make iTV

Signing off for now....

2009-03-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

I'm getting involved in a major project that doesn't leave any spare time for me now. May or may not be back....

Thank you for following rants and occasional raves!

OVGuide Updates Video Search and Discovery Tools

2009-03-03T09:12:00.001-05:00

Online Video Guide is a comprehensive video search portal that draws results from sites including Fancast, Hulu, ESPN and Funny or Die.

They claim to deliver the most relevant search results of any video engine because of their team of editors, who manually comb, categorize, and tag content. In these tough times, I wonder how long they can afford to ....

While video search hasn’t truly come into its own so far on major engines like Google, OVGuide does face several competitors hoping to do the same thing, including earlier players Blinkx, Truveo, and Meefeedia, according to paidContent.

OVGuide currently derives its revenue through ad partnerships with the likes of NBC, ABC, and Warner Brothers. Here is to wish them the best of luck to keep the ad dollars coming!

Jeopardy Goes High Definition

2009-02-28T08:26:00.001-05:00

Believe or not, Jeopardy originally used cardboard and magic markers (isn't THAT a riot?) but now broadcasts in HD, in a $4.1 million all-digital production. You can watch Alex Trebek here, to tell you how the show has changed over the years:

There isn't much I can add to Alex's story. Many happy returns - Jeopardy is celebrating its 25th anniversary!

Cybercast credit: LiveConnect via Brightcove

Free Video Calls? - Try ooVoo!

2009-02-25T09:11:00.001-05:00

I've waited to write about ooVoo until they made it available for the Mac. Now you can download the (beta) software here.

ooVoo???

ooVoo is (another) free web video service that allows you to communicate face to face over the internet with people all over the world.

You can connect with up to six friends, family, and colleagues at any time, through high quality video and audio. Organize a family get-together, share breaking news, or heckle your friends during your favorite sporting event.

Here are the features on ooVoo that make life easier and more fun:

Video calling:

* See, hear and speak with up to 6 people.
* Call Friends who don't have ooVoo can video call you from their Web browser.
* Embed a video chat in any website, blog or social network.
* Make video calls in high resolution
* Record your session to create and share instant memories.
* Send a video greeting to multiple people at once.
* Customize your video calls and messages with fun effects.

You can also:

* Call a mobile or landline AS A PHONE.
* Text chat with up to 6 friends at once.
* Send files up to 25 MB each.
* Change the size of a video call window.
* Find people you know or find new friends on ooVoo.
* Bring your blog or MySpace page to life with an ooVoo link.
* Control who can see or contact you.

IMPORTANT THESE DAYS: Will save you a lot of time and travel expenses too!

MIT Students Turn Internet Into a Sixth Human Sense

2009-02-22T09:58:00.001-05:00

Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen.

The prototype was built from an ordinary webcam and a battery-powered 3M projector, with an attached mirror -- all connected to an internet-enabled mobile phone. The setup, which costs less than $350, allows the user to project information from the phone onto any surface -- walls, the body of another person or even your hand.

Pranav Mistry, "the brains behind the project," wears the device on a lanyard around his neck. Colored Magic Marker caps on four fingers (red, blue, green and yellow) help the camera distinguish the four fingers and recognize his hand gestures with software that Mistry created.

The gestures can be as simple as using his fingers and thumbs to create a picture frame that tells the camera to snap a photo, which is saved to his mobile phone. When he gets back to an office, he projects the images onto a wall and begins to size them.

When he encounters someone at a party, the system projects a cloud of words on the person's body to provide more information about him -- his blog URL, the name of his company, his likes, interests, and who knows what else....

When Mistry folds his hands in "namaste" fashion, the system opens a menu to allow him to choose an application. If he wants to read e-mail on his phone, he draws an @ symbol in the air with his finger. He can project a phone pad onto his palm and dial a number without removing the phone from his pocket. As he reads the newspaper on the subway he can project a video onto the page that provides more information about the topic he's reading.

Maes, Mistry's instructor, and Mistry have been working on the project for four months, day and night, and have filed a patent for it.

Maes' MIT group, which includes seven graduate students, were thinking about how a person could be more integrated into the world around them and access information without having to do something like take out a phone. They initially produced a wristband that would read an RFID tag to know, for example, which book a user is holding in a store.

They also had a ring that used infrared to communicate by beacon to supermarket smart shelves to give you information about products. As you grab a package of macaroni, the ring would glow red or green to tell you if the product was organic or free of peanut traces -- whatever criteria you program into the system.

"We wanted to make information more useful to people in real time with minimal effort in a way that doesn't require any behavior changes," Maes said. "The wristband was getting close, but you still had to take out your cell phone to look at the information."

That's when they struck on the idea of accessing information from the internet and projecting it. So someone wearing the wristband could pick up a paperback in the bookstore and immediately call up reviews about the book, projecting them onto a surface in the store or doing a keyword search through the book by accessing digitized pages on Amazon or Google books.

They started with a larger projector that was mounted on a helmet. But that proved cumbersome if someone was projecting data onto a wall then turned to speak to friend -- the data would project on the friend's face. Last month, they switched to a smaller projector and created the pendant prototype to be worn around the neck.

This year's TED demo was the first time they've shown it in public, though they're far from making a commercial product or forming a company around their invention. "But we're really excited about the potential," Maes said.

They learned recently that cellphone makers soon plan to release cellphones with projectors integrated in them, which will simplify their system even more.

Cybercast credit: Brightcove

Global IPTV Growth Creates Opportunity…Even Now!

2009-02-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

No, not everything is going to hell … so take heart!

Matt McCall, Managing Director of VC firm DFJ Portage, notes that the internet is growing globally as the primary means of delivering television.

The statistics show strong adoption in China and Europe, but much weaker growth (essentially none) in the US.

Hong Kong 31%
Iceland 27%
Estonia 10%
France 10%
Cyprus 10%
Sweden 8%
S Korea 7%
US <1%

Growth in IPTV services and infrastructure creates significant opportunity for all of us that have innovative ways to deliver distribution, advertising, niche content, mobile integration, and a whole host of other related services.

Are you with me?

Internet Video Rescues Super Bowl Ads

2009-02-16T08:21:00.004-05:00

The sexy PETA ad NFC refused to air also turned up on PETA's site (surprise, surprise....). YouTube also had Saturday's skit from SNL, mocking the actual Pepsi ad that would air Sunday. Ironically, the Web site for Jack in the Box crashed right after they'd aired their cliffhanger about Jack's bus accident, prompting one critic to joke, "Should we assume he's dead?"

A pirated version of Budweiser's un-aired Super Bowl ad also appeared on YouTube proving the Web is more democratic than NBC.

www.peta.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove/Default.aspx
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bQZLtgHts
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/01/MN0T15LDLS.DTL

Cybercast credit: YouTube

You See, You Hear, You Report - on YouReportTV.com

2009-02-13T08:42:00.000-05:00

Where they honestly believe that your news is good news!

Honest - that’s what they do say! So submit your story (in the UK that’s what they call a video too, it seems) to You Report TV, if it covers any of these subjects:

* Today
* Business
* Technology
* Politics
* Entertainment
* Sports
* More…

What do they want?

To help you here are their guidelines. Your content should be:

* Newsworthy, or based on news. Current or old news, that are news to YOU
* Video, mobile video, photo, audio, text or a combination of these
* As clear as possible
* Legal - for guidance refer to our terms and conditions
* Taken at no risk to you. Be safe!

What don't they want?

* Child pornography… SO ADULT PORNO IS OK?
* Dangerous or illegal acts
* Unlawful, obscene, defamatory or libelous material
* Images of rape, bestiality, intercourse, masturbation
* Sadistic or masochistic abuse
* Explicit depiction of male or female genitalia or pubic areas
* Paedophilia or necrophilia
* Spam (DUH)
* Unsolicited sales messages or advertising

Remember, YouReportTV is *Your* personal news channel. Only upload, contribute, share, discuss, or comment if it’s fun or useful for you and others.

Monetize Your Video with Storybids

2009-02-10T11:32:00.003-05:00

Storybids is a (relatively) simple and useful web service for video producers and media ad buyers. They connect those with creative ideas for product placement with advertisers who want to place their products in user generated videos, mini-dramas, and webisodes, music videos, and online commercials.

How does it work for us, video producers?
Using Storybids' powerful creative and auction house tools, you can sell your creative ideas, embodied in your videos, to advertisers who want to place their products. You get your work noticed, the advertiser gets product placement and you get paid for your work. Pretty cool, huh?

How does it work for your prospective advertiser?
Storybids enables ad buyers to review the videos you upload and make available for bidding. This minimizes their risk and maximizes their ads’ potential impact, when it comes to distribution online through social networks, viral marketing, and video sites such as YouTube, MySpaceTV, and Facebook.

Automatic distribution and traffic tracking
Storybids provides distribution and video analytics measurement by optimizing finalized video for search engines and submitting to several video hosting sites such as YouTube, MySpaceTV, Veoh, Metacafe, DailyMotion and others simultaneously allowing dashboard reporting on the video’s performance via views, comments and ratings aggregated across the various video sites.

Cybercast credit: MetaCafe

Interactive TV - Actually Video - the Klickable Way

2009-02-07T08:10:00.001-05:00

Klickable is a new online video platform that provides interactivity on your qualifying online videos. "Qualifying" probably means no sex, blood, or other non-PC content. Where is the fun in that?

Despite of all these restrictions, it's still true that interactive videos create a more engaged viewer, a more comprehensive publishing experience, and the opportunity for targeted contextual advertising. Klickable also claims that their members also provide publishers with comprehensive facts and figures to make your videos extra engaging.

"Klik-enabled" videos
"Klickable" videos give your viewers the option to klick on their favorite actors, objects, whatever they want. The Klick Kart provides you with the option of saving your klicks for later - that way you can revisit any part of the video (and any klicks) when you want to.

You don't have to to download of any software and only need a Flash 9.0 enabled computer and an Internet connection (preferably broadband). Klicakble allows you to embed your "klickable" videos on other Web sites, blogs and social networking pages.

If you are a publisher
Klickable offers to publishers the ability to offer more information to their users and to provide a more interactive and engaging experience. Our data has shown that users watch a Klickable video almost four times more than a regular static 20th century video. Tyey also increase a video's ad inventory through what they believe will be a new form of advertising: contextual overlay.

If you are an advertiser
Klickable gives advertisers an opportunity to serve contextually relevant advertisements within their videos. By making the brand an integral part of content either in post-production or product placement, Klickable advertising provides high brand recognition and recall as well as a high return on investment for ad spend. See our advertising section for more details.

I covered a similar online service from PlyMedia about a year ago, but haven't had a chance to try it, so I can't compare the two here.

Wallstrip Goes Down with Wall Street

2009-02-04T10:03:00.003-05:00

The first week of 2009 brought some disappointing news to fans of the online video show "Wallstrip." Parent CBS Interactive is shutting production down.

For those unfamiliar with "Wallstrip," it has been the "pop culture meets stock culture" (as described by the site) video site that examined "hot" stocks and attempted to provide a down-to-earth explanation of why they were so hot.

What makes this story significant is that "Wallstrip" was one of, if not the first, online video original-production success story. Launched in 2006 with little more than some industry buzz and promotion by noteworthy financial and technology bloggers and about $500,000 in funding, it was acquired less than a year later for a rumored $5 million by CBS Interactive. See my first post, dated March 31, about it here.

There's been little released about why "Wallstrip" is being shuttered, but clearly difficulty in monetizing a site about hot stocks during the worst stock market since the Great Depression was the major reason.

While this is disappointing, we can probably learn a few good lessons from the "Wallstrip" story. CBS probably agrees, as they plan to use the “Wallstrip model” for their BNet property.

What is the “secret” of Wallstrip? In short, it "got it," at least from a viewer perspective. The creators took a fun, educational approach to what is a difficult to understand or even boring topic and built a following among a coveted audience (higher income financial enthusiasts). Episodes were relatively short, averaging 3-4 minutes at most, always entertaining, and came out three times a week due to the low production costs involved. Finally, users were kept engaged long after the clip ended with discussion boards and voting tools.

Why did it prove to be so difficult to monetize Wallstrip? The economic environment has no doubt been a factor -- perhaps the biggest one. Traffic has had to be a factor, too. According to Quantcast, "Wallstrip" only reached 14,000 users a month at its peak. Finally, advertising didn't seem to be the biggest focus -- original content was -- and this was compounded by the fact that repurposed content ala Hulu is still an advertiser medium of choice.

I very much hope that Wallstrip’s demise doesn't dampen the enthusiasm from other niche web video producers!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Obama Inauguration: A Big Day for iTV Too

2009-02-01T08:44:00.001-05:00

While Obama’s inauguration day was a day of many milestones in U.S. history, it was also a big day for web-internet-interactive-mobile television. Today's online video technology either didn't exist during the last inauguration or was in its infancy. Online video, the social Web, and mobile applications took center stage, as millions worldwide accessed and shared the inauguration experience and information online.

For online video specifically, a record number of Americans viewed the event at work, school, or at home. According to Akamai, a record 7.7 million viewers did so simultaneously, making it the most-watched live event in online video's history.

Outside of some expected capacity issues that excluded some users from accessing the stream optimally, the inauguration online was by most reports a success. Some long-time online video enthusiasts might remember an event almost exactly 10 years ago that did not go as well.

By the headline and sub-header, we surely have come a long way. For me, the web stream was moving even faster online than on cable TV!

I also downloaded the Ustream app for my iPhone the day before and thus was able to watch the inauguration while on the road. (No, I was NOT driving!) According to Ustream, over 100,000 users downloaded this application before the inauguration, making it the 6th most popular application in the iTunes store.

This certainly has the hallmarks of a major breakthrough in mobile and online video. I do expect live sporting events and the like to follow shortly, as sports fans, for a reasonable fee, sign up by the millions to watch their games whenever an wherever they want.

PS. I’m told, that if you had a Facebook account, you could log in via Facebook Connect while watching the CNN.com live stream.

Infusing YouTube Videos Into Your Powerpoint Presentations

2009-01-29T09:25:00.002-05:00

SlideShare, a mix between PowerPoint and YouTube now allows you to embed YouTube videos into your Flash-based presentations.

Now you can:

1. Include personal introductions in your slideshows
2. Offer video that supports the contents of the rest of the presentation
3. Include demonstrations of a website’s features.

Until now, adding video in to your presentation meant that you had to include links to separate video files, which sort of defeated the purpose of having a really simple way to share PowerPoint presentations.

Keep in mind that it isn’t currently possible to make a video auto-play; also you must deal with YouTube’s standard "feature" of linking to a video’s YouTube address whenever you accidentally click outside of the "Play" arrow. Other than that, it’s a great addition to the service. Also notable, that while this is the first time SlideShare has supported embedded video, the site has allowed users to embed audio alongside their slideshows since 2007.

You can check out a sample slideshow below.

SlideShare also launched an impressive "cloud-based" feature that ties your native PowerPoint client your SlideShare account.

Similar online services include SlideRocket, DocStoc, Scribd, SlideSix, and SlideBoom.

Cybercast credit: SlideShare and YouTube

The YouTube Wedding of Television and the Internet

2009-01-26T08:26:00.001-05:00

At long last, the goal of marrying television and the Internet seems to be happening!

New TV sets that come with networking connections built directly into them require no additional set-top boxes to get online. At the same time, many viewers are finding more attractive entertainment and information choices on the Internet -- and have already set up home networks for their PCs and laptops that can also move video and other multimedia content to their TV sets.

For starters, Netflix's online-video service will be available on a new line of high-definition TVs from LG Electronics. Netflix just announced a deal with Korea's LG Electronics Inc., that will make a Netflix online-video service available on a new line of high-definition TV sets from LG due out this spring. The online service offers 12,000 movie and television titles.

Amid other developments pegged to the just concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo Inc. and Intel Corp. also announced support from several major consumer-electronics companies to sell TV sets that come with software, dubbed widgets, that make it easier to call up Web content on TV sets using ordinary remote controls rather than computer keyboards.

"You are going to see very broad adoption of this open technology by the best brands in the TV industry -- not just for specialty products but deeply penetrated in their product lines," said Patrick Barry, Yahoo's vice president of connected TV in Vegas.

While similarly optimistic statements have been made by industry executives since the mid-1990s, the topic remains a hot one in high-tech circles because of the potential impact on existing business models in the entertainment industry. Instead of the often expensive packages of video content from cable and satellite providers, the Internet could theoretically deliver a much wider array of entertainment and information choices -- many of them free.

