starting today, anyone with a business email address can sign up for the preview in seconds and begin uploading, sharing and tagging videos in their organization.”
Stream is built on the existing services of Office 365 and claims to be a logical step forward in furthering video management for enterprises. It seems to share the same DNA as Office 365 video management services which is powered by Azure Media Services.
Looking at a possible merger, Phillips continued to state, “Many Microsoft customers have already started to embrace the power of video for their business using Office 365 Video. Microsoft Stream builds upon the learnings and success of Office 365 Video, and over time the two experiences will converge, making Stream the de facto video experience in Office 365. During the preview of Microsoft Stream, there will be no changes to the Office 365 Video experience. We will share more details on future enhancements closer to general availability of the Microsoft Stream service.”
Microsoft claims, Stream will aid enterprises to:
Sign up in seconds: Get started with Microsoft Stream in five seconds with easy signup and no credit card requirements.
Easily upload and organize video: Easy drag and drop capabilities, upload videos and organize them by either starting a channel or contributing to a channel based on team, group, topic etc.
Discover relevant content: Enhanced content discovery through “trending” videos powered by machine learning, as well as search by hashtag, most liked videos and other key search terms.
Watch anywhere, on any device, anytime: View videos in Microsoft Stream on all devices from anywhere, anytime.
Secure video management: Manage who views video content by determining how widely to share within an organization, and to what channels. Secure application access is enabled by Azure Active Directory, that specializes in identity management systems, to protect sensitive corporate content.
Engage with content: Socialize videos by sharing via email, “Like” favorites and embed videos to webpages within organization.
Phillips who believes this is “only the start” has also revealed plans where Microsoft hopes to arrive at the sole destination for both live and video on demand where users can search videos using metadata. While it is working on enabling users search within a video too. Audio transcription and face detection are also on the cards.
Reportedly, Stream also integrates with business apps like PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and SharePoint. Microsoft also plans to assign channels to leverage specific video rights to respective groups via IT management teams that can secure sensitive corporate data and control user access.
Microsoft’s partners will also be able to customize and tap Stream’s APIs (Application Programming Interface) in their applications, which then can be sold through the Microsoft AppSource portal which was launched earlier this month.