A while back I wrote a guest post for Mark Robertson at ReelSEO providing some insight into what to look for when searching for an online video platform. The piece was based loosely off of an interview Mark and I did at the Online Video Platform Summit back in November. Here’s the video interview which covers three basic ideas when considering an OVP:
Back in November I attended the first annual Online Video Platform Summit which ran in conjunction with StreamingMedia West down in San Jose. I was fortunate enough to be asked to sit on a panel kicking off the show called Defining Online Video Platforms. It was an honor to sit on the panel with three distinguished CEOs of well-established OVPs; Bismarck Lepe of Ooyala, Ron Yekutiel of Kaltura, and Alex Castro of Delve Networks. Below is a video of the panel in it’s entirety (thank you StreamingMedia and OVPSummit):
Be sure to also check out Larry Kless’ post on the Summit and this panel specifically, he covers it well even including some popular Tweets. Larry co-hosted the OVPSummit and did a fantastic job promoting, organizing, and managing the first ever show with Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen. Here’s Larry’s piece at his blog, KlessBlog.
A new Online Video Platform (OVP) launched yesterday, right on schedule according to Allan Tone, CEO of ProVDN.com who told me back in November that he’d be launching just after the new year. Typically I would not write about the launch of a new OVP considering the fact that, as I’ve mentioned so many times before, the sector is very crowded. But ProVDN speaks to a niche audience with a highly specialized approach, another subject matter I’ve discussed at length, specialization in our space.
ProVDN is an “Online Video Platform designed specifically for Independent Content Producers, Wedding/Event Videographers, and small to medium sized Video Production Companies”, to put it in his words. Now that’s a targeted market segment. They don’t have an over the top, robust service with all the bells and whistles like Brightcove, or Ooyala with deep analytics and monetization tools but rather a simple set of clearly defined tools to help the videographer and producer get the job done in an effective and efficient manner. ProVDN does utilize variable bitrate technology to enhance smooth streaming, and they offer affordable pricing allowing content producers a low barrier to entry for their services.
Allan and I met at OVPSummit in November where he told me about a problem in our industry involving video producers. We spoke for almost an hour about how videographers must engage in a cumbersome process with their clientele at the highly critical point of approval. Historically the producer would take the edited version of the video, burn it to DVD, ship it to the customer, then wait for them to watch it and verbally report back to them what changes they wanted made. I can hear the phone call now, “Um, at one minute twenty seconds the cat goes to the bathroom on the floor in the background, cut that scene…”. Tedious. Allan explained that online production services like TurnHere have made great strides in this area with easy to use online tools but Allan wanted to take it a step further and develop a drop-dead simple online tool that anyone could use.
I took the interactive review tool for a stroll today and found it to be quite clean with a clean UI, and simple point-and-click navigation that needed little to no explanation. The customer is presented with a link taking them to a video to watch with several frames underneath and a progress bar below showing all the areas where notes have been added. You can jump forward and back 1 or 5 seconds or drag the progress button anywhere within the video. In the top left corner are the notation tools where the user can select Comments, Arrows, Rectangles, or draw Freehand the messages they want to leave per frame. Just click on a tool, then the video, and enter your text instruction. It’s that easy.
ProVDN found a pain point in the industry and addressed a need by developing a service that simplifies a process, making life easier for online video content producers. At a time when video production is in high demand and quality video content is difficult to come by (perceived), it’s nice to see a highly specialized service addressing this important need.
Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen asked a question on our Defining OVPs panel last month at Online Video Platform Summit that drew an interesting response from the crowd.
The question was related to whether or not YouTube was a viable solution for business and if people were building their own solutions versus using OVPs. My natural response was, “we’re at OV-P-Summit, not OV-DIY-Summit!” But when Ron Yekutiel of Kaltura wisely asked the crowd who was using YouTube, 6 hands went up. When he asked how many were using OVPs, 8 hands went up. And when he asked how many were using home brewed solutions 12 hands went up into the air. That’s roughly 15% of the audience attending the “Defining OVPs” panel who had developed their own solution for uploading, encoding, storing, and playing back their online video content.