Intel, Apple, and others have promoted specially tailored PCs, set-top boxes, and other new devices to bring video from the Internet to living-room TV sets. Computer makers now believe we will be more receptive, as Internet connections become a standard feature on TV sets, high-definition movie players and videogame consoles.

"The number of people who watch an entire TV show on their laptops has tripled," says Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist who is director of the user experience group in Intel's digital-home group. But Ms. Bell says research by the company also suggests that many people also have extremely strong bonds to their TV sets. So any effort to add Internet content needs to be just as simple and not interfere with the experiences and behavior patterns the users enjoy. That means, she says, using a conventional remote control -- not some kind of computer keyboard, or a PC-style Web browser of the sort that emerged as a TV option in the 1990s.

These findings are one reason why Intel -- which in 2007 abandoned an effort to promote multimedia PCs under Viiv -- became a supporter of what Yahoo calls the Widget Channel. Their collaboration is designed to create a standard way for Web services to be unobtrusively offered up on TV sets.

The widget displays a strip of icons for Web offerings on the bottom of a TV screen, while traditional programming plays above. Click on one of the icons with the remote and it opens a larger window on the left side of the screen. Click again and the window will take up the entire screen. You could pull up an Internet weather report, for example, or photos stored on Yahoo's Flickr service.

Yahoo and its hardware partners initially will act as gatekeepers in overseeing such offerings -- a bit like Apple does with its store for iPhone software, but they plan to keep the process open and non-discriminatory. Intel plans to offer chips to manage the widget software in Internet-equipped TV sets and set-top boxes, but its hardware will not be required.

However, there is a downside...

The technology required to include Internet capabilities in TV sets does add about $300 more than comparably-sized sets without online capabilities.

Are YOU willing to fork over that much money in this recession? And if not now, when?

Make: Television Debutes on public TV

2009-01-23T12:05:00.003-05:00

A new TV show based on one of my favorite magazines, MAKE, debuted online and on public television (broadcast / cable tv) just a few weeks ago. Being from the old school, I prefer reading, but hey, this blog is for the print copy challenged. OK, just kidding….

Each half-hour episode hopes to inspire you to think create, and, well, make. Also, each episode can be viewed or downloaded DRM-free (that is without any digital right management wrapper), in HD from makezine.tv. The show is also available on Vimeo, YouTube, Blip.tv and iTunes.

See if you get inspired:

And here are links to newer episodes too:

1. ttp://www.makezine.tv/
2. http://www.vimeo.com/make
3. http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=makemagazine
4. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74069835 &s=143441

Making it to the show is now easy. Making time for it is hard.

Cybercast credit: Blip.tv

DIY Video Ad, the AdGrinder Way

2009-01-20T11:44:00.003-05:00

Using AdGrinder, any size business can create a high-quality video advertisement without breaking the bank. Instead of having to choose between pre-made ads that are used by multiple businesses, AdGrinder let?s you build your unique ad the way you want to. Choose your own images and your own background music, add your own text and provide your own voice-over.

In five steps and in less than three minutes, and without having or needing any technical skill, you can have a video ad, that is ready to bring you customers and spread the word about your business or service. Here is how:

1. Pick your template from our online catalog, choosing the look that works best for your product or service.

2. Upload your photos just like you would to a photo sharing service, picking the images that best convey the message you want to give.

3. Then choose your background music from our expansive library.

4. Finish by adding text to your ad to highlight its special features.

5. When all the pieces are in place, "Grind your Ad."

And the cost? Only $99 per video created. NOT BAD!

Once you video is ready, you will be able to use the Campaign Manager to place your video throughout the Net. You’ll choose your budget, your keywords and the area codes you want your ad to appear in. Adgrinder does the rest.

To track you video's "uptake," you’ll get a report every week showing you where your ad has appeared and how often it was viewed.

Customer comments are welcome - I don't know when I'll be able to test it myself.

Steal This Video with Story Blender

2009-01-17T08:46:00.001-05:00

Story Blender is an online collaborative video production site where you can work together with others to "blend" your, and others media for rich, interactive storytelling. COOL!

Story Blender CEO Hyoung Yong Joon is the original founder of cyworldcom, saycupid.com , kukubox.com, and nplugs.com. Although the site is "beta," Yong's experience shines through - the tutorials, Blend Studio, overall layout, ease of use are all first class. There is really no need to spend time with the tutorials if you already have some (rudimentary) video making experience online.

And to show that he does do what he preaches, here is his own video, the Santa Cons and Salvation Army:

Your challenge, if you feel brave enough to accept it, is to remake this (hint: use the green Remake button) skit into the kind of Christmas story even the real Santa Claus could be proud of. Don't worry, you have a whole year to do it....

Besides the standard (by now) webcam and voice inputs, you can also "blend" in Google Maps overlays and data, which is something I have not seen yet on other sites covered earlier, like Animoto or JibJab.

I fully expect other, useful and fun features in the final 1.0 version, and will report on them as they appear.

Cybercast credit: Story Blender

Making Money with Training Videos, Part 1: DigitalChalk

2009-01-14T10:34:00.002-05:00

DigitalChalk's teaching and training video making (OK, not just video, but multimedia) tools are available online with no software to buy or download. As an instructor, you now have the ability to create dynamic multimedia courses to engage your students, making their learning experience interactive and fun for them. And checking your bank account fun for you.

Build video courses online at no cost?
You upload, design and deliver multimedia training courses online. DigitalChalk will then charge a small fee to deliver the courses to your students online.

Instructor Account
- Sell your courses online! With the Instructor Account, DigitalChalk will pay you every time someone takes your course. You publish your courses on DigitalChalk, they collect the student enrollment fee and deliver the course automatically.

Every month they send you a statement showing how many courses you sold and a check for the fees collected, less a small course delivery fee and 2.5% for credit card processing.

Business Account
- Pay only for what you need. You can publish on-demand training courses in a privately branded account for your business. You are provided with all the course authoring, student tracking, testing and reporting services you need. This means that you no longer have to buy an expensive LMS or complicated authoring software when you have everything you need to deliver e-learning to your employees in one simple-to-use service.

Online training seems to be coming alive now with reliable "Web 2.0" authoring, delivery, and payment technologies leading the way. I'll cover another startup, Dojo Learning in an upcoming posting. Stay tuned!

Openfilm - Independent Filmmakers Unite!

2009-01-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

Openfilm (beta) is a new video sharing site and online community of independent filmmakers, film schools, festivals and audiences who want to discover, watch, and share the best web video in high-definition, for free.

For a beta site, it is fully functional, beautifully designed, and easy to navigate. HD is a BIG plus! They've just added:

Recommendations
To check out current video recommendations from their editors.

Reviews
In this section they deconstruct some of the best works on the site.

Blogs
Where staff members share production tips, industry news, and other stuff.

Film Festivals
Search and browse a huge database of festivals past, present, and future.

RSS Feeds
Subscribe and stay updated about the content of almost every page.

Here is animated video, titled "Monsters" by Brion, that I like. Enjoy!

Cybercast credit: OpenFilm

Blip'd Internet Video Breakthrough

2009-01-08T08:33:00.001-05:00

Blip’d is a new form of online media display, designed to benefit everyone posting video online. The Blip’d Media Format (BMF) provides user controlled monetization and measurement capabilities directly within Flash Internet Video.

Ahhh...music to my ears!

It replaces your existing embedded players with a new flash file that wraps around existing video hosted at many popular video sharing sites. Blip’d extends your viewer's engagement with additional media and marketing content you add as a transparent overlay to your Flash file; however, it is detached from the video stream itself.

As an independent video producer, now you can now place marketing or any other content within any video you produce. Instead of placing hypervideo links over the video as you currently do to direct traffic to your site, viewers can buy directly through your widgets, that are associated with the video’s content before, during or after watching the video. You can use any hosted image, widget or video to build your media overlay, which remains detached from your video file.

Viewers simply move their mouse to hit the play button. When the mouse is over the video screen, a thumbnail of attached media is briefly displayed for about 5 seconds. The viewer can immediately ignore the media thumbnail, called a “blip” and hit the play button on the host video player’s menu without delay. Moving the mouse away from the video screen makes the blip disappear like it never even happened.

BMF creates a whole new experience, giving you the only non-disruptive user controlled social media format at present. Also, Blipd.com is not a destination site. You use it to set up and manage your video overlays. As a member, you are given a user profile that automatically stores the embed codes of all of your blip’d videos. Even if you change video hosts, the embed code remains the same.

The Blip’d Media Format extends online video with a human powered social media marketplace that measures distribution and viewer engagement. It promises to be a scalable monetization, syndication, measurement, and broadcast service to any flash hosted video, supporting your the growth of independent video producers like us.

2009-01-05T11:26:00.002-05:00

Getting your message out on YouTube can be now “semi-automated” with the introduction of Tube Toolbox. Tube Toolbox is YouTube software often referred to as a "YouTube Friend Bot", "YouTube Friend Adder", "Social Marketing Software", "Video Marketing Software" or simply a "YouTube Marketing Tool".

Youtube Takeover bills this software as a “revolutionary software that will forever change the way you approach marketing on YouTube” It promises to:

* Get Friends
* Get Video Views
* Get Profile Views
* Get Subscribers
* Get Exposure

for you, your product, service, or whatever else you're hawking. Here is how it's supposed to work:

Specifically, Tube Toolbox is a "Friend Bot," that automates Friend Requests, Messages, Comments, and Sharing Videos. Set up a few parameters, click 'Start' and walk away. It will then work with your friends list, increase subscribers, increase channel views, increase video views, gain popularity, get into the top videos section, with the ultimate result being an increasing your exposure.

For example, using Tube Toolbox, you can send 100's or 1000's of Friend Requests, Messages, Comments or Subscription Invites, after setting up your parameters and clicking a start button.

I’m tempted to conduct a use-test, except for the fact that’s touted as “revolutionary software,” which immediately sends the wrong signal to me. If you’re a brave soul, will you let me and other readers know of your experience? Thanks!

Cybercast credit: YouTube... of course!!!

Is Jinni the Pandora of Movies?

2009-01-02T11:18:00.005-05:00

Jinni.com, in beta now, is a search and recommendation engine built specifically for movies. So, what does this tech talk mean to the rest of us?

For starters, you can:

• Search with the engine that understands movies
• Get recommendations that fit your unique taste
• Explore the best of the multiplex and beyond
• Watch wherever you choose

How It Works - The Movie "Genome"

Inside, the "Genome" is broadly divided in two:

• Experience - the mood and tone of the content
• Story - plot elements (One man army, Battle of the sexes), structures (Nonlinear, Story-within-a-story), flags (Violence, Nudity, oohhh NO!) and more.

It also includes many external aspects like awards.

The starting point is manual tagging by Jinni's film professionals. Each title has around fifty "genes," among thousands of possibilities. Then, using advanced machine-learning technology, Jinni's system parses the manual tags to begin automated tagging. This creates a level of consistency that we ordinary humans can't reach - especially important for similarity matches and recommendations, which won't work unless you compare apples to apples and battles to battles as often as possible. Users who vote on "genes," along with the Jinni team, constantly check and improve the accuracy of machine tagging.

Recommendations

Jinni thinks the best recommendations use man and machine. A machine can deeply analyze the type of content you like, to learn about your unique taste. People can share their personal favorites and opinions about what they've seen (in a way no machine can do, as yet). Jinni isn't a social network, it's a service designed to fit how people experience media - and dialogues about movies and shows are part of that.

Jinni recommends by comparing YOUR Taste Types and the genes of all the titles in their catalogue, figuring in your preferences (movies or TV, in theaters or online) and some other filters. Simplistically, if you have the "genes" for Gloomy Love Triangles, they'll recommend titles with those dominant "genes." As a user, you receive recommendations from Jinni, your Movie Circle, your Neighbors (people Jinni identifies as having taste similar to yours), and your Groups.

While this all sounds great, hip, and cool, I'd drop "genes" and "genome" as describers of how Jinni is meant to work. "Simplistically speaking," they are confusing and unnecessary. At least to me.

Huggable Teddy Bear-bot Enhances Your Visual Communication

2008-12-30T08:20:00.002-05:00

Let’s end this stock market "bear year" on the high note….

MIT's companion robot called "Huggable" is designed to enhance your human relationships. You really need a cuddly teddy bear robot for that???

It’s designed as a visual tool for long-distance communication.   Grandparents who want to talk to young grandchildren, teachers instructing students, or healthcare providers communicating with patients now have another way enrich their interactions with Huggable.

Huggable connects to a Web interface that enables the you to not only view the person on the other end through the bear's eyes, but also view the robot's behaviors through streaming audio and video.

You can also control the robot using several features.   A grandparent, for instance, can enter text for the robot to speak via speech synthesis or command the robot to make various sounds, such as giggling. The grandparent can then watch the child's facial reaction on the screen and listen to their response, as well as watch a 3D virtual model of the robot and an animated cartoon that indicates gestures, such as when the robot is being bounced or rocked.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

YouTube Turns on HD: Perish Those Grainy Web Videos?

2008-12-27T08:08:00.001-05:00

Just about a month ago YouTube was testing high-definition videos. It seems like this feature is now officially released. A large number of videos that fulfilled YouTube's criteria for HD encoding now sport a "Watch in HD" button instead of the old "Watch in high quality." While I have not seen any official statement from YouTube yet, you can already find a lot of HD videos on YouTube if you do a search for 'HD' on the site.

Until now
Until now you could only see these HD versions if you added "&fmt=22" to a YouTube URL and it was almost impossible to know which video would work in HD. The quality is really amazing and rivals that of some of YouTube's closest competitors like Vimeo.

The price
Yes, there IS a price. Actually a requirement that might cost you some extra money -- you do need at least a 5 Megabit (download) broadband connection to watch HD videos without constant stuttering and buffering.

In the last couple of weeks YouTube has also rolled out a wide variety of new features, including the new wide-screen format (which was clearly in preparation for this release) and the addition of over 25 thousand new songs from music licensing firm Rumblefish, plus its AudioSwap feature.

Game-Changer
The new HD videos, however, are clearly a game-changer. Web video always had the contention of having relatively sub-standard video quality; being generally grainy; and also hard to watch ( especially YouTube). Now, you could easily put up a screencast, movie, or video on YouTube in HD see it in its full 720p glory.

Look What Santa Has Wrought: The GI Joe Antimissile Killer Robot

2008-12-24T07:57:00.001-05:00

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

That's the sound made by the "Multiple Kill Vehicle," a frightening but fascinatingly cool hovering robot meant to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.

This video of a December 2 flight test conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California by defense contractor Lockheed Martin has made it onto the Web. It certainly looks like something out of the "Terminator" movies...

The Pentagon's plan is to mount one or more of these "MKVs" onto carrier missiles, to be launched into space to engage nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at the apogees, or peaks, of their trajectory arcs.

Once in space, the MKVs will break off from the carrier vehicles, then use highly accurate targeting computers to shoot big bullets (kinetic interceptors in military speak) to destroy the enemy warheads before they drop back down to Earth.

I'm SO totally reassured. A Happy Christmas to you too!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Netflix Comes To Tivo, AppleTV, and … Linux !

2008-12-21T09:37:00.000-05:00

Tivo announced a few days ago that, if you are a subscriber to Netflix and Tivo services, then you can start receiving many Netflix titles on your Tivo box for no extra charge.

Unfortunately, this is only available to subscribers with TiVo HD, TiVo HD XL and TiVo Series3 DVRs. The majority of Tivo's subscribers are still Series 2 owners, so they will be forced to “upgrade” if they want this new service. The switch won't be that easy for those of us on satellite. Tivo's current model lineup does not really offer a solution for satellite subscribers. The HD and HD XL are cable only and there is no sign of the Series 3 on their site.

Think different: Netflix is coming to Apple TV and Linux

Linux PC and AppleTV users are about to gain the ability to stream Netflix's movies and TV shows directly to their systems. Although Netflix's instant watch service only officially supports Windows and Mac, Boxee expects to release Netflix streaming support to the Ubuntu version of its free A/V media center software within a couple of days, and says that adding Netflix streaming support to AppleTV asap is its top priority.

Truly Free Media Center Software? Try Boxee.

2008-12-18T08:23:00.002-05:00

“You are now free to be entertained.”

Who can argue with that?

On your laptop or connected to an HDTV, Boxee enables you to enjoy your movies, TV shows, music, and photos, as well as streaming content from websites like Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and flickr.

You can vote for them -- if you agree they deserve it -- in lifehacker.com's five Best Media Center application contest.

Also - see my next post on the 21st about Netflix coming to Tivo, AppleTV, and ... Linux! Would you believe that???

