What’s on YOUR Channel?

Those are the words with which I ended my last post, and it reflected recent thinking I’ve done on behalf of every one of my video production clients.  Almost without exception, our creative video projects call for a web version, a DVD, and sometimes an exhibition version (especially if we’ve produced the film in high-definition format).  Today, there are exciting new creative options for creation of dedicated “channels” of video on the web.  This puts the marketing communications professional in the role of a programmer — not a computer programmer like Bill Gates but more of a television programmer like Barry Diller.

Up until very recently, the presentation of the video on the web has almost been an afterthought.  Clients have believed that if they provide links to multiple full-length versions of the video (encoded for different players like Windows Media and QuickTime), they’re done.  Here, for example, is a link to an example of this traditional treatment for a film we created for MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

Increasingly, clients have augmented this traditional approach (and accommodated the shorter attention span of web viewers) by identifying chapters or sections of the film that may be viewed at the click of a button.  These have typically been accomplished by multiple text links on a page, such as in this example from Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, or thumbnail picture links such as in this example from Stellex Aerostructures.

These old methods suffer from the disadvantage that they’re implemented from within the programming of the web page — in the HTML code that makes a web page work.  That means that, in order to make a change in the lineup of video segments that are viewable, it requires the intervention of the webmaster or web programmer.  Get in line, because some clients report delays of up to 8 weeks to get this programming done.

Enter two brand-new concepts in the world of web video: the web video channel and video content management systems.  The two concepts go hand in hand, and together they will revolutionize the way marketers can use video on the web.

We have seen and tested three video channel-creation systems in particular.  Two of them — Brightcove and Maven Media System.  The third is still operating in “stealth mode” and will be announced later this year.  We’ll talk about the latter when it’s available, but Brightcove and Maven are certainly out there (though Brightcove is still in test/preview mode) and you can see our work and that of others in designing Brightcove and Maven channels.

Brightcove is both a video content management system and a network of syndicated video content, and their initial effort is admirable though still limited at this moment.  Like the text-and-image-based content management systems of the nineties, Brightcove allows owners of video content to upload and organize collections of video assets that might be as small as a multi-chapter film and as large as a few hundred news stories, product promotion videos, or patient education films.  These assets can then be organized into “titles” (associating them with descriptive text and graphic images), fashioned into “lineups” (sequences of films or chapters that are displayed and/or played together), and placed into attractive “players” from which viewers can select the videos they want to see.

What’s so special about this?  Once the channel player is set up (a one-time event) on a web page, the titles and lineups can all be changed by the content manager without having to go through a webpage designer or programmer.  All the design formatting and difficult technical aspects are taken care of by the system, new content can literally be put up in less than an hour, and changes can be accomplished in minutes.

Here are a couple of examples of channels that have been built on the preview version of the Brightcove system over the last few weeks:

• Boomer Media Properties, a DigiNovations client who produces the popular “Boomers!” program for public television, launched its Boomers channel on Brightcove last week.  As a magazine show, with many segments devoted to interviews, tips, and stories, this television show lends itself quite well to being broken up into pieces so that a viewer can pick and choose areas of interest.  And while this particular player presents one entire show with its array of topics, other players could present the same material in a different lineup — for example, a dozen travel segments could be grouped together into a “Boomers Travel” channel — one that could be created in less than 30 minutes within the content management system.
• Boston’s Museum of Science commissioned us to create a film that lays out a comprehensive vision for the science center of the 21st century, and now we’ve turned that film into a Brightcove channel.  Initially, we divided this modular-design film into its six chapters — an overview of the vision, four mini-films focused on each of the four pillars of the vision, and a call-to-action for supporters of the museum.  Over time, more interview segments and other video material will be added to the channel to augment the initial film.  And special targeted versions of the channel can be created which include only certain segments, aimed at distinctive audiences and potential supporters.

There are many aspects of the Brightcove system (and the mystery player-to-be-named-later) that are still uncertain — probably the biggest of which is pricing.  (The company has been coy about this, and says it will announce pricing this summer sometime.)  It has also included very intriguing syndication and advertising models into its design.  As these features are clarified, we’ll weigh in on them and let you know what they mean for the everyday marketing communications professional.

Maven Networks has also weighed in with a video content management system that is much more feature-rich, gives more branding control, but seems to be more aimed at the big studios than at smaller content owners such as companies and institutions.  One of its distinctive features is the ability to deliver DVD-quality content through a downloading process to a special Maven player, and also to support portable devices — a true multi-platform, video-on-demand approach.

We’ll be watching and working with both Brightcove and Maven to see how well they can adapt to the huge market of smaller video content owners.  The danger is that, in pursuing the big fish of large television networks and movie studios, they’ll ignore the thousands and thousands of companies, schools, and other institutions who have a compelling need to build their own private channels on a very different business model.  There’s room, as this area explodes, for someone who can serve this corporate and small producer market with their own tools.

Suffice to say, though, we’re at a tipping point in web video — not only from a viewer interest standpoint (see my Tipping Point entry from earlier this week) but also from a tools standpoint.  And it’s time to rethink how we all use video communications, in light of these new tools and viewers.  Exciting times are just ahead.