Very interesting indeed.
So I’m curious, before I put a poll on the site. How many businesses out there have gone the OVDIY route? Not sure I have the readership yet to request input via the comments but, if you’re so inclined, let me know either in this post or via email at kdrey at vidcompare.com
Peace.
The inaugural OVPSummit went well in conjunction with StreamingMedia West which supposedly had record breaking attendance this year. Overall, there was not a huge turnout for the OVPS portion of the show with only 47 registrants and 90-ish OVPS + SMW registrants. The bulk of the floor was occupied by OVP booths and the attendee list was mostly the same. It was basically an inside industry event which had its benefits for me as I was able to meet many of the people running the platforms which make up the VidCompare database. It was a pleasure to speak with everyone and to hear their resounding support of VidCompare.com.
A personal highlight of the show was sitting on the opening panel, Defining Online Video Platforms, with Ron from Kaltura, Alex from Delve Networks, and Bismarck from Ooyala. Following are the questions which were asked of us and my responses:
1. In 50 words or less, define what an online video platform is.
- An OVP is typically a SaaS based business offering top to bottom video solutions including ingestion, encoding, storage, management, analytics, syndication, and playback of video.
2. What are the main functions and features customers should be looking for when evaluating online video platforms?
- It’s important to know your use case for online video prior to getting started with your search. Identifying the purpose of your video effort be it a start-up marketer looking to extend brand reach and increase time spent on site, a large media publisher looking for content management, syndication, and distribution, or a SMB looking for an internal training solution with multiple log-ins, and administrative rights. Once you’ve identified your needs you can look for a provider who can accommodate the top 4-5 features that address your goals.
3. What about as we look down the road two or three years? What sort of features will online video platforms be offering then that aren’t available now?
- 2 – 3 years is a long way out but I think by then TV everywhere will be adequately addressed as well as the movement towards TV and OV oneness therefore OVPs will need to provide more holistic solutions to further blur the lines between them. I think OVPs will grow beyond partnerships and meld with the CDNs, search and discovery players, and the ad networks. I don’t think it’s going to be a features race but rather a movement towards ubiquity and completeness.
4. Does it make sense for some organizations to simply use free players like YouTube? And at the other end of the spectrum, does it make sense for some businesses to build their own platform? What factors go into the decision to build your own, use a free service, or invest in the kind of online video platforms that are being shown here at the summit?
- Well, we’re attending the OV-P-Summit, not the OV-DIY-Summit so I think the argument is in favor of the Platform today. Online video, for the most part, is a strategic purchase made typically by a marketing manager with light technical skills and little to no engineering resources at their disposal. That said, the top-to-bottom solutions that an OVP can provide are invaluable to the VP of marketing with a tight budget. YouTube does not address B2B needs completely and is therefore not an option in my opinion other than to test the video waters and to get your feet wet. Today marketers need to expose their brand in new and far-reaching ways with built-in viral and social tools, they need to drive traffic to their site, not someone else’s, and they need to know exactly what their content is doing and how it’s performing at any given moment.
5. We’ve got an entire session devoted to monetization tomorrow, but what are the most effective ways for business to monetize their video? Should most organizations even be looking at video as something to be monetized directly?
- We’re still in our infancy as an industry especially when it comes to monetizing video with very few standards, and not enough premium content to turn a profit. CNN can demand $75 CPMs but not many others can do the same without a million streams a minute. Businesses should look to their already high value web pages and rather than monetizing video directly, monetize pages with video turning 3.2 second bounces into 2.3 minute clicks to Leaderboards, skyscrapers and high-value site sponsorships.
I’m looking forward to next year’s event, Eric and Larry did a fantastic job organizing and managing OVPSummit and I’m sure learned a lot to add to next year. According to Joel, SM Publisher, SMW will be in LA next year so I guess we’ll be traveling next go around.
I’ll soon have video of the opening panel which I will post shortly along with an interview by Mark Robertson of ReelSEO.
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