Things have changed a bit since I started in the film and video business in 1988. Back then, many corporate shows were still shot and edited on film. The video shoot was done on “simple Jane”, not SP, analog Betacam. Video editing was done on Low Band U-Matic, a process that required extensive note taking and a day or two to write down all the timecode numbers for online (linear) editing. Mastering was done on bulky one-inch reel-to-reel video, which was so sensitive to magnetic fields that it couldn’t be taken on a London Underground. Distribution was on Low Band U-Matic, Betamax (remember that?), or VHS.
Today, almost twenty years later, the much heralded digital age is upon us. You can shoot in DV, edit in Avid, and burn the result to DVD without a second thought or loss of quality. The only stage of the process that has remained more or less the same is the final one: the delivery of the program to the viewer. Whether it’s by mail, Fed-Ex, or motorcycle courier, someone has to take a copy of your finished show, transport it to where your viewer will see it, and then play it on specialized equipment. If your program has to cross borders into another country, you may have to make special copies to meet that country’s television standard, and the customer will also have to pay a high customs charge.
The Internet provides a solution to this problem and is, in my opinion, the perfect medium for corporate video distribution, for businesses large and small. Broadband/ADSL Internet access is rapidly becoming the norm. Around 80% of the UK now has the ability to access broadband (source: The Guardian) and the figure is higher for some other countries. Here are some examples of ways this technology can be used:
Let’s say you run a small or medium business and have made a promotional video to show it to potential customers. You can easily stream this from your website. If you don’t want your competition to see your video (and you can’t guarantee that a DVD won’t fall into the “wrong” hands), you can password-protect that part of the website and access it by invitation only. You can also stream a commercial from your website for the whole world to see, not just people in your local TV area. You could even link it to your print advertising, so people want to visit your site and see your commercial. That certainly beats them getting up to go to the bathroom when your commercial is shown on TV, or fast-forwarding if they’ve recorded the show it’s on! There is so much video content of this nature being shown on the web now, Yahoo! you have devoted much of your browser 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 location, streaming video becomes a real boon. In addition to the options available for 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. Aside from converting your video to the correct format (more on that later), and having your webmaster upload it to your web space, the actual costs are next to nothing, and there’s definitely nothing for the tax man to sink! the tooth! Your video can cross borders without incurring customs charges, and standards conversion becomes a thing of the past.
Getting your training message across becomes much easier too. Employees can view the video from their computer screens. Add a little “interactivity” to the mix and you can create a personalized training session for each employee. If you’re on a network, you can do this through your company’s intranet as well as over the web.
With live streaming, a trainer can train multiple 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 room having to be full of students. The entire process can also be recorded on video for later viewing.
There are many formats available for digital video, and careful research is needed to select the most appropriate one. The most popular formats are:
macromedia flash (swf)
Microsoft Video (avi)
Film Experts Group (mpeg)
Fast time (mov)
Actual Mean (RM)
Windows Media (wmv)
Streaming video is nothing like what viewers are used to seeing on streaming TV or DVD. The most obvious difference is that the optimal screen size is much smaller. Under ideal conditions, the video stream can be clear and continuous, but the latest technology must be used to create, send, and receive the video or the results may be unsatisfactory; however, that being said, the type of image one would see when sitting directly in front of the computer monitor is no different than what one sees on a 14″ portable TV viewed from about 10 feet away.
Due to the smaller screen size, it is best to avoid complicated graphics or DVE motion in a broadcast video, although still frame graphics can always be displayed on the website alongside the video.
There are many 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 regular sites will. I have over five hours of video streaming on my website, and it’s a normal one. Some web hosting companies charge you extra if you have continuous live video streaming, but this is usually to cover the extra bandwidth.
“Ah, bandwidth. I bet he uses a lot. Won’t that cost a fortune?” This is true. The video files are large, but they are just binary files. Downloading large files, be it videos or software, consumes a lot of bandwidth. However, streaming video formats are specially designed to keep file sizes as small as possible. Bandwidth isn’t that expensive these days anyway, and many web hosting packages come with a monthly allowance of 50 to 100 gigabytes, which is more than enough for most applications.
“Some people who want to watch my videos have Windows PCs, while others have Macs. Isn’t that going to be a problem?” No. Most streaming formats are supported by multiple operating systems, and even vendor-specific formats like Microsoft’s Windows Media and Apple’s Quick Time have versions that can be used by “competitors.”
“Is streaming video good on a dial-up connection?” It is true that streaming video works best over broadband. The best option is to offer the alternative of downloading the video file in addition to streaming it; that way someone on a dial-up can download the file and view it from your hard drive.
Streaming video can add a whole new dimension to your corporate video, whether it’s for training, communications, or marketing. It’s like having your own cable TV channel, only considerably cheaper.