Interview with Stef van der Ziel, Founder, Jet-Stream
Stef is a longtime streaming industry veteran who continues to innovate. He invented streaming in 1994. When Jet-Stream launched in 2003, the company grew 1800% in the first five years.
Stef, what are your markets and industries?
We have customers in all EU countries. They are broadcasters, enterprises, publishers, sports, events, government, health care and education. They use our platform for video hosting, live radio, webcams, OTT television and events.
Can you tell us how you position Jet-Stream?
Streaming is complex technology, and it evolves. There are three categories in our industry: video platforms, cloud media services… and Jet-Stream.
You could build your own streaming platform on cloud media services; you need expensive specialists who configure each step in the workflow and build custom code to make everything work. This takes a lot of time. There is a risk that the project fails or that it doesn’t keep up. You’ll be surprised with the hidden costs of cloud services.
Video platforms try to make streaming easier. To achieve this, they cut corners. Their workflows can dictate and can limit the use case. You can’t differentiate. You lose control. They look cheap to start with, but costs can rise.
Jet-Stream makes professional streaming easier, more controllable and more time and cost effective, without limiting in workflows and use cases. We cut away overhead costs with smart workflow orchestration tools.
Can you tell us more about streaming workflow orchestration?
Jet-Stream is easier than video platforms and smarter than cloud media services. You can use our platform at three levels at each step in your workflow: easy, smart, and expert.
‘Easy’ is easier than video platforms: one click 4K live streaming, one click publishing, great statistics.
‘Smart’ gives more control compared to video platforms. Customize transcoding profiles, manage VMS data, manage multi-CDN distribution, create interactive and branded players, protect streams and videos, in one intuitive web interface.
‘Expert’ lets you integrate your own encoders, transcoders, players, CMS, backends, portals, origin services, analytics services, and DRM.
You can control CDN distribution per stream and per viewer via an API. You can mix Jet-Stream tools and integrate your own services, in one interface or API. Workflow orchestration saves internal operational time and costs. It gives a future proof standard toolset to quickly build bespoke and complex streaming workflows. We are a strategic choice.
Can you share some use cases?
The Eurovision Song Contest case demanded ultra-high-quality streams. The streams had to be distributed within Europe, Israel, and Australia. The streams had to be protected, to make sure that only registered viewers could watch.
Such a complex project would not have worked on a regular video platform. It would have cost the organization a lot more money, time, and headaches if they had set this up with a leading streaming CDN or by using cloud media services.
We are used by rail companies who need to know whether their tracks are clear. They film the tracks and store these videos on our platform.
We are also used by medical companies, who stream surgeries live in 4K.Security and privacy are important in many cases. I love these edge cases since our platform is designed to accommodate complex scenarios and make them easy and affordable.
What are your latest developments?
Jet-Stream Cloud is a purpose-built streaming cloud. We control network, hardware, and software. The result has been 100% uptime. Streams are delivered 430% faster which is necessary for 8K streaming. We run all services in our secure cloud, so we can protect our customers media and data.
OnAir 4K is a cloud-based live encoder that runs in your browser. One-click high quality streaming, zero config, zero install. Transcoding, streaming, distribution, player, it’s all automated. Imagine how easy it is to start a live e-learning or sports training platform thanks to OnAir.
We developed Contextual Video Advertising. It is the successor of 3rd party data advertising. We protect CPM revenues and are not eating into CPM margins. This means better margins for video publishers. And it is privacy friendly, too. We offer the first commercially available player with this feature, and we bundle it unlimited, for free, with our platform.
Multi-CDN is integrated in Jet-Stream Cloud. The built-in algorithm optimizes for the cheapest route, reducing traffic costs up to 40%, while guaranteeing uptime, performance, and scale. We have 8 pre-integrated CDNs.
You are also focusing on data protection?
We wanted the web to become this place where everyone could share their creativity. But we are also sharing our data. Personal data, and competitive sensitive data. That’s bad. We focus on data protection. We are a European company, with European infrastructure. We actively protect the audiences.
We actively protect our customers data. You do not want your own logs or analytics to be used against you by a competitor because they had access to your data. We actively protect you.
We were recently audited by EDPS, the EU data protection supervisor. They streamed their privacy conference through Jet-Stream, because of our privacy efforts. I think that proves that we are on the right track in data protection.
Jet-Stream
www.jet-stream.com
email: info@jet-stream.com
tel: + 31 508003300
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