By special guest blogger, Charlie Davis. This post originally ran on his blog.
In the jungle of OVPs, Kaltura is one of three open source video platforms according to our trusted resource,VidCompare.com. Among the experts and journalists in the U.S., Kaltura holds rank among the most popular OVP providers, sharing press with Ooyala, KIT Digital, and Brightcove. And, you’ll find Kaltura sharing industry insight into hot topics like DRM, mobile, and tablet delivery, as well as being a founding member of the ‘Open Video Alliance’ (www.openvideoalliance.org).
So, what makes Kaltura’s OVP stand out? Well, from my review of their 30-day trial SaaS offering below, Kaltura offers more flexibility than most OVPs that will likely appeal to the technically saavy user or service provider. With a role-based content management backend that provides batch processing of media files, content moderation, and insight into content origin, activity and usage, this OVP should be on the short list of anyone who wants more granular control over their content, their contributors, and the software that supports it all.
By special guest blogger, Charlie Davis. This post originally ran on his blog.
From the casual observer to the online video professional, there should be no surprise that the online video platform market has two poles – free-to-use platforms, like YouTube, and popular pay-to-use platforms like Brightcove and Ooyala. In the former case, you can publish your content but you may be concerned that your branding will suffer if your primary hosting site is also the home of dogs on skateboards and Rebecca Black. On the other hand, you may not have the budget to spend at least $100/month on just online video alone and require something in between. In between does exist, and we have almost a hundred OVPs in the market, many of which cost a monthly sum of at least a hundred bucks a month. In comes Longtail Video, creators of the free and extremely popular the JW Player, who have released their own OVP called Bits On The Run. They offer a monthly cost starting at under $10 and/or a pay-as-you-go service with no monthly fee. Their minimum cost per GB – under $6. Oh yes, even the author is reconsidering his video hosting provider.
OnlineVideo.net is running an online video content contest for all of you video producers out there whom are creating original content that is creative and effective in reaching and informing users. The goal of the VIP (Video In Practice) contest is to reward companies who are harnessing the power on online video as part of their marketing strategy to promote and sell their products. I think this is a brilliant idea as I am both a huge proponent of online video and an online marketer so kudos to the StreamingMedia and OnlineVideo.net teams for coming up with the idea.
There are five categories that businesses can enter based on company size:
The first round of selections will be narrowed by the general public, then a panel of professional judges will select one winner per category which will be announced on June 13. Submissions will be accepted through May 2, voting on May 9 – 23, and finalists announced (top 3 per category) on May 24.
They’ve already got some slick videos collected, check out these small business submissions, here. To enter your videos you can upload from your computer, submit a URL or post to a third party site like YouTube then email the description and company name to onlinevideo (at) onlinevideo.net.
Winners will receive some impressive (and expensive) software to help them further their video production endeavors including:
Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium ($1,699 value)
Back in November I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel on a topic that I am very passionate about, making the right decision when choosing an online video platform provider. We had three interesting and diverse panelists including a master magician, a musician, and a digital marketer;
Austin Brooks began his magic career at the age of 17 when he was accepted to the famed Chavez College of Magic. After two years of intense training, Austin was the youngest person to ever graduate from the college and ranked top in his class. Currently, Austin performs for America’s top corporations and elite parties. He develops products for other magicians and consults for feature films and television shows when they need a magic effect created for their project.
Peter Himmelman, Independent Singer/Songwriter, Host of Peter Himmelman’s Furious World
Among rock musicians who matter, no one has check-listed thoseitems more winningly than Peter Himmelman. During his multiprongedcareer as a singer, songwriter and all-around performer, as achildren’s entertainer, TV and film composer and pioneering webcaststar, he has maintained remarkably high standards: Can you point toa song in his vast body of work that feels tossed off, or remember aconcert or club date that didn’t delight and amuse? Is there a popartist of his generation who has demonstrated a greater commitmentto new modes of expression and new methods of connecting with hisdiehard followers?