Cybercast credit: Vimeo

Remaking Today's TV into Internet TV

2008-12-15T09:01:00.002-05:00

We will look back on the years from 2006 until the end of this decade, as the remake of television into Internet TV. I know people who have cancelled their cable TV contracts and exclusively watch TV on the Internet. We see better and better quality user-generated content too.

Big Cable vs. Ma Bell(s)
Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, and ilk are holding onto their hegemony for as long as they can, lobbying politicians and FCC officials, while Verizon and AT&T lay the fibers for a truly amazing high-definition experience (or so they promise). When there's a TV program I want to watch, even if it's not on Fox or ABC, I can go to Hulu (soon to YouTube too). However, I’m not a Hulu acolyte and use it only as a starting point when I need to find something I want. Hulu does well enough today, but it doesn't get me to YouTube.

Building the infrastructure is a tricky business
Quality streaming over varying connection speeds has now become a reality. Thanks to companies like Move Networks, we've got technologies like adaptive bit rate adjustment; now even the CDNs are starting to build this in. Watch something on Hulu and you'll see that the quality is pretty superb.

Monetizing content and paying for the infrastructure have proven to be even trickier.
At the end it all comes back to how everyone will make money, a subject upon which there has been hardly ant agreement, and relatively little success.

The experiments are fun to watch, though - especially from the receiving end. How is yours?

Mobile Video. Made Simple. And Profitable. The Transpera Way.

2008-12-12T10:48:00.001-05:00

Transpera provides a comprehensive platform to monetize your Web videos on mobile phones with a suite of promotional and distribution building tools.

These include widgets to help promote your mobile channel on-line with such features as “send-to-mobile,” and the Transpera Syndication Framework which allows you to easily integrate your mobile video content and advertising with virtually any mobile distribution partner including carriers.

Now forward to their scheduled programming…

Today's audience demands a mobile experience that delivers more than just broadcast TV. They want a mobile experience that lets them share, interact and engage. With Transpera’s tools and easy-to-use options, you are able to make the mobile video experience as personal as your viewers want it to be.

Check out the Transpera Bridge System and iPhone Platform if you are thinking about going mobile with your video content, or want to explore another option.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Boinx TV : A Good Bye to Post Production Blues?

2008-12-09T08:28:00.001-05:00

BoinxTV is a pioneering live production software to record video podcasts, sports events, concerts, interviews, speeches, sermons, seminars, and more using just your Mac and up to three cameras.

“For the rest of us”

BoinxTV’s goal is to make it easy to create professional “TV style” recordings. As a video producer, you currently have to spend many hours editing your takes to get a professional looking result. Post-production is a time-consuming part of the workflow. BoinxTV reduces the overall production time dramatically as you can apply cuts, graphic effects, titles and more during the live recording of the show. Everything done during live recording does not have to be done in post production.

In weather forecasts on TV, the presenter is standing in front of a large map. Actually this is a green or blue background that is replaced by a background image or video. You can achieve the same effect, as BoinxTV supports chroma keying. Of course you will need a background and a lighting set. If you need recommendations for studio equipment, find them here.

BoinxTV ships with more than 30 professional layers (video switcher, RSS crawler, lower third, interview setup, and others), and can be extended by custom layers designed with Apple's Quartz Composer software, which comes free with Mac OS X. You can also tailor BoinxTV layers to your needs or hire Boinx to create a specific layer for you.

A single user license will set you back $499, or $199 if you are willing to include a five second credit for BoinxTV in every video. Custom layers cost $999 each.

Sorry Windows users … this is a Mac only deal!

Will You Blend? The Success of Blendtec

2008-12-06T10:23:00.001-05:00

Blendtec, a virtually unknown household appliance maker till a few years ago, attributes a 700% increase in revenue to its popular "Will it Blend?" webisode series.

Do you want to see how "Chuck Norris" will blend?

Take notice: This company is a prime example of a small but growing group of businesses that have cracked the code to success on the video-centric Internet.

Online video has certainly been the topic du jour this year, as major media companies respond to consumer demand for anytime, anywhere access to their favorite programs. But Internet video's real potential is not in watching "Lost" or "The Office" online or even downloading those shows to your cell phone or iPod. It's about giving YOUR consumers what they want in the most engaging medium available.

We are still in the early stages of this shift from static text and graphics to a more dynamic, visually compelling medium, but we are approaching a tipping point. Video is no longer an afterthought or an add-on for Internet-savvy businesses -- but the primary content featured on their Internet sites.

Online user expectations have changed dramatically in the past decade, and businesses that don't evolve their Internet strategies to accommodate this change are about to get a painful wake-up call.

From Radio to Online Video

It's well-documented that people prefer a visually dynamic medium when it comes to being entertained or getting information. Radio was once the primary source of news, music and other entertainment for a large part of the population. Then came TV, followed by VCRs, TiVo and iPods. Video is having the same dramatic impact on the Internet. The Solutions Research Group predicts that total hours spent with video-based entertainment will average eight hours per day by early 2013 -- the equivalent of an entire night's sleep -- and a majority of those hours will belong to online video.

Most fascinating about the emergence of the video-centric Internet is that it is NOT being driven by news and entertainment providers. The vast majority of businesses riding the video wave are non-media organizations, ranging from small neighborhood retailers and restaurants to powerhouse brands like Nike and Apple. These businesses all have an intense desire to deliver a strong brand impression, create an engaging experience, and instill customer loyalty. The Internet is now the primary customer touch point and commerce channel for these organizations, and video delivers the compelling Internet experiences that educate, entertain, and keep customers coming back.

The Video-Centric Enterprise

You can ENGAGE your customers, partners and prospects with product demonstrations, presentations and how-to videos. Apple, being the master marketer, keeps rolling out 30-minute videos, that are part guide, part advertisement to accompany its new iSomething.

Beyond these marketing examples, investors will be able to access corporate data in video form, whether it is an annual meeting, a message from the CEO or a video news release. Internally, video will become a primary form of communication. Think of a broadcast greeting embedded in a personal email or executive video memos -- the latter of which is already being done by early video adopters such as British Telecom. Video libraries will usher in a new phase of knowledge sharing and best practices, as employees access huge repositories of education and training videos.

The most sophisticated online video practitioners will become a de facto broadcast network constantly issuing news and information to their customers, partners, distributors, employees, and the public at large too. And why not? The cost of distributing or syndicating your content is already approaching zero to roll your own version of "Will it Blend?"

Cybercast credit: YouTube

iPhone and iPod Touch TV -- the Skinny on i.TV's TV and Movie Guide

2008-12-03T09:06:00.001-05:00

i.TV helps you to discover entertainment options by providing up-to-date information on television shows and movies. You can also see the feedback and information provided by other i.TV users who utilize i.TV’s community-focused features, such as writing reviews and giving star ratings.

In addition, i.TV allows you to directly access entertainment such as television previews and movie trailers through your iPhone or iPod touch.

Here are the details, point by point:

1. i.TV is a free download from the iTunes App Store.
2. There is no subscription fee.
3. You can sort and filter by location, media type, genre, TV provider, channel, ratings,
reviews and friend recommendations.
4. You can not watch TV, as the i.TV iPhone application does not currently support streaming television.
5. You can not watch watch trailers and previews.
6. Currently, i.TV is only for iPhone and iPod touch.
7. They have plans to provide i.TV functionality on their website too, at: www.i.tv.
8. Other people can see reviews you write if you make them publicly shared.
9. You can select the level of ratings, like TV14 or PG-13. i.TV has additional filters to hide anything you don't want to show or watch.

I had no trouble downloading and synching it to my iPhone. Now I just need time to write reviews…

Your Own Pay-Per-View Video Distribution Channel

2008-11-30T08:52:00.001-05:00

Although Eureeeka calls it “Pay-For-Access," it really is your own Pay-Per-View distribution channel, “all on your site, all on your terms,” according to the company:

Create your own iTV network

The Youreeeka technology enables internet TV station owners to deliver and manage video content, advertising, and viewer activity. Create, share,and profit with a Internet television network of your very own. Whether it is a localized information channel or a national special interest network, the Youreeeka platform supports subscription, pay-for-access, and advertising based revenue streams that allow you to maximize your income.

Deploy your own "Pay-For-Access" solution

Youreeeka's technology enables us, content creators, to deliver our work to viewers around the world without the complications or expense of traditional media distribution. Their secure payment gateway is optimized to deliver a video or film. The purchase and viewing experience for the viewer is instantaneous and easy. You can manage users, sales, and viewing activity with internet-based administrative tools.

You need the Eureeeka player…

Youreeeka delivers your video content via a custom developed, highly scalable, true streaming media player. This player is expressly designed with an extensive feature set, tailored to the Youreeeka interactive content delivery system.

In addition to the latest transport controls such as "Click to Seek" and "Full Screen" models, the Youreeeka player offers many unique features including:

• Library Menu for both viewing and video retrieval
• Play All functionality for multiple chapters
• Active bandwidth detection and bitrate switching
• Keyboard control for play and pause functions
• Video length and elapsed time display
• 16x9 aspect ratio with automatic pillar-box for 4x3 content

Interested? Contact them here.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Photoshop Morphing into Videoshop?

2008-11-27T08:23:00.001-05:00

Artificial intelligence researchers at Stanford U. have developed software that makes it easy to reach inside an existing video and place a photo on the wall so realistically that it looks like it was there from the beginning.

The photo is not layered on top of the existing video, but embedded in it. It works for PIP (picture-in-picture) videos as well — you can play a video on a wall inside your video.

This technology can cheaply do some of the tricks normally performed by expensive commercial editing systems. According to the researchers, "Anyone with a video camera
might earn some spending money by agreeing to have unobtrusive corporate logos placed inside their videos before they are posted online."

Sign up here to try it free online now!

Comparing the Tubes : YouTube, Yahoo, MetaCafe, Google, Revver, AOL, DailyMotion, BlipTV, Veoh, Crackle (Sony), Myspace

2008-11-24T08:55:00.001-05:00

I produced and uploaded a new into video for CarbonTicker’s Carbon Savings Account through TubeMogul, on November 9 around 10 PM. (Yes, I work (some) Sunday nights…). I then decided to compare the transmission and service quality one can expect from these sites today. I collected data between November 10 and November 12. Must say this exercise has turned out to be a real eye-opener - literally.

Obviously, all of these video sharing services are free, so this is definitely NOT a “gripe-fest.” What you have here is a “quick and dirty” look at the state of web video today, based on the following criteria:

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes = 10, No = 0
Image clarity:
Download speed:
Ease of obtaining embed code:
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: Yes = 0, No = 10
Points: 0 - 10, 10 being best for image clarity, download speed, and

Here we go:

YouTube upload: Success

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 5
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 10
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Yahoo upload: Success

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 7
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 10
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Metacafe upload: Success

Carbon Savings Account from CarbonTicker.com - Celebrity bloopers here

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 6
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 10
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: Yes - 0

Google upload: Success

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 6
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 9
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Revver upload: Success ???

Video availability 24 hours after upload: N/A - 0
Image clarity: N/A - 0
Download speed: N/A - 0
Ease of obtaining embed code: N/A - 0
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: N/A - 0

AOL Video upload: Success ???

Video availability 24 hours after upload: N/A - 0
Image clarity: N/A - 0
Download speed: N/A - 0
Ease of obtaining embed code: N/A - 0
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: N/A - 0

DailyMotion upload: Success

Carbon Savings Account from CarbonTicker.com
by itv21

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 7
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 9
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Blip.tv upload: Success

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 7
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 9
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Veoh upload: Success

Watch Carbon Savings Account from CarbonTicker.com in Game Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 7
Download speed: 10
Ease of obtaining embed code: 9
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10

Crackle (Sony) upload: Success

Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10
Image clarity: 10
Download speed: 9
Ease of obtaining embed code: 9
Pre-roll ad tagged-on: Yes - 0

MySpace: Failure: error while uploading to site.

Score for each criterium: N/A - 0

Here it is, neatly summarized in our newly inaugurated V-Cast Rating Chart:

Videocast credit: All of the sites listed, except AOL Video, Myspace, and Revver - THANKS!

Fora.tv : the C-Span of the Web?

2008-11-21T08:46:00.001-05:00

Fora.tv, an online video site that some have called the “C-Span of the Web,” was founded two years ago. The San Francisco-based company offers videos of conferences and symposiums produced by C-Span, the Brookings Institution, the Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and the Aspen Institute among a flock of other think tanks and public policy centers. It caters to a small educated and politically engaged audience.

While it has some serious competition in Ted.TV, BigThink and Charlie Rose, it seems to have kept its head above water. If they look like your kind of community, join them here.

Besides receiving FORA.tv This Week, FORAcasts, and favorite programs from all over the world, you can:

* Bookmark and curate an entire library of your favorite FORA.tv programs
* Upload and combine (mash) your videos with FORA clips - COOL !!!
* Create your own unique programming to share with others as ThinkTanks - VERY COOL !!!

Thinking anyone?

Is MyStudio the Next Polaroid?

2008-11-18T09:36:00.001-05:00

MyStudio is a self-contained high definition (HD) interactive audio/video recording studio designed for installation in shopping malls and other high traffic areas. It promises to deliver you high quality from the proprietary recording system built into this stand-alone booth. MyStudio and its accompanying website, www.mystudio.net, make use of some the world’s leading internet and entertainment properties: the video sharing of YouTube, the social networking aspects of MySpace and FaceBook and talent based contests made popular by American Idol, all in a single entertainment package.

For a $20 fee, you can record an HD video with the ease and convenience only available before to pro filmmakers. Think about creating videos for music, modeling, comedy, dating, job resumes, auditions, personal messages, greetings, and… (no not THAT.) Using Hollywood-style green screen technology, you can:

1. Choose from hundreds of virtual backgrounds
2. Receive a DVD of their session onsite
3. Have your video automatically uploaded to the MyStudio website
4. Share your video from your member profile page
5. Enter your videos into monthly, industry sponsored music, modeling and comedy contests
6. Or send them to talent, dating or job search agencies

MyStudio commenced production of its first 5 studios on April 8, 2008 and expects to install them in strategic locations in Arizona, California, Nevada and New York in the third quarter of 2008. Shortly thereafter we expect to begin a nationwide roll-out in all 50 states followed by international installations.

The first booth is now operating in the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. The company promises new installations in California, Nevada and New York this quarter, following a nationwide roll-out in all 50 states and overseas.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

EveryZing Zings on Us Its MetaPlayer

2008-11-15T08:51:00.001-05:00

In addition to EveryZings' ezSEO that I wrote about in a previous post in October, another new product has been introduced by them, called the EveryZing MetaPlayer.

EveryZing's applications enhance the discovery of online audio and video content. Why is this so important today?

Because finding what you want in, say, an hour-long television interview is still really, really hard. First, you have to watch the video (yes, I appreciate the inconvenience…). If you’re lucky, someone has already indexed the interview with selected keywords that you can jump to. That works, as long as what that “someone” has indexed has some relation to your interests. But, if it’s an interview where what you really want are only the sections where the interviewee mentions, say, “Travelgate,” and those sections have not been tagged for you, there is no other solution than to watch the content in a linear mode.

Even with this ever-growing sea of digital media at our fingertips, text continues to be the dominant method by which we search for content. In some cases, image recognition software may allow us to request comparisons-the “find me something that looks like this”-functionality that is certainly helpful. But, content publishers can easily be stymied by trying to figure out affordable methods to use which will result in their content being more accessible to search requests.

One of the fundamental aspects of finding content that’s relevant to you is the method by which you must search for that content. And that, of course, has traditionally been by using keywords. However, as already outlined, who determines what keywords are relevant? How many keywords should be indexed? And, with the sheer amount of digital media growing each day, simply adding people to manually enter keywords will clearly not scale. EveryZing, however, uses its core IP to generate metadata from audio and video content which, in turn, can be used for assisting the search process.

The EveryZing application suite, consisting of ezSEO, ezSEARCH, and MetaPlayer is a great example of the functionality and ease-of-use necessary to make video search, retrieval, tracking, and monetization feasible for mere mortals, like me.

MetaPlayer also preserves for us, content owners and publishers the control we need over content, brand, and the monetization of that content. At the same time, you give more control to your viewers too, by virtue of providing much better search capability. Additionally, MetaPlayer’s speech-to-text and natural language processing technologies can also be integrated into third party applications and to extend other “chromeless” players.

EveryZing’s customers include NewsCorp, Disney, CBS, Cox, and Thomson-Reuters. Pretty impressive! In case you want to keep up with the latest goings-on, here is a link to the company blog.

