Video platforms for every flavor - try one
Time 12:27
Video use on the Web is much more than a two-minute case study or a talking head from a presentation. The numbers from an eMarketer report this summer show 86 percent of U.S. Internet users will consume online video by 2011, up from 62 percent last year — that’s 114 million people who watched video online in 2006.
Whether it’s purchasing video online from iTunes, consuming viral video from YouTube, or taking in the growing number of high-end video channels like Cigar Cinema, there are as many varieties of video technologies as there are videos on the ‘Net.
Brightcove has been a video player (and literally a player for videos) and hosting service that I have used for nearly two years. Its technology is elegant. Brightcove gave a little tremor to the user community a couple of weeks ago when it announced changes to its consumer accounts, which, as of Dec. 18, will no longer be accepting uploads to consumer or personal accounts. Instead, Brightcove is putting great emphasis on its network and platform accounts and its ad network.
In this podcast Adam Berrey, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Brightcove, highlights how businesses can still use Brightcove’s sophisticated platform and Web-based production tools called Brightcove Console. Here’s the official Brightcove announcement.
What is striking to me is how many different ways video is being used on the Web; some technologies offer overlapping capabilities, and others are focused on a specific niche. Here are just a few examples:
Brightcove: video hosting platform with an excellent player. CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Discovery Channel, GM and Dupont are just a few of the companies using Brightcove.
vSocial: video hosting platform used in many user-generated social media campaigns. In addition to large companies, vSocial has many options for small businesses. Examples: Amateur Golf, sponsored by Titleist, and Volleyball.com.
Blip.tv: a platform for a new kind of video show. These are a variety of comedy, drama, news and other genres that are gaining a new audience. It’s a proving ground that television can not provide. For the right company, it can be a place to explore the creative horizons of your brand.
Proclaim: a presentation platform that lets users have a presenter’s video in a portion of the screen while also showing video clips, images, PowerPoint slides and more. It can host live or recorded webcasts and is best-suited for business presentation-style videos. Here’s a sample of what it looks like. (FYI: We do communications consulting for this company and use this product regularly.)
Oovoo.com: a video conferencing platform with multiple screens that can be shared and viewed simultaneously
Seesmic.com: a tool designed for video conversations. Seesmic lets users quickly record or upload videos and reply to conversations others have started. The site is currently a “pre-alpha” release, so it’s very early in the development process, and the exclusive access has the blogging community a-buzz.
It’s a bit like me choosing ice cream: I have a few favorites, and some flavors are right for a certain mood, but most any ice cream is good to me.
Key resources for following the video streaming space include Dan Rayburn of StreamingMedia.com and a list of resources he points us to.
There are tons more video resources. Here is a longer list.
Videos on the Web are as common as Web sites, if you include all user-generated and professionally produced content. Test these leading technologies now. Evaluate which parts of your company’s message are be suited for video. Then: Lights, camera, action.
Tags: Brightcove, Dan Rayburn, Proclaim, Seesmic, Streaming Media
This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am and is filed under new media, video.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
RSS feed
Subscribe via e-mail
December 19th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
It is so cool what you can do with video on the web - I don’t even know about half of it. But I have been doing some work for ooVoo and I have to say that there technology is really awesome. Thanks for that awesome list it is really filled with all kinds of cool stuff.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Saul, thanks for the comment. I’m a old TV anchor/reporter. I also shot and edited during my television career, so I am big into video.
The amazing issue for me is that there are certain platforms that are excellent at very specific objectives using video. So I believe that companies will utilize a number of video platforms to achieve their goals.
The technologies are reasonably priced and web-based so it’s not like buying an enterprise system and dealing with IT issues all the time. It’s strictly about the content and presentation. As a communicator, that’s they way it should be.
All the best, and thanks for commenting, as a result Provident Partners will donate a food item to a St. Paul charity. We do this through our church Lumen Christi.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks for pointing out ooVoo here. Just wanted to let you we just launched our Beta version to go along with the PC one. We’re particularly proud in that ooVoo service allows up to six people to talk at once - yet its lightweight and easy to use. Hopefully all will see more of us in 2008!!
December 21st, 2007 at 9:51 am
Hey Albert,
Yeah I agree that these technologies offer great opportunities to companies. The fact that it is easily accessible without a huge upfront investment for individual companies is awesome. In a way these type of technologies that are web based allow us to all pool resources by sharing the technology across the internet.
Wow, the food donation is awesome!! I feel like I did something good without even knowing it. Well you guys at Provident have a great Holiday Season and please let me know if you have any questions about the ooVoo technology.