Leveraging senior-level marketing, strategy and account management expertise, Curt leads his team with the charter to elevate the identity and value of Client Services in the agency experience and runs point on all LEVEL partnerships. Ardent about superior service versus servitude, Curt maintains solid relationships across all LEVEL clients and studios to ensure unequivocal customer satisfaction. Prior to LEVEL, Curt served on the Orb Networks, Inc. executive team where he managed strategic partnerships with brands like Vodafone, Intel and Nokia.
I’ve heard the question a thousand times over the past few years when speaking to businesses about their online video strategy, “Where do I get premium, high quality content for my audience?” This is the critical piece of the puzzle that will help redefine online video in the coming years. There are businesses that offer this kind of content, like AOL and Yahoo! which offer online news as well as the traditional TV bureaus. However, these options can be low quality, limiting, and expensive.
Enter the recently launched NetGreen News, which focuses on delivering daily headline news covering the environment, the emergence of the clean industrial revolution, healthy eating, and Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability (LOHAS). The idea is to provide premium 1080p HD video broadcast news content to online news publishers at an affordable cost (NetGreen News charges by finished delivered minute, with most segments lasting 90 seconds). The company is focusing on something I personally feel is critical to online video: content. Not just any content, but premium, high quality, relevant content. The stories its journalists cover come from both existing print headlines that would benefit from a video version and those that its reporters find on their own. The team has recently expanded their platform to cover all news beats with the recent launch of RealNewsCo. RNC is set up to bring any print headline life with quick turn around and, like NGN, in HD that will play back on any device from mobile to TV.
I took a trip to Eugene, OR to meet with the people behind NetGreen News and RealNewsCo to learn more about their operation. They use a centralized newsroom platform and digital journalists with professional hard drive cameras in the field. This gives the company the ability to deliver news coverage that costs 90% less than most multi-national news broadcasters.
According to the company’s founder and CEO Stanley Fields, “NetGreen News currently produces over 500 broadcast news headlines per-month in stunning HD quality covering the global green and environmental beats. Since September 2010 we have originated over 28 hours of newscasts in 90 second segments (3 headlines) optimized to (work on) any smart phone or mobile device and continue to produce high quality broadcast news everyday.”
The NetGreen News Eugene, OR facility has a very large fiber pipe that ties directly into the backbone of the Internet so they can easily move large volumes of content around the world at a cost that is substantially less than any legacy broadcaster.
It’s an interesting approach to an industry-based challenge. I believe that we’re at a turning point in Online Video. We’ve proven over the past several years that it’s incredibly easy to get video online and business today have over 85 options (OVPs) to choose from to help them do just that. What Online Video has really done is created a need for high-quality, premium content and as a result we’ll start to see some real revenue derived from this type of content.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big believer in curated content (see Magnify.net). There’s truly an abundance of great user generated material out there, but there’s a difference between UGC and professionally produced content. Both are critically important to helping businesses realize real value from an online video strategy by increasing user base and stickiness, extending brand, promoting and selling products, and increasing revenues. As we start to see more companies that offer high quality content at more affordable prices, it will become clearer that you no longer have to be CNN or ESPN to garner $50+ CPMs from online video advertising.
Disclosure: I am a recent advisory board member of NetGreen News.
VidCompare is a free, data-driven, one-stop-shop for researching and comparing Online Video Platforms. We help business decision makers find the right video hosting and streaming services for their web site, saving them time and money in an easy to use and friendly environment.
I’ve heard the question a thousand times over the past few years when speaking to businesses about their online video strategy, “Where do I get premium, high quality content for my audience?” This is the critical piece of the puzzle that will help redefine online video in the coming years. There are businesses that offer this kind of content, like AOL and Yahoo! which offer online news as well as the traditional TV bureaus. However, these options can be low quality, limiting, and expensive.