MTV Launches MTVMusic.com

2008-11-12T09:00:00.002-05:00

MTV has just launched MTVMusic.com, where they offer over 16,000 music videos a la YouTube, but with fewer notices and DMCA takedowns. This, however, is offset by the six separate agreements and privacy statements that must be accepted. Thankfully, at the time of writing the MTV Music website was making this process easier, by having you click off only a single checkbox. With Firefox as your browser, even that’s automated, as it will check the accept box whenever any agreement is viewed.

Here is “Viva Mozilla!” from Rick Astley … not really, but “Never Gonna Give You Up” is close enough for MTV fans.

They also have a set of APIs and development tools that allow you to incorporate their content into your own creations.

Primarily designed for web developers, application builders, and mash-up makers, there's a lot you can do with the MTV Networks Content API. Here are a few sample projects:

• Build a music video gallery of MTV, VH1, CMT or LOGO artists.
• Create an application to send music video dedications to friends on Facebook, MySpace, Flux or just about any other social network.
• Mine our expansive music video archive to create the music application of your dreams.
• Fashion a WordPress plug-in to dynamically pull music videos into blog posts.

Let’s see what you can come up with!

Cybercast credit: MTVMusic

Vbrick: A Foundation for Your Video Ecosystem

2008-11-09T07:44:00.001-05:00

Vbrick Systems is a relatively "old player" in the online video scene, providing technology to websites for video hosting. It's about to launch new hardware and software for streaming and pay-per-view video.

It also hopes to bring in more money by embedding advertisements in some of the videos it serves, on top of the $30 million in revenue last year and reports that 2008 will be even more profitable. They've been helped along the way by a partnership with Akamai Technologies, a company that will improve its network resources, and by a total of $62 million in VC backing to date.

VBrick's complete product line is designed to create a foundation for your entire network video ecosystem, and is made up of:

EtherneTV
Is their enterprise-wide solution composed of a set of scalable, industrial strength, network-aware appliances that allow organizations to build a video infrastructure on top of any existing IP network. Each component plays a significant role in capturing, recording, managing, distributing, and viewing your video assets.

VBrick Appliances
Industrial strength, portable VBrick Appliances deliver video on local area networks, wide area networks, and the Internet through its customers' VPN IP network.

VBCast
Travel to a location, connect your camera and microphone and begin broadcasting. The package contains everything you need to go live in an instant.

VBrick’s software and video appliances enable you to distribute a live webcast, complete with timed PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint slides???

You can also view and record a live feed from remote appliances. Now, that's more like it for me.

Job-hunting Without Success? Try Visual CV.

2008-11-06T07:28:00.002-05:00

VisualCV (Beta) aims to reinvent the resume AND the recruiting business, to benefit job seekers, employers, and recruiters alike.

They can transform your standard online resume into an interactive multimedia presentation in five (relatively) easy steps:

1. SIGN UP FREE
Can't beat that....

2. CREATE
Here you create a VisualCV by cutting and pasting from your existing resume in Word, PDF or plain text format. Right away, your resume becomes a live Internet document with built-in company and university research.

3. ENRICH
Next, you can easily enrich your VisualCV, making it a proxy for that first interview. You can add video, audio, charts, graphs, work samples, presentations, scanned documents and much more. The multimedia capabilities allow you to present yourself far beyond words on paper. Prospective employers get a full picture of you, your unique qualifications and how you present yourself.

4. SHARE
Finally, decide who gets to see your VisualCV. Share it with anyone you choose. Share it with your professional network, your database of employers who might each have their own company-specific VisualCV. You can even create different versions for different audiences, showing more personal information only to those you trust.

5. MANAGE
Each time you login to VisualCV.com, you start-off at your personal VisualCV Dashboard. This is where you manage most activities and functions, such as Privacy, Online, and Controlled Sharing settings, edits, multiple versions, etc.

Want to see their 60-second overview of VisualCVs? Take their mini tour here.

WANING: Very slick ... however I don't see how they will generate income to stay in business.

The Revolution Is Being Downloaded

2008-11-03T09:11:00.002-05:00

For proof that the we, the viewers, want to be in charge, look no further than the Summer Olympics. Not only did the opening ceremony in Beijing have a gigantic DVR audience of 3.25 million viewers, but NBC said 40% of its online viewers used the Web to view events they had first seen on TV.

In today’s media environment, consumers have come to expect getting online content whenever they want, from TVs and personal computers to iPods and mobile devices. We, as brand and content owners have two options for packaging and delivering online content for viewer consumption:

1. LIVE STREAMING

Streaming fits well with our PC-centric viewing habits. Streaming is ideal for watching instant clips and user-generated content, like YouTube videos, on a computer. With a broadband connection, streaming is capable of delivering smooth playback, giving us that immediate, “I can get it now” effect.

While watching Michael Phelps repeat his gold medal wins from the comfort of a living room has inherent value for both consumers and advertisers, the real explosion in online media will take place when content becomes available anytime, anywhere. This is the “always on” future, and the enormous popularity of the iPhone is a huge step forward in making it a reality. However, today’s infrastructure cannot handle the streaming demands - at least not for portable content. A recent report by Canaccord Adams concluded that AT&T’s network is reaching capacity due to heavy data traffic usage from the iPhone; in some urban areas, subscribers are having problems making a simple phone call. So, until infrastructure improves, publishers need to provide alternatives to satisfy consumers’ demand for portable content.

This brings us to the second option, downloadable media, which picks up where streaming doesn’t deliver. While not as immediate as streaming, downloadable media gives consumers the flexibility and control they’ve come to expect.

2. DOWNLOADABLE MEDIA

From the DVR to the iPod, viewers prefer downloading their content because it’s more convenient. Downloading gives you the ability to time-shift and place-shift your programs — not just short clips — and watch them on your device of choice, when you want and with no Internet connection required.

This is why downloadable media offers the greatest potential for content owners. The question, as always, is finding a viable business model to support it.

As a publisher, you might assume that downloading is akin to giving away the farm. It looks like untethered media — free from the restraints of distribution channels, time and space — is (maybe) paid for once. A consumer who uses iTunes or LimeWire to download your content disappears into the content jungle, never to be seen again. No tracking opportunities, no way to garner additional revenue.

However, revenue possibilities are actually far richer with downloadable media. Just look at podcasting. Podcasting may not get the attention it used to, but that’s only because it’s become an everyday activity. eMarketer estimates that 65 million Americans will be using it as a distribution channel by 2012. Video and audio podcasts are simply RSS-enabled downloads that afford two big advantages:

A) For viewers, it’s an easy way to get fresh content automatically.

B) For publishers, it offers a built-in syndication platform that reaches audiences across the increasingly fragmented Web and device landscape.

New technology is also making it possible to extend our revenue stream by inserting ads into, say, our podcast programming. Aside from gaining an additional revenue stream, we can receive comprehensive metrics to track results and price future ads more appropriately.

With downloading, barriers to participation are low — even with embedded ads. Consumers have signaled they are agreeable to short ads in return for free premium content, like an MSNBC program.

Podcasting is just the beginning. Once we can track and measure direct, untethered downloads, the media industry may finally be able to unlock all of that great content on the Internet and everywhere else.

3M Launches First Pocket Projector

2008-10-31T10:03:00.001-05:00

Once only a fantasy in the minds of technophiles like me (I admit), a pocket-size projector has been the Holy Grail of gadgets for many years. Now it’s arrived. 3M recently sent samples of their MPro110 mini projector to electronic industry writers, and it immediately made an impact.

“I plugged it into a DVD player and watched Blackhawk Down on my desk — literally, on it, as I aimed it at my white desktop. It also worked on the wall, on a piece of 8.5-by-11-inch printer paper and on the back of my colleague, Doug,” one critic said.

Images are discernable up to about 11 inches across, even under bright fluorescent office lights. But they are definitely faded. In a dark room, you can project a big enough image to be the ultimate inexpensive home theater!

The projector will sell for a mere $359 (US).

NOTE #1: it doesn’t have a speaker, so you have to get that separately.
NOTE #2: A VGA input lets you plug in a laptop; and the composite video jack will take output from a digital camera, PSP, iPod, iPhone, or most any handheld device. COOL!!!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Producing Good Online Video is One Thing; Delivering It Well, Another

2008-10-28T09:44:00.001-05:00

Online video does open new ways of connecting with your customers and other constituents; and new revenue streams too, if you are in the enviable position of being able to monetize your content.

This ONLY happens, though, if you are attentive to the following three key areas:

1. Identifying important streams
2. Establishing performance targets, and
3. Comparing your performance to your competitors

Your technology staff and/or contract professionals have equally important roles to fulfill. They have to:

4. Define the right technical delivery methods
5. Quantify performance targets, and
6. Ensure adequate capacity

All web elements are not equal. As you focus on the most critical streams, your tech staff must examine the means for delivering them: What's available in-house? What do we have to outsource? Have we tested third-party video distribution services?

Today, the minimum standard for delivery is 97% error-free multimedia performance. Your viewers and customers' expectations are also formed by their experiences at other online sites.

As your commitment to multimedia grows, so too will your investment in technologies -- in-house or with third-party vendors -- to help you deliver your content effectively and consistently.

Yes, producing good online video is one thing; delivering it well is another and the third where most of us have had the most difficulty and I'm sure others will concur is making your "channel" known. Enter MillionDollarWebTV, which will deliver your message in your own channel on a widely known, high traffic website.

Vote for Obama ? McCain ? NO - Me ! Steve Kingsley in 2008!

2008-10-25T10:31:00.001-05:00

I promise:

* Gas for less than two dollars!
* 15 percent flat tax!
* Good pay for honest executives only!
* All terrorists' eyes for one victim's eye!
* Judiciously applied political incorrectness!
* Much more to come!!!

Delivered to you courtesy of The Summit Group, tsgnet.com and YouTube.

WOW - Now the fine print I received in an email from YouTube:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear makeitv,

Your video "Vote for Obama ? McCain ? NO ! Steve Kingsley in 2008!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akwArklQUBo) has been identified by YouTube's Content Identification program (http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83766) as containing copyrighted content which Suburban Noize Records, Inc. claims is theirs.

Your video "Vote for Obama ? McCain ? NO ! Steve Kingsley in 2008!" is still available because Suburban Noize Records, Inc. does not object to this content appearing on YouTube at this time. As long as Suburban Noize Records, Inc. has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

Claim Details:

Copyright owner: Suburban Noize Records, Inc.
======================================
Content claimed: Some or all of the audio and visual content
================================================
Policy: Allow this content to remain on YouTube.

* Place advertisements on this video's watch page.
Applies to these locations: Everywhere

Suburban Noize Records, Inc. claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you can dispute this claim with Suburban Noize Records, Inc. and view other options in the Video ID Matches (http://youtube.com/my_videos_copyright) section of your YouTube account. Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes between content owners. Learn more about video identification disputes (http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=83768).

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PS. Considering the checkered history of YouTube re copyright protection, they are really going respectable, wouldn't you say?

PPS...Especially in light of Google Video (remember, the same company...) refusing to run this very same video!!!

Digital Convergence : RallyPoint Combines HDTV with Internet TV

2008-10-22T09:19:00.001-05:00

Rallypoint offers software and services for Internet-enabled HTDVs, including their patent-pending “widgets on TV” - software embedded in the chipsets shipped to TV OEMs. They aggregate Internet information and content, develop the applications (widgets), and provision the services that you will be able to access through your remote after an on-line “configure your TV” session. News, voting, social networking, sports and fantasy sports, shopping, TV-related search engine, and video-on-demand – all through your TV remote, coming to your screen sometime in 2009.

Internet on TV?
Where did this idea come from? The answer is simple. The founders of Rallypoint are completely guilty of watching TV with their laptops out. While they watch college football or NFL games, they also surf the web to get rankings, stats, see replays and highlight videos, and check on their fantasy leagues....

They are also guilty of “smack talk”, chatting online and text messaging with friends and fellow fans at game time. They developed Rallypoint to fill a need they have – to get information already on the Web in one place – that place being their large format HDTV.

Voting, Texting, Bidding Through Your TV?
 Sports and social networking are cool, but just imagine all the other applications. The reality TV craze has brought “voting” to the forefront of truly interactive television – imagine voting with your remote, for starters. How about texting from the TV to your friends mobile phone – or sending a text from your own phone to your family’s TV? How about being alerted of your eBay outbid notice, and responding with a successful bid using your TV remote? The possibilities are endless ... but how much time will that leave for a REAL, MEANINGFUL LIFE?

Invent the Future -- Play Superstruct

2008-10-19T10:42:00.001-05:00

Developed by the Institute for the Future, Superstruct, the world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game, went live October 6, and will last for six weeks, played on forums, blogs, videos, wikis, and other online spaces.

"By playing the game, you'll help us chronicle the world of 2019--and imagine how we might solve the problems we'll face," the Web site says. "Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It's about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential."

The Ten Year Forecast team at the Institute for the Future will analyze the player-created game content and prepare an official Superstruct Report featuring the top collective insights about the year 2019, and the best tactics for "superstructing" society.

Now how about fixing the broken global financial system first???? NOW!!!!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

It’s Qoofy to You

2008-10-16T09:29:00.002-05:00

How much cornier can it get? Never mind … here is the rundown, according to Richard Kligman, Qoof’s founder, from their VenCorps submission:

“Qoof is a new video commerce solution that bridges the world of Online Shopping, Internet Video, and Direct Response TV to create a distributed, targeted, and personalized video commerce network.

There are many solutions today that offer a video player, but Qoof is the only one to focus and offer a video commerce engine that combines video with all the direct response call to action tools. All this is delivered in an IAB Compliant framework --???? -- (question marks are mine), that is capable of being distributed through many distribution channels including traditional ad networks and social media sites."

Qoof offers a full video commerce solution including:

• Video Commerce Widget with a full suite of direct response tools:

- Click to call
- Click to chat
- Buy Now
- 1-800 numbers
- Countdown timer
- Stock inventory list
- How many sold, etc.

• Widget Distribution through Affiliate Networks, Ad Networks, Social Media Sites, and via our own Publishers.
• Full Video Commerce Website (Your own hosted home shopping site).
• Video Production, Hosting and Streaming.
• Detailed Analytical based Reporting.

With a current investor and advisor roster like this:

• George Conrades, Chairman of Akamai, Oracle Board Member
• Alan Laifer, CEO Datran Media
• Ian Stone, founder of Card Payment Systems (CPS) Advisors:
• Sara Levinson, Harley Davidson, Inc; Macys, Inc. and KickApps Board Member, Former Chairman & CEO of ClubMom
• Kara Nortman - Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions, IAC, previously VC with Battery Ventures

they should have no problem making this business successful in short order. As a VenCorps member I already voted for them in the next round of showdown there.

iFoods.tv Is Yummy!

2008-10-13T08:17:00.004-05:00

2/11/09 - IMPORTANT UPDATE!

Christine from lookandtaste.com just notified me about the name change - iFoods.tv has become LookAndTaste.com. I do like the new name; however I'll stick with the "look" part....

For starters, iFoods.tv offers over 140 step by step video recipes, with a further 200 planned for production over the next 18 months, and a ‘foodie’ social network. They claim to have over 7,000 members already on the site and over 1000 user generated videos uploaded. Features such as the iFoods blog, blog profiles, and the blog league are designed to develop the community further. iFoods’ aim is to become the ultimate online destination for food lovers of the iPod and YouTube generation.

And get this: Rather than using guesswork to navigate through a recipe, you are expertly and seamlessly instructed, step by step, by a professional chef. Can you see this taking place in your kitchen with your iPhone decked up to instruct you as you are preparing your culinary masterpiece of brandied apple-pie? (OK, I’ve made this up … it’s not far-fetched, though. Maybe I should dabble too…?)

According to the company:

“All iFoods recipes are researched and market tested at length for both practicality and relevance to their target audience. They will also create and post content throughout the year to coincide with seasonal festivities such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving.

The hugely talented iFoods culinary team has over 40 years of combined experience and is backed up by strong business management. All members of the team have risen through their respective fields to achieve success and acclaim. Niall Harbison and Pieter Plaetinck have achieved culinary success having worked for some of the world’s richest and most famous people including Bill Gates, Donald Trump and the Sultan of Brunei.”

Sounds appetizing to me … with or without Bill, The Donald and the Sultan!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Google’s Flash Video Games and YouTube Video Ad Service

2008-10-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

It has taken a while (actually only two years since Google acquired AdScape in 2006), but the search giant may have come up with another winner comparable to AdSense. No loss for Adsense - it is incorporated in the AdSense for Games software.

