Is
Video Streaming
the Future for Corporate Video?
Things have changed quite a bit from when I started in the business in
1988. Back then, many corporate programmes were still shot and
edited on film. Video shooting was on "plain Jane", non-SP,
analogue Betacam. Video editing was on Low Band U-Matic - a
process that required copious notes to be taken and a day or two of
writing all the timecode numbers down for the (linear) on-line
edit. Mastering was on bulky one-inch reel to reel video, that
was so sensitive to magnetic fields, it couldn't be taken on a London
tube train. Distribution was either on Low Band U-Matic,
Betamax (remember that?), or VHS.
Today, years later, the much heralded digital age is upon us.
You can shoot on DV, edit on Avid, and burn the result onto DVD without
a moment's thought or any loss of quality. The only stage of the
process that has remained more or less the same is the final one:
delivery of the programme to the viewer. Be it by post, Fed-Ex,
or motorcycle courier, someone has to take a copy of your finished
programme, transport it to where your viewer is going to see it, and
then play it on specialised equipment. If your programme has to
cross borders into another country, chances are you'll have to have
special copies made to conform to that country's TV standard, and the
customer will have to pay a hefty customs charge as well.
The Internet provides a solution to this problem and is, in my view,
the perfect medium for the distribution of corporate videos, for
companies large and small. Broadband/ ADSL Internet access is
rapidly becoming the norm. Around 80% of the UK now has the
capability to access Broadband (source: The Guardian) and the
figure is higher for some other countries. Here are a few
examples of ways this technology can be utilised:
Let's say you run a small or medium sized company and have made a
promotional video to show to potential clients. You can easily
stream this from your website. If you don't want your competition
to see your video (and you cannot guarantee a DVD won't fall into the
"wrong" hands), you can password protect that part of the website and
make access by invitation only. You could also stream a
commercial from your website for the whole world to see - not just
people in your local TV area. You could even tie it in to your
print advertising, so people would want to visit your site and see your
commercial. That certainly beats them getting up to go to the
bathroom when your commercial is showing on TV, or fast forwarding it
if they've videoed the programme its being shown in! There's so much
video content of this nature being shown on the web now, Yahoo! has
devoted a large area of their search engine to it. Visit Yahoo!, click on the
"video" tab and
type in "commercial" to see what I mean.
If you run a large company or have staff in more than one place, then
video streaming becomes a real boon. In addition to the options
available to small businesses, you can use it for corporate
communications. You can show the same video to employees in
different locations, cities, time zones, or even countries. Apart from
converting your video into the correct format (more on that subject
later), and having your webmaster upload it to your webspace, the
actual costs are practically nothing - and there's definitely nothing
for the tax man to get his teeth into! Your video can cross
boarders without having to incur customs charges, and standards
conversion becomes a thing of the past.
Getting your training message across also becomes much easier.
Employees can watch the video from their computer screens. Add
some "interactivity" to the mix, and you can build a training session
tailored for each employee. If you're on a network, you can do
this via your company intranet as well as over the web.
With live streaming, one trainer can train several people at the same
time, even if they are in different parts of the world. This is
particularly useful for medical training. A surgeon can
demonstrate a particular technique from a sterile environment, without
the operating theatre having to be filled with students. The
entire process can also be recorded on video for viewing later.
There are many formats available for digital video, and careful
research is necessary to select the most appropriate one. The
most popular formats are:
Macromedia Flash (swf)
Microsoft Video (avi)
Motion Picture Experts Group (mpeg)
Quick Time (mov)
Real Media (rm)
Windows Media (wmv)
Streaming video does not quite compare to what viewers are used to
seeing on broadcast TV or DVD. The most obvious difference being the
optimum screen size is much smaller. Under ideal conditions, streaming
video can be clear and continuous, but the latest technology must be
used to create, send and receive the video or the results can be
unsatisfactory; however, that said, the sort of picture one would see
when seated directly in front of the computer monitor is not dissimilar
from that seen on a 14" portable TV viewed from 10 feet or so away.
Because of the smaller screen size, it's best to avoid any complicated
graphics or DVE moves in a streamed video, although still frame
graphics can always be shown on the website alongside the video.
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about streaming
video. Some of the most common questions I get asked are:
"Don't I need a special website for streaming video?" No, you
don't. Because the files are large, most free sites won't host
them, but ordinary sites will. I have over five hours of
streaming video on my LearnPhotoshopFast website, and it's just an
ordinary one. Some web hosting companies do charge you extra if
you have live streaming video on a continuous basis, but this is
usually to cover the extra bandwidth.
"Ah, bandwidth. I'll bet it uses a lot. Won't that cost a
fortune?" This is sort of true. Video files are large, but
they are just binary files. Downloading large files - be they
video or software - does use up a lot of bandwidth. However, video
streaming formats are especially designed to keep file sizes as small
as possible. Bandwidth isn't all that expensive these days
anyway, and many web hosting packages come with a monthly allocation of
50 - 100 gigabytes, which is more than adequate for most applications.
"Some people who want to see my videos have Windows PCs, while others
have Macs. Won't that be a problem?" No. Most
streaming formats are compatible with multiple operating systems, and
even specific manufacturer's formats like Microsoft's Windows Media,
and Apple's Quick Time, have versions that can be used by "the
competition".
"Is streaming video any good on a dial-up connection?" It's true
that streaming video works best via Broadband. The best option is
to offer the alternative of downloading the video file as well as
streaming it; that way, someone on a dial-up can download the file and
watch it from his/her hard drive.
"Where can I see some examples?" www.video.msn.com
is the
best example of what you can do with video streaming. The site has
video clips from the American NBC TV Network.
"I don't know anyone who knows about video streaming." I'm always
happy to advise!
Further reading? Syndicated American newspaper columnist Jim
Edwards wrote a highly informative article on this subject
recently.
Click here to read the story
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