Customer Reviews

The Business of Streaming and Digital Media

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book had one welcome feature that I have never seen before - the email, personal web site, and phone number of the author, Dan Rayburn. Unfortunately, while I read this book in order to better understand the business models involved with selling media online the content is almost entirely focused on companies that wish to use streaming media for internal purposes such as training videos.

While this is of course a perfectly legitimate application of streaming media, it is not useful if you are planning to serve a consumer market. Moreover, there are disconcerting moments within the text where a survey done by Rayburn's company is discussed at length, only to conclude that it was not definitive, and more work needs to be done to draw conclusions. That sort of prevaricating makes the entire book seem more like an extended white paper or MBA student report than a definitive guide by a knowledgeable expert. The common-sense advice of later chapters (know your customer, calculate an ROI, etc) does nothing to dispell this impression.

Overall, this book would be moderately useful for a neophyte looking to manage the implementation of an internal video streaming service. But if you are looking at the consumer market or you have basic business and technology experience, it provides little new knowledge.

This is a must read for anyone evaluating whether or not streaming is right for their business regardless of their organizations size. It gives you examples, backed by case studies, what has worked and more importantly what hasn't. Knowing what to avoid while considering your options, in many cases is as important as how to go to market. Understanding that will enable businesses to deploy that much faster and begin taking advantage of this technology, enabling them to begin to monitize on their strategy. I look forward to future publications.

DRS

As a sales and marketing professional, I am always tasked with ways to broaden our reach and manage potential prospects ... to close new business of course. Simply put, this book is our bible for ways to do just that. The real life case studies serve as our models and the in depth research reports help fill in the blanks in our marketing plan. Anyone looking to expand markets and manage potential customers - buy this book!

Tim Doelger
Design Point Solutions, Inc.

A great resource that clearly explains why a company should (and sometimes should not) want to make streaming media a part of their business plan.

Use the information in this book and you can be pretty confident that you won't waste valuable time and money with the wrong streaming media strategy.

I found insight into what it will probably cost, what questions to ask and where to find the answers.

Most importantly, the book provides real world examples of many successful, and maybe not so successful, streaming media business models and implementation strategies to steer the reader in the right direction.

I am a Streaming Media expert running Astream.net for 5 years. We now have offices in London, New York and LA. Simply put without Dan Rayburn's advice and tips (as contained within his new book) the company would not have grown as fast. The book contains everything you need to know about starting your own streaming media and webcasting business. Most importantly it teaches you how to contact corporations and convince them to use streaming. A fantastic body of work.

There are far too few books out on the subject of streaming media, especially ones that are up to date after "the dot bomb" of a couple years back. Dan Rayburn's book is an excellent introduction to the industry for anyone trying to get his or her bearings. The study included in the appendix is also quite helpful and timely.

This book is the best on the subject. Dan explains and cuts through all of the fancy language that most people in the streaming business try to confuse you about. He covers everything you need to know and start a streaming business. Go to his site www.streamingmedia.com for more streaming info. This book is sight for the blind.

As President/CEO of my own company, I found this book invaluable. I've read other streaming video books and this roadmap for efficient and effective video delivery is the best I've read. The emphasis on ROI in the context of "cutting edge" technologies was perhaps the most beneficial attribute of the book to my company. That said, the A-Z mechanics of implimenting streaming video or improving one's existing streaming video business model were extremely informative. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering digital media or to those currently using the technology with thoughts of streamlining and economizing their existing video delivery process. Dan Rayburn a guy worth listening to!

Marketing, Advertising, Online Learning, Meeting Conferencing, Live Concerts, and just about any Broadcast application can circumvent the use of Streaming Media as a useful application tool for their business. Thanks for pioneers like Dan Rayburn and his latest installment can the rest of us really understand how the tools can be put to good use. More importantly it is also an insightful book report on the industry and where it is going into the future. As a manager it is important for me to understand how I can work with applications that will help me communicate my product and consultants like Mr. Rayburn have attributed to that success. I Highly recommend this book as it will inspire, reflect, bring clarity and dissolve any negative notion that this technology is not here to stay but also marketable to your vertical business plan.

I really liked this book. This book is very easy-to-use and has an easy-to-understand style. It provides Account Managers & Media Planners a working knowledge of the tools and analyses for which these technologies will affect running a new media department. The real world examples are priceless.

I found that it makes all the proper recommendations and that this book is a must-read for anyone in the Streaming or Web conferencing space.

I make it required reading for anyone on my sales or account management teams.

Christopher Kelly
Media Services Operations Manager
Globix Corporation