As an advertiser, you can use the software to insert ads into games or videos for YouTube, making the ads more versatile. As a Flash video game developer, you can also designate the points in a game that make an “ad request.”

Playfish, a maker of casual games such as “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” on Facebook, has been testing the in-game ads for months. In their adaptation the Google software rolls a 30-second video at the end of a game session that includes a game character saying that the free game was brought to you by a sponsor.

Besides Playfish, other game publishers that will also incorporate AdSense for Games technology include Zynga, the hot social gaming company, and Konami, one of Japan’s biggest game companies. The latter will publish a line of Flash titles — including “Track and Field,” “Frogger,” and “Dance Dance Revolution” — with the Google in-game ads.

Google launched Lively, its 3D rooms and avatars, earlier this summer. It looks very much like a natural vehicle for AdSense for Games, which could insert ads into the rooms of users, for example. Just what we all need....

You can learn more about the software development kit and advertising here.

The Internet’s First Video SEO Solution

2008-10-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

ezSEO is the first comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) solution for connecting video (and audio) content on your site to the major web search engines – Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others. EveryZing’s patented technology wraps every piece of video and audio from your site in a rich layer of metadata, including a full text output of the spoken word track. This rich metadata is then pumped into EveryZing’s publishing system to create search engine friendly web pages as part of YOUR site.

What’s more, you can use the metadata, generated for each piece of your content, to create contextual targeting for any ad serving environment, including text, display, and pre/post-roll video.

ezSEO works automatically, “behind the scenes” of your web site, making your multimedia content easily discoverable to the search engines. In this way, your online video and audio become part of the multibillion dollar search economy. It accomplishes this feat through:

1. Comprehensive metadata production

They automatically extract the keywords, topics, and other information from your web content. This ensures that whenever a consumer searches a term or phrase that relates to any multimedia files on your site, the search results point directly to the relevant audio and video content, as well as text.

2. Deep content analysis

ezSEO automatically and continuously “learns” what your multimedia content is about, enabling it to optimize the new pages published to your site to bring the best qualified traffic from the major search engines.

3. Natural language processing

Once the text output has been generated, it is processed by EveryZing’s proprietary natural language processing technology to identify key terms, concepts, people, places and other valuable entities to create automatic “tags” for your content.

4. Automated publishing

Whenever you add new multimedia content to your web site, ezSEO automatically learns about it, analyzes it, and publishes new, highly “searchable” pages instantaneously so that consumers searching topics related to your content won’t miss a thing.

5. Building and hosting your content collections and associated web pages

EveryZing builds and hosts all of the content collections and associated web pages it generate to your design specifications. These pages can then be accessed via a subdomain on your website. Our turn-key solution means you can be up and running in a matter of weeks with no effort required from your tech teams.

ezSEO is provided as a web service, delivering completely built out templates to your specifications. It continuously processes your content to identify new topics for publishing, all of which you can control via your web management console.

Cool - but NOT cheap. I think you should check it out and wait (if you can afford to) till the competition catches up, for the price to become more affordable.

Stop Illicit Internet TV Interception Now!!!

2008-10-04T08:37:00.001-05:00

Verimatrix, located in San Diego, CA, has developed software and equipment to keep ITV a.k.a. IPTV, digital video broadcasting (DVB), cable TV, and mobile delivery from being illicitly intercepted by non-paying customers. Don’t you just love this politically correct verbiage?

It uses "forensic watermarking," that resides in the video stream itself, so that a source can be identified in case of leaks. Ohhh -- those BitTorrent kindda leaks in the broadband pipe I assume?

So what does this fancy wording hide?

According the MPAA, worldwide revenue loss for the motion picture industry was more than $18 billion in 2005. In response, a variety of techniques have been developed and are now being deployed to help address content piracy. One of these techniques is called “forensic watermarking,” an off-shoot of digital watermarking of online images, ebooks, web pages, etc.

Verimatrix claims it can securely, robustly and imperceptibly hide serialization information inside your media content. This way you are able to establish a virtual "chain of custody" for your content that accurately identifies the source of unauthorized copies, thus aiding legal actions against the source of such copies.

Unlike encryption, which creates an envelope around content that can effectively secure delivery from point to point, a watermark is embedded in the content itself and remains even after a video is decrypted, decoded and possibly re-encoded to another file.

The most robust watermarks also survive the transition from digital to analog and back. The approach of re-recording an analog playback is called the "analog hole." Robust watermarking can survive this passage through the “analog hole,” enabling identification of unauthorized copies of, for example, camcorder captured material.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t mind my camcorder footage getting mashed-up who-knows-where-and-by-whom. With so much competition, giving away a low-res duplicate of your video is a viable -- I’d say necessary -- way to stay in circulation. NO watermarking, much less “robust watermarking” for that kind of content. However, don’t forget to GET CREDIT FOR YOUR WORK, by requiring Creative Commons Attribution and link-backs from the mash-up artists’ own and syndication sites.

Royalty-free Video Technology, called Dirac, Released by BBC

2008-10-01T09:14:00.001-05:00

There is a lot going on at the other side of the Atlantic! Now that we have about five more months or so to worry about black holes to be created by the Large Hadron Collider, due to a malfunctioning superconducting magnet, I can go on scaring you here for at least that long....

Soooo ... according to DiracVideo.org, "Dirac is an advanced royalty-free video compression format designed for a wide range of uses, from delivering low-resolution web content to broadcasting HD and beyond, to near-lossless studio editing." This is achieved by utilizing wavelet transformation functions.

The Dirac Project

Originally created by the BBC Research department, the Dirac project has expanded to include companies providing hardware equipment and software for handling Dirac video, as well as an active open-source development group.

Origin of the Name "Dirac"

The name "Dirac" is a reference to Paul A. M. Dirac, British physicist and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize was shared with Erwin Schrödinger, for whom the Schroedinger implementation of Dirac was named.

Dirac 1.0.0 has already been used successfully by BBC during the Beijing Olympics. Now they are pushing it into more general use both within and outside of BBC.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Wall Street Turmoil Claims Its First Internet TV Victim : LoftCity

2008-09-28T08:55:00.001-05:00

URGENT NOTICE TO OUR MEMBERS AND READERS WHO SIGNED UP ON LOFTCITY:

Just received this sad email notice from LoftCity, whose debut I'd written barely four months ago:

"Dear LoftCity user,

Due to the current situation in the financial markets, we face difficulties to continue finance and operate www.LoftCity.com.

As a result, we will be shutting down our site, www.LoftCity.com, as of September 29, 2008.

Thus, we recommend you download or print any material or documents from your Loft and Projects folder including all materials essential to your work by Sunday, September 28, 2008.

After this date, there will be no access to www.LoftCity.com including your Loft and projects.

LoftCity will not keep a backup of any material uploaded or created on our site.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and we thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,
LoftCity Team"

Please make sure you remove your content by tomorrow midnight the latest!

I certainly wish the best of luck to everyone there. May we see you soon in a new reincarnation!

Chad Vader : The Internet Empire Chimes Back on Chime.tv

2008-09-25T09:51:00.001-05:00

There are plenty of aggregated video sites...don't even get me started.

This one, however, pulls from the best (Break.com, Dailymotion, Veoh, and others) to make their editors' created channels filled with stuff you'll love.

The channels feature the latest episodes of shows like Will It Blend? and Chad Vader, as well as channels for news, cute stuff, extreme sports, technology, and about 20 more -- including stuff from the network TV sites.

It might seem a little odd when you could just visit the sites, but think of Chime.TV as the site that provides the constant background video comfort we use TVs for. Actually I don't, but I know a lot of you do. Enjoy.

Cybercast credit: Veoh

YouTomb : Where Your Videos Finally Rest in Peace?

2008-09-22T08:38:00.000-05:00

Maybe...maybe not.

There are millions of videos up on YouTube, but thousands have also been removed, and not always with the owner's permission. If any footage online can be accused of copyright violation YouTube will take it down, whether or not the accusation was justified. I did report on one of this kind of incident last September, when Viacom had Chris Knight's video removed, after claiming his footage as its own. Stealing anyone? If Viacom and company can, so can we, right?

YouTomb, a research project by the MIT Free Culture student group, tracks the top videos removed from the service for copyright violation, and retains the metadata about the videos so we, the public, can make our own decision about whether the removal was justified or not.

Free Culture -- what a great name and service! I appreciate it VERY MUCH!

Shoot Backlit Shots Like a Pro

2008-09-19T08:25:00.001-05:00

A harshly backlit subject can be very frustrating. If you set your camera's iris to auto, your subject will appear silhouetted while the background appears normal. This is generally not a good thing -- unless you want your character in a mysterious shadow.

Here is how backlit lighting fits in with dramatic (and other) lighting, as explained in Metacafe's Production School:

Lighten up!To fix the situation, set your camera to manual iris and open it up full to brighten the entire picture. While this could wash out the background, you will be able to see your subject to some extent.

The right solution

You will get the best effect by shining more light on your subject from ALL angles - or at least as many as you can.

And don't forget about all other topics you can learn in the Metacafe Production School!

Cybercast credit: Metacafe

HD TV / Web TV Now Playing on a PC Next to You

2008-09-16T09:00:00.001-05:00

Livestation's claim to fame is that it features:

• The highest quality live HDTV viewing experience over broadband.
• The world's leading broadcasters and publishers
• All your favorite channels from the Web
• Its own stand-alone player that is always on top, so you can email, network, watch, and chat at the same time.

I get it. I don't do enough now. Digital convergence to the rescue! Thank you (NOT!!!!) Livestation!

What else?

Well, it forces you to download another player, only available for Intel Macs and Windows XP/Vista at this time. Mac PPC and Linux (Ubuntu) versions are in the works, we are told. No rush boyz and girlz!

Build Your Online Pro Studio - Here Is How.

2008-09-13T08:40:00.001-05:00

With StudioNow, of course, as they are, according to them at least, the “#1 Way to create videos online.” So what’s the hubbub?

This is the first web-based, virtual community of freelance video/movie editors and directors available 24/7, to provide Madison Avenue filmmaking expertise and editing services. If you watch Mad Men, I’m not sure that’s a positive or negative…

All right, never mind that … they do promise that they can transform your digital photos and videos into high-quality, enjoyable content in an efficient and affordable manner. Their vision is to make life more entertaining, creative and enriching by empowering us, as individuals, artists and businesses with the ability to produce high-quality video content. They want to build an unrivaled service that connects creative individuals and businesses with a virtual community of expert editors so that they can participate, create, and share their content with those who matter most to them.

StudioNow was founded in January 2007 by David Mason and Adam Solesby after they found themselves spending way too much time attempting to use video editing applications to make enjoyable and entertaining movies of their families. After meeting a few local editors, who created higher-quality videos with the same content in a fraction of the time, David and Adam determined that there was a significant need to provide an efficient and affordable service which empowers anyone to create high production value video content.
So go ahead, try it for yourself...

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Video Moguls Are Born on IndyMogul

2008-09-10T07:20:00.001-05:00

IndyMogul bills itself as the first network for the YouTube generation. ????

They put it that way: “Who are we? Well maybe we can answer that by saying who you are. You’re someone who wants to do more with their camera than just shoot home movies. You're an Indy Mogul.”

Their premiere show “Backyard FX” runs every Monday and is hosted by zero-budget wizard Erik Beck. (Now that IS the kind of budget we appreciate!) Erik shows you how to create special effects the fun and cheap way, and then subjects you, his siblings, roommates, puppets, and who knows what else to his creations. Each week he takes challenges and suggestions from his viewers to get those latent creative juices flowing without making your wallet sweat.

No matter what level you're at, you can become a part of Indy Mogul. Send them your footage, an original special effect, or simply record your thoughts on a webcam. Whatever it is, they want to see it, hear it, and put it on the site! They even have a monthly episode dedicated to content your fellow creators have submitted.

Making the News : Make Internet TV

2008-09-07T09:03:00.002-05:00

Hmmm...cool! MakeInternetTV (MITV) has almost the same name we do…! I do take that as a compliment!

From the Participatory Culture Foundation, makers of Miro, comes this guide / web site / wiki, with step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos that can be watched and subscribed to by millions of people.

Very soon, they promise, this site will also feature short videos from experienced internet video publishers. If you're interested in sharing your expertise, visit the MITV wiki here and contribute to the following sections:

• Choose Your Equipment
• Shoot
• Edit
• License
• Publish
• Promote

Don't forget to check out their advice as to why video feeds are often superior to single videos. An worthwhile subject on its own!

Cybercast credit: Make Internet TV

Is the Cinematic Web Finally a Reality?

2008-09-04T08:44:00.001-05:00

Ever since the Internet permeated society, the idea of using your TV to surf the Web, download video and even buy products has been around.

But efforts over the years, from Web TV to the media-center PCs, have failed to catch on with consumers.

The industry is betting it's time for the Internet to be built into the TV. (Will be the other way around, in my humble opinion.)

"This is the first time it feels like everything is coming together that needs to be there" to make so-called Cinematic Web a reality, says Patrick Barry, vice president of digital home and desktop products at Yahoo's Connected TV division.

Some say that as early as January, consumers will be able to buy TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players, and even remote controls that can surf the Web, access related content, and even buy products seen on television shows -- all with one or two clicks of the remote control.

Yahoo and Intel have been working for two years to build a platform for Internet TV that won't seem intrusive to the viewer. They will rely on content providers to create applications for Internet TV, but consumers could see things like the ability to download movies, buy goods, track stocks or sports teams, and get news updates.

Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Center, said the semiconductor is being priced to hit the "sweet spot" of consumer electronic products.
This isn't the first time technology pundits have hyped Internet TV.

Microsoft and even Intel have touted media-center PCs, which are basically servers that act as a hub to send all your digital media to your TV. What's different this time around, said executives and industry watchers, is widespread adoption of broadband Internet access, coupled with content on the Internet that people actually want to watch.

It doesn't hurt that U.S. households by February will have to have TVs capable of handling the digital signal, not to mention the fact that consumers are multitasking when watching their favorite shows and sporting events.

"The Consumer Electronics Association has research that almost half of Americans watched Internet while the Super Bowl was on" according to Richard Doherty, research director at market research company Envisioneering. He thinks this time around the technology companies will be successful to turn iTV into a mass market.

I couldn't agree more!!!

Does CERN's Rap Video Herald the End-Of-Life-As-We-Know-It?

2008-09-01T08:38:00.002-05:00

Worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a Möbius strip (a rip in the fabric of space time where time becomes a loop, so you can come back to haunt me)? You should be. Watch this CERN-sponsored rap video at the END of your break to see your universe totally destroyed. Err, but not for real. This time. Only. They promise....

A small band of physicists even computer geeks consider nerdy decided to cut loose and create this "demo" music video. It's certainly enough to "rock you in the head", and maybe even enough to send you to one? some? all? of the parallel universe(s). Between the “Peppers Ghost” 3D holo-display technology and the smart video equipped robot that defeats every human opponent, I think my blog here just got another illustrious and crazy new entry all in one.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

The Olympic Games: Digital Media’s Coming of Age

2008-08-29T08:45:00.001-05:00

The just-concluded Summer Olympic Games featured an unprecedented amount of coverage over an equally unprecedented number of digital video formats and distribution types.

Some of the pre-event statistics, cited publicly, were:

• A minimum of 3,600 hours of broadcast coverage
• A minimum of 2,900 hours of live programming
• A minimum of 2,200 hours of streaming coverage on NBCOlympics.com
• All footage acquired in HD; also converted to 4:3 aspect ratio consumption
• Coverage of all 302 unique Olympic events
• U.S.-based coverage on NBC, USA Network, Universal HD, Oxygen, CNBC, and Telemundo
• Supplying content to a myriad of partners like Google, which streamed content on YouTube
• Supplying content to Amazon, NBC2Go, and mobile phones
• Video on Demand (VOD) of noteworthy coverages: "Highlights," "Rewinds," and "Encores."

Just the ability to cover 302 events, all in HD, was complex enough. But adding all the different digital video formats and distribution types to the efforts required a staggering amount of work to be done to ensure that the correct content was in the proper resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio, and scan type.

Simultaneously feeding multiple distribution venues with the right content in a timely fashion was crucial. Mistakes -- like sending a full HD clip to a telecommunication provider for distribution to their mobile phone customers -- had to be avoided. That's why the content requirements for each provider had to be, and were fully specified well in advance.

