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.
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.
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.
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.
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
February 18, 2008
The last thing the web needs is another video host site, me thinks.
A better platform and interfaces, however, are another story, according to Michael Hoydich, co-founder of tech startup Unknown Vector.
So, with his partner, Mark Grey, Hoydich has launched a new platform for social networkers now and everybody else later, to view, store, and share streaming video. Dubbed uvLayer, the full-screen media download allows users and their friends to interact with each other's videos across multiple social networks.
"The way people interact with and share videos today is limited and awkward," says Hoydich, who once served as a vice president of sales for Viewpoint Corporation. With Gray, Hoydich later went on to found another tech services firm named IndustryNext, and an interactive marketing agency by the name of Incognito Digital.
UvLayer sources video content from multiple sources so viewers can centralize their videos and play lists without visiting multiple sites. Also, uvLayer users can manipulate collected videos into thumbnail-sized "stacks" atop their personalized media canvas for better viewing and sharing.
Also with uvLayer, you are no longer required an open Web browser to view videos, as the option exists to view a single video or an entire playlist in a small window anchored on top of a viewer's desktop. You can also publish media collections directly to Facebook, with no coding and no typing now; other social media sites, blogs, and regular sites later, probably in 3-6 months.
UvLayer was developed using Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), a new technology that allows developers to create rich internet applications developed in Flash, HTML, and AJAX.
BlogTV, a popular video streaming company in Israel, has launched an application on Facebook , like most any other software developer (over 6,000 by now). Big deal, you say? It also plans to enter the U.S. market with a mobile phone version already used in Israel for two years. Now, THAT could be a big deal, in my humble opinion, along with the embeddable LIVE SHOW, like the one below (if it's live now), that you get to create free. Another cool feature is the built-In live chat, letting your fans express themselves just as visually, as long as their vocabulary is up to the task….
I'm tempted to put our ever fledging Love Show by June video blog on it, specifically for cell phones … especially for the iPhone. Anyone has a solution to stretch 24 hours a few hours more?
Like many other video sharing sites, San Francisco’s Mesmo lets you collect and share videos from other video sites. Its specialty, though, is social video recommendation, to help you find new videos you’ll like. It wants to create a community on the site this way, by matching you up with similar channels and users.
They’re aiming to make a video version of Flixster or iLike, which also use recommendation filters to suggest movie and music, respectively. These engines work as follows: If you’ve tended in the past to enjoy content that your friend, Bob also enjoys, these engines will recommend you other new content that Bob is enjoying. These recommendation filters weren’t present in the first wave of popular video sites like YouTube.
To take advantage of this trend, Mesmo is also offering a Facebook application , although it’s not listed yet as one of 113 Facebook “video” applications at this time. They also claim to have around 50,000 registered users now — though it’s unclear how many are active....
Don't forget to add your own videos - you can just by entering your URLs, after registering. Which, coincidentally, didn't work for me on my Mac Safari browser. And there isn't even a "Beta" sign next to the site's logo!
I hate when people don't test for cross-platform compatibility. Negates the whole experience for me. So wrong, Mesmo!
P.S. Turns out the registration went through, but without any visual cue or message from the site you wouldn't know....
MySpace is creating a new video hub at myspacetv.com to host a mix of amateur (you and me) and professional media content (the big guys claiming their piece of the action.)
The home page -- also accessible via a link from the main MySpace site -- features the "Hot Video of the Day," several other clips, and a "My Videos" section where you can create your own personalized channels or playlists. The clicker, so to speak, is that you can embed video in your MySpace profile with just one click, or post it as a "bulletin" for people on their friends lists.
There are 16 categories, many of which reflect the kinds of content that have proven most popular with the Web's viral-content crowd: animals, animation/CGI, automotive, comedy and humor, entertainment, "extreme" videos, instructional, music, news and politics, school and education, science and technology, video blogging, sports, travel and vacations, video games, and "weird stuff." Here is one the more weird ones, "Chicken Suicide:"
MySpace TV has deals in place with a number of partners, including National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times and fellow Fox brand IGN Entertainment. There is a music channel featuring music videos from some of the most popular artists with MySpace profiles.
The new, easier-to-navigate interface could make it more of a direct competitor to YouTube, which is THE name in web video. While YouTube seems to be squarely in MySpace's cross hairs, third-party content on MySpace--including embedded YouTube videos--remains, at least for now.
This comes as YouTube is working hard to build in more social networking features, so that it doesn't lose ground to MySpace or Facebook, both fast-growing networking sites with video. YouTube is now allowing users to chat while they watch the same clip and share their favorite videos.
Let the games begin! Continue? End, if you've has enough of putting up and watching mostly silly nonsense, amateur or professional?