To ensure that this process ran as smoothly as it actually did, the whole operation was automated as much as possible. This translated into scripting routines that moved the content from ingest, through transcode, and to distribution. Content was moved in the most efficient manner possible, utilizing the latest file transfer acceleration technologies. Also, having visibility into all transfers and being able to prioritize transfers as they were "in stream" were necessary in order to react to developing stories as they occurred.

The Olympics we just enjoyed has also proven that we now have the infrastructure and technology for Internet TV to cover global events in real time. Congratulations to IBM and its Chinese and numerous other partners for a job so well done!

VideoCast Your Way with ScreenCast

2008-08-26T12:01:00.002-05:00

The updated Screencast.com from TechSmith is a place to upload, organize, and share your high-quality videos, presentations and images. You are in complete control of your content and can decide who can or cannot view it, all in a secure, easy, and highly-dynamic way. Here is what Brad Fallon of FreeLineReport says about Screencast (amongst other things):

Screencast is designed to help you share information in any way you wish:

* Email
* IM
* Your Web page
* Blogs
* iPod-compatible video and audio
* RSS feed
* iTunes

Screencast.com site is integrated with Camtasia Studio to create and post professional-looking presentations. What you see is what your audience will see.

What will all these cost me?

A 60 day free trial gives your 200 MB storage and 1 GB transfer bandwidth. The basic plan comes with a generous allotment of 25 GB storage and 25 transfer bandwidth, which should be enough for most of us, and costs 6.95/month or 69.50/year. With all the tools and amenities built into the service, I consider this a fair price.

How about maintaining the original quality of my video?

Screencast doesn't compress or re-encode your files into a "one-size-fits-all" format. The integrity of your original content is protected, so what you upload is exactly what your viewers see.

Do I control the rights to my content?

Anything you upload to Screencast.com still belongs to you. This also means that you can delete files you've uploaded to make room for something new.

You CAN decide who views your content

Using Screencast.com's permission features, you can decide how secure you want each of your folders:

* Public
* Hidden
* Password
* Authenticated.

Yes, they have stats too

Meaning that you can look up, at any time, how many times a specific file has been viewed and how much bandwidth each file is using. So if you already have your video in different formats you can keep or show only the one that has the best quality and least bandwidth requirement.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Video Pirates Beware!

2008-08-23T09:27:00.001-05:00

A startup called Anvato ... I'm still not getting used to all the weird names people choose for their new web ventures ... is launching a new video search service that helps publishers find copyright-infringing videos online.

The Mountain View, Calif. company says it uses “perceptual signature” technology that works like the human eye, identifying scenes, objects and movements in a video without requiring any digital watermarking. Cool, could save time, sweat, and money for all of us big web video/tv producers!

Limiting its search to programs aired during prime-time on just one broadcast network during the last six months, Anvato claims "it already found 2,000 infringing videos." Cool - if yours wasn't one of them! (I won't tell you about mines if you don't tell me about yours ....)

YouTube Now Has a Screening Room For All of You Indie Filmmakers

2008-08-20T09:10:00.001-05:00

Now you can use YouTube's new Screening Room to bring your SERIOUS film work to a global audience.

As a filmmaker you most likely use YouTube to kick-start your viral marketing campaigns already. This new feature gives you a VERY easy-to-find home — and makes you a partner in drawing new ad revenue. Watch this - that's what Google gets out of its investment.

Sara Pollack, YouTube’s film and animation manager puts it this way: “Hopefully as they see thousands of people watching their films, it’s going to be a very eye-opening experience.”]

The Screening Room will feature four new films a week, chosen by YouTube's editorial panel. Here is a truly amazing animated piece, Last Time in Clerkenwell from Igli Migli Productions. Even their name is funny!

The panel also will scour film festivals and work with partners such as the Sundance Channel to identify talents.

Among the first eight titles showcased are “Love and War,” a stop-motion puppet movie by a Swedish director; the Oscar-nominated short “I Met The Walrus,” about an interview with John Lennon; and “Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?” by performance artist Miranda July.

As a filmmaker, you will also have a “Buy Now” button attached to your work to sell DVDs or digital copies. They will also collect a majority share of ad revenue generated from views of their work. SWEET!

YouTube says people whose clips regularly attract a million viewers can make several thousand dollars a month. However, an even bigger bigger prize can be exposure.

When YouTube featured the nine-minute short “Spider” by Nash Edgerton in February, it became the fifth-best selling short on iTunes, Pollack said.

The creators of the full-length feature “Four Eyed Monsters,” Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, got their break when more than a million YouTube views helped land them a TV and DVD distribution deal.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Do You Know How to Monetize Your Video?

2008-08-17T09:02:00.001-05:00

WHEN YOUTUBE LAUNCHED, it enabled everyone to become a video producer. However, until recently, the production quality of most user generated videos have been entertaining at best but not something a big brand would want to call you about sponsorship.

Now, it seems that every day content producers with stellar broadcast production credentials are asking for an opportunity to pitch. It's almost as if all of Hollywood has become unemployed and is looking to peddle their ideas for a video series. If it's not the producers, the indie video sites jump in to fill the void. There's another Funny Or Die, YuMe or strike.tv eager to partner with Nike and company to bring great, original, and not-for-the-faint-of-marketer-heart content to the world.

So, how do we compete with the pros?

As a first step, we need to define what we consider success. The challenge resides in measurement options being limited and lacking visibility. Here are three measures that are easy to capture without incurring incremental cost:

1. Total streams

2. Average viewing duration

3. Click-through data from clickable placement in or around the content

It is safe to assume that success is achieved if your show hits a "feel good" number of streams/views. However, monetizing traffic has proven very hard even for Google / YouTube which know a thing or two about the subject. So, for now, producing a hit show in your specific niche and rounding up sponsors for it once you hit this "feel good" number of views seems to be the way to go.

Star Wars Redux : The Coolest Laser Destruction Video You Have Ever Seen

2008-08-14T13:01:00.001-05:00

This video shows the Israeli and US Air Force working on laser defense systems:

In field tests, U.S. and Israeli laser guns have shown the ability to melt holes in all kinds of munitions, rockets, international ballistic missiles, and what have you. Several American defense contractors are working to translate these results into battlefield tools in a hurry. Israel’s “Iron Dome” system -- or should they should call it Laser Dome? -- is already under construction.

Some thirty years after President Reagan brought us SDI, a.k.a. Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. "Star Wars," we are actually at the threshold of achieving its main goals. And not a minute too late, I might add.

I’m sure everyone will enjoy this video except the mullahs in Teheran….

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Stoned and Out of Line? This Video Surveillance Camera Will Catch You

2008-08-11T12:08:00.001-05:00

Courtesy Tim Wilson in the Dark Reading section of TechWeb.com, 7/30/08:

Now, here is something different - and scary, if you happen to be stoned and misbehave - that I expect to show up in web cams in a few years.

"The problem with video surveillance cameras is that, usually, there are too many of them for one security staffer to monitor.

'To be honest, it's sheer luck if a security officer spots something in an environment like that,' says John Frazzini, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and IT security consultant.

Frazzini recently signed on to serve as president of a new company -- Behavioral Recognition Systems, or BRS Labs for short -- that aims to stop that waste.

Unlike current video surveillance gear -- which requires a human to monitor it or complex programming that can't adapt to new images -- BRS Labs's software can 'learn' the behavior of objects and images in a camera's field of view, Frazzini says.

'It works a lot like the behavioral software that many IT people use on their networks,' Frazzini says.

The BRS Labs software can establish a baseline in anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how much activity the camera recognizes and how regular the patterns of behavior are.

Once the software is operational, it can "recognize" up to 300 objects and establish a baseline of activity.

'The great thing about it is that you don't need a human to monitor the camera at all,' Frazzini says.

Because there are so many possible images that might cross in front of the camera, the BRS Labs technology will likely create a fair number of false positives, Frazzini concedes.

Overall, however, the new technology should save money,because security officers can spend their time diagnosing alerts and less time watching their screens for anomalies.

Minority Report Holo-display Is Now the Real Thing

2008-08-08T08:29:00.001-05:00

Here is an anything but obscure demonstration of Obscura Digital’s new display technology, dubbed a “multi-touch hologram:”

The demo shows the presenter interacting with holographic images projected before him, moving them around and resizing them, much as you would on Apple’s iPhone multi-touch screen or Microsoft's Surface.

Unlike Apple’s and Microsoft's pet products, all the images are projected in the air, bringing you fond memories of Minority Report.

"We call it VisionAire. Get it, 'vision' and 'air' with a little European flair," says the company on its blog, with understandable excitement.

"Basically, we were looking for a new way to allow a presenter to interface with visual data. This uses our standard multi-touch framework and integrates it with the Musion system we have in house. The result is a truly interactive way to give presentations."

But before you start debating how waving your hands in the air could actually be multi-touch the company quickly goes on to add: "Alright, alright, it is not really 'multi-touch', because you really don't touch anything. The system just senses where the presenter's hands are and allow him to interact. Multiple people could be doing this too."

So I guess it's a multi-personal touch?

3D holographic display technology seems to be advancing rapidly - I recently had a post about Musion Eyeliner, the high-definition video holographic projection system used by VisionAire to project spectacular freeform 3D holographic effects into the air, using “Peppers Ghost” technology. And there are rampart rumors about floating 3D ninjas (the Chinese version, I guess), whales, and who knows what, showing off Chinese mastery of this type of technology at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

DTV4PC Promises 1056 Live TV Channels on Your PC

2008-08-05T08:50:00.001-05:00

DTV4PC is another digital TV offering for PCs, coming from a new company by the same name.

For $30 (until further notice…), you can download the software - strictly Windows - that comes with the following features:

• Instant video downloads
• Immediate viewing
• No hardware to install
• No monthly fees or subscriptions
• Automatic channel updates

Their pitch is that the DTV4PC proprietary technology plugs you directly into hundreds of world-wide LIVE digital television channels right over the Internet. No TV tuner or any other hardware to install. You can:

- Have more channels than cable & satellite
- Watch in full-screen mode
- Navigate through an easy-to-use interface

DTV4PC promises to deliver more channels than satellite TV and cable combined without all the hardware charges, pay-per view cost, and monthly fees. Unlimited news, sports, entertainment, weather, and more from around the world ... who can ask for more ... as long as it works!

Open Your Own Virtual Movie Theater and Become a “Filmanthropist.”

2008-08-02T08:34:00.001-05:00

At SnagFilms.com you can watch full-length documentary films for free. That’s fine - BUT they also make it easy for you to “take them with you,” and put them anywhere on the web. Just embed a movie widget on your web site or blog to open your OWN virtual movie theater. You will automatically become a “Filmanthropist,” as SnagFilms calls their “Snaggers.” By donating your pixels, you support independent films. A win-win deal, no matter how I look at it.

When you click on the “info” button on any widget, it will show you details about that film and the related charity you can support. With a starting library of 225 documentaries, growing daily, that you can browse by topic, channel, or alphabetically, you’re bound to find films that resonate with you. There is a widget for EVERY film, so any film you like can be snagged right onto your site or blog.

Here is one - the famous, or if you are MickyD, infamous Super Size Me:

Why Should You Snag?

For one thing, it’s a great way to share something you love with your friends. But there’s another great reason to do it.

Documentary films rarely get the audience that big-budget Hollywood films do. And chances are, if you like a film, your peers will too! It’s a great way to support filmmakers and get the word out about issues you care about. So go for it!

Cybercast credit: SnagFilms

The 5 Commandments of Making Successful Web TV and Video

2008-07-30T12:01:00.002-05:00

It's summertime for me too, so I could only muster five commandments to make you into a VERY successful web TV and video producer:

1. Create SHORT-SPAN entertainment.

2. Involve the audience in a way that more closely resembles a videogame than a narrative drama.

3. Dispense with the first act, which sets the plot in motion. Let chaos reign!

4. Start with continuous action in the second act when everything goes wrong.

5. MOST IMPORTANTLY - engage the audience members at multiple levels with:

• The narrative
• Each other
• The characters
• The producers - YES, with you too!!!

Here is an example from NBC's Gemini Division, set to start, only online, on August 18:

"While Anna dodges 'sims' and agents from the misterioso outfit Gemini Division, fans are able to log onto the show's web site and get transmissions from Anna's partner in the police department.

Users can be recruited as Gemini agents themselves, then talk to other agents via webcam ..."

Have fun creating - fame and fortune shall follow….

Become Famous the AniBoom Way

2008-07-27T12:16:00.002-05:00

YouTube may have captured the largest video audience, but that doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of niches to exploit. AniBoom is tapping into an impassioned community of video animators to create content that could capture some of that YouTube-sized audience.

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

AniBoom is different from most other video sites in one important respect: Almost all of its content is created by members. Sites like YouTube are, shall we say, suspected for having content ripped off from other sources.

By comparison, they even have its own software tools: Shapeshifter, that you can use to make professional-quality animation and Micro-Smotion, which can add simple animated tidbits to regular video.

Like other sites, most of the existing content is stuff you wouldn't want to bother watching. AniBoom is counting on what they call “the star factor” — from any large group of people, a few exceptional individuals are bound to come forth.

AniBoom's CEO, Uri Shinar, compares the possibilities of his site by referencing Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who were unknown talents making short clips until a Fox executive groomed them, leading to the hit cartoon South Park. AniBoom attempts to replicate this success in its Creator's Series, although none seems to have had more than a few thousand views.

However, the South Park comparison is apt in more than one way. The Stone and Parker creation that led Fox to contact them was a quirky student animation of Jesus killing a deranged snowman. Many of the videos on AniBoom are similarly odd, to say the least.

The site also runs contests offering cash prizes, which seem to attract quite a few submissions, proving that the world's junior animators are eager for both fame and money.

Although there are other animation sites around, like Crunchyroll, AniBoom is one of the only sites encouraging indie content. Another is MyToons, which just launched. Check them all out!

Cybercast credit: AniBoom

Family Guy Creator to Produce Exclusive Content for Google

2008-07-24T09:57:00.002-05:00

Google's recent announcement that "Family Guy" creator Seth McFarlane will be creating exclusive content for Google, to be served up as part of its AdSense system demands attention, because:

1. The content is uniquely tied to ad revenue through video pre-rolls, post-rolls, or overlays.

2. The content is from a proven creator of programming.

3. There is a significant budget associated with creating the content for "Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," a collection of 50 two-minute episodes. Production cost is purported to be in the multimillions.

4. The ever elusive "what's the business model?" question appears to be answered in that when a viewer clicks on the video clip, that advertiser pays a fee.

5. Fifth, the general viewer make-up for this content is better known than is usually the case. This makes it possible to push the content to where the viewer is, instead of creating a presence to which interested viewers must go.

The notion (and the allure) that there may be a way to offer one piece of content that is associated with a number of advertisers for those two minutes is enormous. What does a time-slice mean when you can do that? Instead of being able to only sell, say three spots, if the content is syndicated to 50 sites, that's 150 slices for ad placement (pre-roll, overlay, and post-roll).

As a video creator and advertiser, wouldn't you be tempted to place that bet?

So the "where's the business model," "the content looks crappy," "you don't own the content" musings are rapidly turning into very well-thought-out approaches — and these notions are going to become meaningless in very short order. So I hope.

The End IS Near - Video System Tracks Puck to Beat You at Air Hockey

2008-07-21T12:52:00.001-05:00

An upgraded robot developed by General Electric Fanuc and Nuvation Research can beat most human air hockey players, its developers claim.

A video system that tracks the puck's position sends coordinates to a special PC board every 10 milliseconds. So far, the robot has defeated every human opponent when running in 32-bit mode, averaging three times as many goals as human players. The algorithm's success resulted from revising its strategy whenever a goal was scored against it.

So the bot revises its strategy but we humans don’t … what does this tell us???

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Do You Converse Through Video? You Can with Seesmic!

2008-07-18T08:30:00.002-05:00

Seesmic’s video service is specifically about enabling asynchronous video conversations for you. That means, in plain English, off-line recording of your message or reply for your video chat. They are also about to add slew of new features, including private groups, the option to block individual users from your Seesmic player, and letting users flag offensive content (e.g. porn).

While search is a currently a big problem for them, they plan to address it in several ways:

(1) Give you the option of adding meta-data to your videos (description, tags, etc.)
(2) Employ automated audio-to-text software to create transcripts, and
(3) Since Seesmic videos are already on Google, enable you to use Google Video search.

With apps for both Facebook and OpenSocial slated to be released in August, Seesmic hopes to draw more teen and college-age users.

One of the problems with following conversations on Seesmic is that unlike text, there isn't a way to skim through video. Some people just take longer to get their point across. Assuming a 2-minute per video average, a conversation involving 60 posts/replies would take two hours to view from start to finish. Pierre Omidyar, a board member, started a Seesmic thread on the possibility of limiting videos to 30 seconds (a la twitter), but for the moment, there are no plans for that. But there are plans for tools to filter out long videos and to display limited portions for faster viewing.

One month after their public launch, here are some key metrics:

• 23,000 unique users from 25 countries (about 50% are from the U.S.)
• 3,000 videos are uploaded each day (total of slightly more than 300K videos)
• Average length of a video is 2 minutes
• 30 million page views (doesn't include videos viewed through their API) - VERY IMPRESSIVE!

The Seesmic community not only provides valuable input for the product team, they have also put together impressive mashups and visualizations.

My favorites so far are a Youtube and Seesmic mashup

for people conversing in sign language, and a visual of conversations related to the recently released French hostage, Ingrid Betancourt. If you download the PicLens
http://milliondollarwebtv.com/makeitvblog/?p=261

Firefox plugin, a Seesmic user created a fun tool to help you quickly navigate all the videos posted by a particular user: try this sample search ("junemarshall") and set options to 3D Wall.
Seesmic has, very wisely, partnered with a number of web services, to enable you to make the most of your video chats:

Disqus
makes your comments more interactive for readers and easier to manage for you — all while connecting your community with other blogs.

FriendFeed
keeps you up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends.

NetVibes
lets individuals assemble all-in-one place their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the Web.

ShoZu
use ShoZu to instantly post your camera phone videos to Seemsic. Simply capture the moment, and with a click, post your blog quality or full res (up to 10MB in size!) video to your Seesmic community. Why wait until you're back in front of a computer to post your videos?

SproutBuilder
is the quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more.

Twhirl
allows users to access the Twitter service directly from their desktop, and also cross post to other services like Pownce and Jaiku.

WordPress
is a semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.

Zong
is the only web service that enables you to create and launch mobile services in 10 countries in under 10 minutes and generate revenues from each transaction.

I’ll report back to you on some of these as I check them out.

Cybercast credit: Seesmic

Get Shot - with MOLV MObile LiVe

2008-07-15T09:06:00.001-05:00

MOLV, a shorthand for MObile LiVe is one of the latest ventures that attempts to make streaming live videos from your phones to the web "pretty simple." All you need is a data connection and MOLV client installed on your mobile phone. MOLV works over 3G, EDGE or WiFi.

Their pitch on VenCorps (where I'm a member) is:

"There are over 2 billion mobile phones* world wide. The things we could do with a mobile phone is no longer making calls and sending texts. It has changed a lot in the past years. Like streaming live video with audio to the masses right from your mobile phone. MOLV is working to open up this possibility for everyone. Now you don't need expensive equipment and TV stations to make your voice heard and share your life with the world. MOLV makes video streaming from mobile phones so easy, you just install a small piece of software to your phone and are ready to go live!"

* except most of them not video enabled....

The other companies that have ventured into live video streaming from mobile phones to date are Qik and Flixwagon. The major issue these two companies have had is their failure to provide support for a vast variety of mobile phones. I don't see how MOLV will overcome this problem, along with broadcast quality, instant editing, and other issues.

Am I too negative???

Metacafe Studio : Making Your Video Look Good

2008-07-12T10:37:00.001-05:00

Where are we? First, give your viewer a hint - establish your shot.

Establishing shots do exactly what their name implies – establish a scene’s setting. Many scenes begin with such shots to show the audience where the action will take place. For instance, before showing a student and professor speaking after class, you might want to establish the scene with a shot of the particular building or university. Due to web video's inherently short nature, establishing shots are becoming less and less common in made-for-the-web productions. But if the setting of a scene is unclear, you still might want to throw one in to clarify – that is, unless you want to keep your audience deliberately in the dark. Especially useful if you are a politician!

Film Look - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

MUST have multiple takes

No matter how short your final video ends up, you should always shoot multiple takes of key scenes. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most basic is that you can’t always tell in the viewfinder if the shot looks like you want it to. If you get a few takes, you’ll have a much better chance of success. In addition, shooting a scene in one take means you only have one type of shot. It’s very possible that the scene would look better at a slightly different angle or with the actor stressing a different syllable in one of his lines. Of course you shouldn’t shoot every shot multiple times, because that would waste time and tape. But if you have a complicated scene with a lot of room for error, multiple takes can save you from reshoots later on.

Cybercast credit: Metacafe

Blockbuster Video Ads - Use Feedback from HotPluto to Make Yours!

2008-07-09T12:05:00.001-05:00

HotPluto is a new website that offers businesses, big and small, a place to promote their products and services with their web video ads, infomercials, and testimonials.

Vetting Your Video

A cool aspect - IF it catches on - is HotPluto's ability to create a personal connection between advertisers and their viewers. The way this works for you as an advertiser is that you can receive and measure consumer acceptance by the tally of their votes and comments on your video, in return for incentivizing them with online coupons.

That means you now have a very inexpensive way to tweak your message until it hits the "I love it!" blockbuster status. All the while you can direct traffic to your site, so you won't lose out on potential sales.

The steps to use the HotPluto site are easy:

1. Sign up
2. Upload your video(s)
3. Choose the appropriate category(ies)
(how many categories you can choose is based on your Service Package)
4. Create your business profile
5. Keep track of your ratings
6. Tweak your video till it hits the bullseye

Your videos are automatically placed in HotPluto's Video Ad Directory where consumers also shop for the products and services. Providing feedback also assures that they will make informed decisions on their purchases and develop a stronger comfort level when making purchases from advertisers like you.

You don’t have a video ad? The alternative image upload process allows you to create a Slide-Show using your images. If you need professional assistance in creating your ad, please contact our team and we will discuss our affordable solutions with you.

Smilebox - Extend What YOU Can Do with iTunes

2008-07-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

For Macsters, here is creative photo and video sharing service I've come across very recently, that extends what you can do with iPhoto, iTunes, and Photo Booth: mix your photos, videos, and music with animated designs you can email, post to a website or blog, or print.

Smilebox is a free service with premium upgrades for print, more music choices, and ad-free playbacks.

Here is a quick rundown on the features:

- Photos, videos, and music: Combine your photos, videos and music, and share them inside animated, interactive designs.

- iPhoto and iTunes integration: Easily drag and drop your photos and videos from iPhoto and Photo Booth directly into Smilebox. You can also easily add your music from iTunes. No plug-ins and no lengthy uploads required.

- Professionally designed content for every occasion: Smilebox's catalog has more than 700 digital scrapbooks, slideshows and greeting, with new designs released each week. Smilebox has partnered with the leaders in digital design including Hallmark, Making Memories, K and Company, DigiChick, Sweet Shoppe and more. Cool!

- Interactivity: Your recipients can click on photos to enlarge them, turn pages, control the speed and flow of their playback.

- Many ways to share: Share your interactive creations via email, post them to a blog, social network or personal website or print pages at home or at a local retail store.

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Nokia Hooks up with Spike Lee for Cell Phone Footage

2008-07-03T09:34:00.001-05:00

How do you use your cell phone? Don't say you actually talk to someone sometime...because there is an ever-increasing number of companies and media purveyors that are hoping that you don't want to do something as mundane as communicating by voice with another person.

In the latest group of announcements between movies and mobile, we see Spike Lee hooking up with Nokia to "direct a movie made with cell phone footage from everyday people."

Next up is Paramount and Motorola who've announced that they will be working together to bring Paramount films to Moto phones via side-loading (download to PC and move to mobile).

Original content in a short-form format created specifically for the mobile screen is not new, of course. But a high-profile director and a unique spin on the method of acquisition ("everyday people providing the content") might probably be intriguing enough to result in some measurable uptick in activity for Nokia (we'll see); it certainly worked to BMW's advantage when "The Hire" series debuted online, each episode directed by acclaimed motion picture directors.

All the historical questions, while they are still in play, are starting to become irrelevant. Questions such as: Do people care if they are watching content on a phone? Will they watch on a phone? Will they watch long-form content or only short-form? Will they watch on a phone that is also a mobile device or will the majority of people actually not try to overload their mobile device (phone-centric) but, rather, watch it on a personal device (iPod)?

More importantly, do you care? Does this matter? Certainly these trials -- attempts -- experiments -- however you call them, are happening. And what's even more intriguing is how mobile set providers are now morphing their identity to include terms such as media management, rich media capable, and content delivery network aware.

But beyond the distribution of long-form motion pictures on cell phones, beyond the employment of big-name motion picture directors to create original content for the very small screen, there are some other applications that will represent true innovation and freshness.

Citizen-journalist or user-generated content activity, which results in content being captured and uploaded to television stations or Web sites, is but one area where a smart phone equipped with a camera and wireless connection can make content available on a worldwide basis almost instantaneously.

What if you really wanted to go to an event but just couldn't get there? Maybe it's distance that prevents you from attending. Maybe you just couldn't get a ticket. But it's an event that you would love to see. And why not see it from a unique point of view? What if some people in the audience were capturing video from the event, and all of that video became available to you? What if you could experience that event uniquely to you because you get to choose what you see from the vast number of ways, angles, stories, that are being covered during that event?

Someone (or some company) -- maybe YOU -- will come along and start to make unique experiences more common as opposed to experimental. Someone -- maybe YOU -- will create a profitable new business out of this opportunity. Will that someone be YOU?

Selling on QVC Home TV Shopping Channel? If Not, Try TheTalkMarket.com

2008-06-30T08:36:00.001-05:00

Now, this is an interesting twist - I wish I'd though of it!

The Talk Market, (in beta...) is in the process of creating a video-based marketplace, where you, as a seller, can upload and customize your own informercials. Shoot a video of what you’re selling, then use Talk Market's free tools make them look like the "real thing" from QVC, only better and funnier.

Graphics! Animation! Music!

You can preview and download free soundtracks, customized motion graphics, and animations to give your videos that extra cool vibe. If you create your own soundtrack or animation, you can also share it with The Talk Market community. Should they catch on, you might be able to make a nice little side business providing custom clips. Who knows?

The company is financed by no other than Amazon. Now this is my second posting in a row about them -- amazing! Are we witnessing a stealthy takeover of the internet by no other then Amazon???

Not surprisingly, they use Amazon's Flexible Payment service, providing you with a free (but mandatory) Amazon Payments Business accounts. The upside, of course, is the exposure you get to the 60+ million existing Amazon users, who can easily make purchases with the credit cards they already have on file.

Does this look like a win-win for you and Amazon? Or just Amazon? Let me know!

Cybercast credit: The TalkMarket and Youtube

Want to Distribute Like a Big Studio? Try Amazon’s Withoutabox.com

2008-06-27T09:59:00.001-05:00

Promises, promises.... Let’s see what REALLY is in this for YOU:

Submit your film worldwide

If you’re a filmmaker or screenwriter, now you can submit your work to festivals and competitions worldwide, quickly, easily, and economically. Only pay the entry fee. Everything else is free, like creating your Projects and Online Press Kits.

Order professional industry screeners

You can also order professional industry screeners to be shipped on-demand with your submission.

Build your audience

Withoutabox brings filmmakers, film festivals, and other industry players together in the ultimate business and social network. Participate and help grow it to build your reach.

Promote

Create and manage your complete Online Press Kit, with media-rich trailers, photos, bios, reviews, and more. Fully integrated with Filmsubmission and Audience. Also includes express syndication to Google Video.

Distribute

As a Rightsholder, you don't need to get permission from the big studios anymore. Withoutabox is opening channels to support direct distribution via Theatrical, Broadcast, DVD, VOD, Mobile, and more. The ultimate in Do-It-Yourself distribution? we'll see.

Pre-sell tickets!

Soon (how soon?) filmmakers, distributors, and exhibitors will be able book theaters and guarantee a profit before their film releases. With the patent-pending Critical Mass Ticketing, the show goes on when the audience demands it. You can even use Critical Mass Ticketing to arrange travel to your favorite festivals. How COOL is this???

Expose your film to Film Finders

Access premium rights tracking and personalized consulting worldwide. Since 1988, Film Finders has helped studios, producers, distributors, international sales agents, governments, and film festival programmers to represent and acquire feature films.

Experiment

If that’s not enough -- and if have any time left -- experiment with the cutting edge of new world distribution. Withoutabox is seeking intrepid filmmakers, distributors, and exhibitors who are eager to find new paths to profit through technology and innovation. Are you one of them?

Your Reality Show in 3D : Star in You Own HoloVideo

2008-06-24T12:30:00.001-05:00

Musion Eyeliner is a one-of-a-kind (at least for now) high-definition video holographic projection system enabling spectacular freeform 3D holographic effects to be projected within a live stage setting using “Peppers Ghost” technology. (Don’t you just love these names people come up for really geeky stuff, to grab and keep your attention?)

More to the point, “Peppers Ghost” produces images of such high resolution and quality that make them feel unmistakably real, which is what happened when Gorillaz & Madonna performed the opening number at the recent Grammy Awards.

Musion Eyeliner is an open system that uses a specially developed foil in reflecting images from high-definition video projectors, making it possible to show virtual images of variable sizes and distinct clarity created using a proprietary software.

Dimensional Studios has amazed both clients and audiences not only with the uniqueness of the Musion Eyeliner Holographic Projection system, but its simplicity, practicality, and set-up.

See you -- your Peppers Ghost? -- in 3D soon?

Cybercast credit: YouTube

HBO Shows for Your iPod or iPhone

2008-06-21T12:17:00.001-05:00

Summer is here. Enjoy.

The Wire

HBO's Season 2 of this gritty drama series focuses on the vagaries of crime and law enforcement in Baltimore, MD. Setting up in the wake of the first season's joint homicide/narcotics detail that exposed a major drug operation - the second season expands to include not only the familiar drug dealers, but a group of longshoremen and organized crime members.

Sounds like they're muscling in on Soprano territory... a HOT summer in the making?

Weeds

...Be gone??? I guess not.

In Season 3, popping up just next to Agrestic is a new, sprawling mega-church neighborhood called Magestic. This takes a heavy toll on the Agrestic residents, including our heroine Nancy, who begins to embrace her chosen occupation and, can also, finally, stop hiding.

3D YouTube Search - Now Available for Your Website

2008-06-18T09:45:00.001-05:00

I’m avidly following CoolIris’s progression of its PicLens technology, I first wrote about in this posting quite recently.

To recap, PicLens, installed in your browser, enables you to enjoy online media in full-screen, 3D. Without the plugin, you still get a filmstrip-style presentation, that mimics the full-screen mode. See for yourself:

Let Your Site Visitors Enjoy Rich Media

Courtesy of the free Web Publisher available for both the Mac and Windows, your website visitors can now all enjoy full-screen PicLens slideshows. You can create a full-screen, immersive slideshow gallery for your website in only two steps:

Step 1. Select the images you'd like to include in the PicLens slideshow.

Step 2. You're done! PicLens Publisher will take care of the rest. It will create a sample HTML gallery of your images and their thumbnails that's ready to publish to your website.

Get the "Wow" factor by:

1. Easily creating immersive slideshows for all visitors
2. Generating the Media RSS, HTML, and JavaScript you need
3. Editing the generated code to add audio, video, and even your logo.
4. By supporting Media RSS and Media Binding Format (MBF)

NOTE: Adobe Flash 9.0.28 or higher or the free PicLens plugin is required to enjoy the full immersive slideshow experience of PicLens Lite.

Want to Get Even More "Wow"?

Visit the Webmaster's Guide to learn how to add audio and video, and fully customize the power of PicLens and PicLens Lite for your website. Count on at least one more posting, where I plan to demo a new site using PicLens!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Netflix Player is coming from Roku for a mere $100

2008-06-15T09:31:00.001-05:00

The Netflix box is finally a reality.

This the first product that allows subscribers to have movies and TV shows from the Netflix's Instant Viewing feature (aka "Watch-It-Now" I mentioned in my previous post) to be streamed directly to their TV screen. Previously, Instant Viewing was available only to PC users through the Internet Explorer browser.

You can access about 8,000 titles as of now.

I've been playing with the Netflix Player for about two weeks. For the most part there is a lot to like.

If you are looking for HD video quality and the polished interface of Apple TV or Vudu, you will be disappointed. This player is strictly barebones--you're not intended to do anything more than just dive in and watch the movies and TV shows you've already queued up via your online Netflix account.

That said, the Netflix Player has a major trump card in terms of price: it retails for $100, and delivers unlimited streaming to any Netflix subscriber on the $8.95 plan or above.

For the time being, Roku's affordable box is the only Netflix hardware on the market. However, Netflix has reaffirmed that three other hardware partners are scheduled to release competing products by year's end.

What do you think: is the Netflix Player a game-changing product that bests Apple TV?

Lycos as a VOD player? Who Knew?

2008-06-12T10:15:00.001-05:00

Remember Lycos? Of course you do. Remember when you last used the site? Of course you don't. Perhaps that's exactly why the company's taking the site in a new direction: video on demand (VOD) rentals.

Started as a Carnegie Mellon University research project in 1994, Lycos was one of the first web search engines. By 1999 it was one of the most visited sites in the world. Then Yahoo and Google happened. While it still maintains respectable traffic worldwide, Lycos, now owned by Daum Communications, the second largest portal in Korea, is hardly more than an after-thought in the "Web 2.0" world.

In 2005 the company decided to shift its strategy away from search to online communities and broadband entertainment. This transition is continuing with the launch of Lycos Cinema.

An online video on demand service, Lycos offers both free and premium content. The free content is ad-supported, while the premium content takes a new approach: fees based on the number of "seats," that is how many people you want to watch the film with. Here is a sample clip from the "Little Shop of Horrors..."

That's the key component Lycos Cinema feels will set itself apart from the competition: social interaction. When you load up a movie, a chat room appears on the left hand side. Here, you can invite and interact with friends about the content you're all watching. It's a cute idea, at least in theory.

In reality there are problems:

First, the content is awful. It's not that I haven't heard of all of the films (only most of them), it's that there's no way I would pay to watch most of them.

Second, Lycos Cinema faces some stiff competition. In the growing field of VOD you have Apple's iTunes movie rentals, Amazon's Unbox rentals and Netflix's Watch-It-Now, among others. All of them offer much better content at similar prices with a much better experience. Even the free stuff on Lycos can't begin to compare with what the NBC and Fox-backed online video site Hulu offers.

The third problem, unfortunately, is that the site throws errors left and right. About half of the time most pages didn't load at all and instead spat out error code. Even if you wanted to rent a movie, you might not be able to -- it's a total crap shoot.

If you are able to get to the featured rentals promo page, you'll notice a top section that looks quite a bit like iTunes movie rentals' CoverFlow view. It's really kind of pathetic.

Lycos sold to Spain's Terra Networks in 2000 for $5.4 billion. It was resold in 2004 to the aforementioned Daum Communications Corp. for $95.4 million. At that rate it's due for another sale this year, priced down even more. Webcast anyone?

Cybercast credit: Lycos Video

Important Google Algorithm Change - Reassess Your Viral Video Marketing

2008-06-09T14:53:00.002-05:00

I have just completed a post here about the awesome power of viral marketing. I have shown three examples of videos that have been watched over 1,000,000 times apiece!! In fact, one video has been viewed over 60,000,000 times on its own! The perfect example of friends telling friends. Mind you, those friends have been told for a very good reason, as the up skirt shots (sorry girls) are hilarious (and yes I admit, quite sexy), as is the evolution of dance.

But that is not the reason for this post. When video first came online it was relatively easy to get your videos on page 1 in Google. Then of course, everyone started to do it and Google changed their algorithm. It then became a lot harder to get your video on page 1 and you had to do a whole heap of other stuff, including probably the hardest of all, namely getting your video popular first, without the aid of a page 1 listing. Then Google bought YouTube. It took a while, but Google looks after Google.

Things have changed my friend -- just look at this for evidence:

If you click on the image, the full size image will open in a new window. There you have it. My two videos occupying no. 1 AND no. 2 spot for a lucrative search term. There are many more examples I can show you, but I'm not going to give all my secrets away here. Tell you what I'll do though, if you sign up for the pre launch list at TellAFriendzy (it's free), I will tell you the exact steps I took to achieve these spectacular results. Sign up today!!

Technorati Tags: tell a friend, tell a friend forms for marketing, tell a friend email, free tell a friend, tell a friend script, viral marketing, viral marketing examples, viral marketing and sports, viral marketing campaign, marketing viral, online viral marketing, viral marketing software, word of mouth marketing, word of mouth

Source: Viral marketing examples

Shooting for the Small Screen -- MetaCafe Tips #2

2008-06-06T09:11:00.001-05:00

A lot of us produce videos for what's considered "small screen," that is internet, web, or mobile tv. So I've chosen this subject for this post from Metacafe's Production School Studio:

Shooting For The Small Screen - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Here are some of the tips worth repeating:

1. Using a neutral density filter can make your life significantly easier if you find yourself constantly shooting outdoors in strong sunlight.

2. Put simply, the microphone on your camera sucks. You won't get good sound from it. Ideally, get a "shotgun" mic because it records voices without picking up background noise; but any mic is better than the one built into your standard camera.

3. MOST IMPORTANT - no matter how short your final video ends up, ALWAYS shoot multiple takes of key scenes. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most basic one is that it's very hard to tell in the viewfinder if the shot will look like the way you want it to.

Stay tuned -- I will keep posting the best "how-to" videos from the Video Production School!

Cybercast credit: Metacafe

Wanted: Your Video Masterpiece by LoftCity

2008-06-03T14:31:00.001-05:00

Sign up with this shiny new web studio; set-up shop; produce your next masterpiece, or upload what you have; and they promise to distribute it for 50% of the take. It doesn't get easier than that, especially if they live up to their claims of being able to get it on mobile carriers like Verizon and AT&T, major media sites, your iPod or iPhone, etc., etc....

Plus the distribution is non-exclusive, which is definitely a heart-warmer!

Though the site is VERY new, it is - by first looks - crisply designed, functional, and easy to navigate. A number of people have already occupied a loft, although they seem to be bare to the bone, like mine;) Here is one from Alexia Anastasio, who at least has her picture hanging on the pixie wall.

I will report back about my experience as I dive deeper and deeper into this pool of bits, bytes, artistic creativity, and show biz. My first act will be to make my loft look semi-lived-in, then submit some of our current videos. How? Read the Open Call for Distribution on LoftCity or below:

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For Distribution

This Call is for submission of original and creative films to be distributed by LoftCity to web destination sites and mobile service providers.

If you have a film, a series, a video clip or a video art of any genre (the "film") and you wish to distribute it, submit it today to LoftCity and we will distribute it for you in the web and to mobile service providers.

LoftCity will distribute your film and will share with you the revenue it will generate.

Information about our distribution partners will be provided on an ongoing basis.

Using LoftCity's distribution services is subject to signing our Submission Agreement.

Brief & Guidelines:

· The film can be of any genre and in any format.
· You must have all the legal rights in the film for usage and distribution via LoftCity.
· The film can be anywhere between 30 seconds and 60 minutes in length.
· The film should be in English or with English subtitles.
· The film should not include any pornography, racism or offensive content.

Click here to learn more about LoftCity’s Submission Agreement and revenue share terms. Please read carefully sections 1 and 3 which refer to "Submitting a Film for Distribution".

Key dates

This is an open Call to which you can submit your film throughout the year. However, the sooner you submit your film the more you increase your chances for higher revenues.

Who can participate?

This Call is for all LoftCity beta participants.

We highly recommend that participants: upload their showreel and any other relevant materials (video, audio, photos and writings), detail their professional experience and create a profile using the "About me" section of the Loft.

How does it work?

There are two ways to submit your film.

Using LoftCity's Projects:

1. Open a project. Use the “Cast & Crew” tool to invite team members to participate in the project.
2. Produce your film.
3. The final film should be marked as “Final” in the "Editing Notes" tool.
4. Submit your film using the "Release" tool by selecting "Submit your film to: Distribution Only". The film will be submitted to the LoftCity team and will be published to the “Screening Room” under the "Distribution Only" category.

Using the Materials folder:
1. If you’ve already uploaded your film to your Materials folder, click on the film name and select the "Submit to" action.
2. Select "Distribution Only" from the drop down list. Accept our Distribution Agreement and click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
3. The film will be submitted to the LoftCity team and will be published to the “Screening Room” under the "Distribution Only" category.

Technical requirements

The films should be up to a maximum of 500 MB.
We accept the following formats: MPG, MPEG, MOV, AVI, ASF, WMV, DIVX, 3GP and FLV.
More technical details can be found in the "Upload Files" section of our Help Center.

Legal

Your participation in this Call is subject to the LoftCity’s Submission Agreement. Please make sure you have all the legal rights to the film for usage and distribution via LoftCity.

The Project Manager is fully responsible for compensating his/her team members according to agreements set between them and for attaining all necessary rights to the submitted film.

We recommend you visit our Help Center, Terms of Use and Legal Tips sections to learn more

Further information: For further queries, please Contact Us.

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So sign up now and look for KingsleyVision (that's me) if you have a project in mind!

BTW, how do you like the motto "LoftCity, the first online film studio?" MyFlik from Mind's Eye Media has been online for more than a year, 60Frames for about the same time. And that's just what I know about. First? No. Better than the rest? That would be great!

Phoenix Rises Up on Mars

2008-05-31T09:31:00.001-05:00

Cheers swept through Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the touchdown signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander was detected after a nail-biting descent, as the mission faced a 50:50 chance of success.

"In my dreams it couldn't have gone as perfectly as it went," NASA project manager Barry Goldstein said.

Phoenix plunged into the Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (19,200 kilometers per hour) after a 10-month, 422 million-mile (675 million-kilometer) voyage through space.

Among Phoenix's first tasks were to check its power supply and the health of its science instruments, and unfurl its solar panels after the dust settled.

Sunday's touchdown was the first successful soft landing on Mars since the twin Viking landers touched down in 1976.

With all the bad news we are treated with daily on this Earth, it's more than comforting to know we can manage feats like this in this chaos. Congratulations NASA - well done!

Cybercast credit: Yahoo Video

YouTube and Ilk Challenge Broadcast and Cable HDTV

2008-05-28T15:02:00.001-05:00

A growing number of digital video and ad providers are challenging TV's hold on visual quality with better technology and services. The quickened pace of High Definition TV deployment was expected to slow the exodus of viewers to online offerings.

This hasn't happened. Just the opposite seems to be the case. How come?

The reason this strategy doesn't appear to be working is that the online tv and video sites are also upgrading to HDTV quality web casting. And they have a built-in advantage: the cost is much less and the technology much more flexible, being mostly software based, than the (mostly) hardware based infrastructure necessary for the broadcast and cable companies.

Examples abound:

1. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VIDEOS viewed was 10.1 billion during a record-breaking December 2007, according to the comScore Video Metrix service.

2. YouTube accounted for 3.3 billion videos viewed online in the U.S. in January.

3. Google sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property in January with nearly 3.4 billion videos viewed (34.3% share of videos), gaining 1.7 share points vs. the previous month.

4. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 584 million (6%).

5. Yahoo! sites served 315 million videos (3.2%).

6. Microsoft sites came in with 199 million (2%) videos watched in January.

7. Vimeo, a video-sharing site owned by Barry Diller's IAC, began distributing user-generated videos in HD late last year.

8. The peer-to-peer Web TV powerhouse Joost also offers high-resolution content.

9. Just a few week ago, the NBC/News Corp. co-venture Hulu launched to the public with limited HD content, as one of the first tests of the new Adobe Flash Player, which supports streaming HD.

10.Rumors are also flying that Yahoo intends to integrate video into Flickr very soon, perhaps in the next three weeks. Part of the delay may have been a long internal debate about how to make Flickr Video special and distinct from what YouTube already offers.

BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti actually believes the Web is better suited for delivering HD content than TV. "HDTV penetration is just 33% of U.S. households, while right now advertisers can use HD content to reach over 65% of all Internet consumers." Sacerdoti says. BrightRoll is an online video advertising firm founded just two years ago in 2006.

The way I see it, as an ad serving company they must have the ability and the need to track video viewing statistics and trends very closely -- although I wonder how anyone can define trends on less than two years' worth of data.

Shoot Like a Pro -- with a Little Help from Metacafe’s Video Production School

2008-05-25T16:37:00.001-05:00

Today’s Subject: How and why use dollies and steadicams

If the only camera movement you know involves holding down the zoom button, it’s time you watched Metacafe's Production School video about “Dollying” which will expand your repertoire to include dolly and steadicam shots.

Just in case you didn’t know, a dolly is a special type of cart used to move a camera smoothly across a location, while a steadicam is a rig or harness that counterbalances a camera and allows for smooth handheld shots. Both devices can be used to merely get closer to your subject, but they truly shine when tracking your subject’s movements.

You can watch the "Dollying" video here:

VERY COOL - my thanks to all at the Production School! Dont't forget - I will keep posting follow-up "how-to" videos from the Video Production School.

Cybercast credit: Metacafe

Do You Want Your Own Live TV Studio?

2008-05-22T12:19:00.002-05:00

All you need is a Veodia account, a computer and a camera. Does this sound real?

As Veodia says, it was designed with three fundamental principles in mind:

1. You shouldn't need to be expert in video compression or streaming
2. You shouldn't need to buy expensive equipment
3. You should retain full control and ownership of your content

That's why all you need to use Veodia is an account, a computer and camera. Simply plug your camera into your computer, log on to Veodia, and press Start to begin broadcasting live interactive TV broadcasts over the Internet to thousands of viewers on computers and mobile phones. When you press Stop at the end, the recording is instantly available for on-demand playback on computers, cell phones, iPods and Apple TV sets.

The publishing feature does allow you to privately manage your content, publish it onto your blog or site -- and track viewers with detailed streaming reports. Nifty!

Try it free - set up an account that provides 500 MB storage and webcasting up to 5 viewers. If you are satisfied with the show, they’ll be glad to quote you their one-time, subscription, and hosting plans.

DIY Videos Teach You How to Do Almost Anything

2008-05-19T10:53:00.002-05:00

If there's a skill or process you want to learn or know more about, chances are there's an online video for it.

This week, taking a cue from Katherine Boehret at the Wall Street Journal, we took a look at three web sites that make finding DIY videos easy:

• Howcast Media Inc.'s Howcast.com
• WonderHowTo.com from WonderHowTo Inc. and
• eHow Inc.'s eHow.com

Howcast.com, which launched in February, encourages users to make and share good-quality, entertaining videos by providing tools on its site, and has about 5,000 videos so far.

After testing each of these sites, she found that her favorite videos had steps that were clearly labeled and numbered and the ability to fast forward to or play back specific parts in the video -- tools that Howcast included in almost all of its videos.

These three free sites are advertisement-supported. Howcast's ads run alongside videos. WonderHowTo.com runs ads at the top and side of its own site, on which it will play certain videos.

Overall, she prefers the look of Howcast's site and its well-organized videos. But its content pales in comparison to WonderHowTo's 110,000 videos and even eHow's 100,000 instructional articles.

Howcast.com's content is informative with an amusing edge, including a video titled "How to Tell If Your Boyfriend's A Psycho."(If he calls 50 times a day, for example.) Other videos on the site are more serious, like "How to Make Sushi" by an executive sushi chef in New York City.

The founders of Howcast Media formerly worked in Google's video department, including during the acquisition of YouTube. It shows - literally.

In order to make it easier for us, average users, to upload better-looking videos, Howcast also provides an Upload and Enhance tool to simply and quickly add professional-looking graphics and printable steps to go along with how-to videos.

Videos made in the Howcast Studios include accompanying music, good narratives and actors who add humor to an otherwise humdrum how-to.

Howcast tries to run ads alongside videos that relate to the content. WonderHowTo.com was developed by a former television executive with the intention of using the site to produce its own video, like Howcast.com.

The Browse button pulls down 35 categories from which users can sort content, including Spirituality, Dating & Relationships and Fitness. In the Fashion subcategory under Beauty & Style, I found 290 videos including one on "How to Tie a Windsor Knot" and another titled "How to Turn Old Underpants Into a Bra" -- neither of which is up my alley.

WonderHowTo's content comes from over 700 sites, according to the company.

June submitted her song video (certainly not a "how-to" piece) to this site by simply entering a URL, without logging in. I never found the video she submitted on the site; WonderHowTo explained that it screens all videos prior to posting them, so it must have found hers. Smart!

EHow.com uses its database of articles to encourage people to watch videos, when they're relevant. This site uses calm, pastel colors to give a relaxed feeling -- especially compared with WonderHowTo, where banner ads surround the page.

Videos can also be found on eHow within a marked tab at the top of the page. But unlike the articles on eHow, they videos weren't well organized or easily searchable.

But the eHow videos were professional-looking and included quite a few tips that she didn't know.

It isn't always easy to learn from the information you find online. How-to videos can be a big help - especially if they're well-made and easy to find. Using any of these sites could give you a head start.

Cybercast credit: HowCast