video platform Archives

Trends in the Acceleration of Video Management Technology

Posted on May 11, 2022August 21, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

Trends in Media Technology

Are digital natives planning to take over the world? You may well think so if you look at the media technology industry, where trends support an increasingly digital-native economy, as outlined in Silverwood Partners’ Media Technology: Strategic Industry Analysis 2022.

Video Production in a Remote Working Era

The COVID pandemic jump-started an era of mass remote working, which meant that content creators — who rely on collaborative processes — struggled with video management: searching for clips, reviews and approvals, tracking assets, transcoding, etc. This accelerated technological innovation…as tech companies raced to meet the needs of a broad range of video creators and media companies.

The Streaming Wars

The confinement of people to their homes led to another disruptive influence: audience numbers for streaming content skyrocketed. En masse, viewers cut the cord with traditional broadcasters and turned their eyeballs to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu and other streamers.

Upsurge in Video Marketing

Throughout 2021 the demand for content seeped into almost every industry and, in response, the creator economy became more sophisticated.

We’ve seen a significant increase in recent years in the numbers of digital-native ‘influencers’ and professional video creators as they build their personal brand through video. Add to that the rise and rise of video marketing among enterprises, and you get the picture: technology had to ‘fly fast’.

So, it was time to wave goodbye to video files stored on hard drives and face-to-face teamwork — it was time to embrace the cloud! Remote collaboration became a reality and will need to be a key part of enterprise strategy going forward.

Video Technology Innovation

Top-tier broadcasters and OTT providers require innovative media technology to differentiate themselves and fight for market share. The battle of the streamers is red hot after Netflix recently announced that it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 and expects to lose two million more in the second quarter.

Enterprises and video creators are also operating in a very competitive environment. Broadcast-grade technology such as Overcast’s video management platform — which facilitates effortless collaboration and an efficient workflow — will be essential to their survival.

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Digital Transformation: 8 Principles of Video Content-as-a Service

Posted on April 29, 2020August 21, 2024 by Philippe Brodeur

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technologies into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how that business works.

Video is core to digital transformation. It changes the status quo when it comes to communicating internally with staff and externally with partners and customers.

Video Content-as-a-Service (VCaaS) makes video accessible to all. It reduces cost, reduces the time it takes to get content to market and increases revenue opportunities.

If businesses and enterprises want to truly embrace video at the heart of their organizations, then the following 8 principles should future-proof processes while enabling speed and scale.

1. Video is a collaborative business

Creating professional video content is complex. From a 1-minute product video to a 2-hour movie, there is one workflow that is core to creation and often forgotten – collaboration, review and approvals.

Collaborating on content was traditionally done in an edit suite with an editor. That is no longer the case. We can now do this remotely – even on a smartphone – making it possible to accelerate the production process.

(Note: on average, a one-minute professional video takes 12 days to get to market – Adobe)

2. Video content should be secured

Video content created by organisations is normally subject to commercial objectives (studio movies, product descriptions, advertising, etc) and/or privacy regulation (CCTV, HR, training, safety, etc).

We need to secure content on-premise, in the cloud, and in transit. Audit logs should allow content owners to track the details of content lifecycles.

(Note: more than 1 billion personal medical images and videos were made public last year)

3. Avoid the BIG HIT when managing legacy technology

You may already have a DAM (digital asset management platform), a MAM (media asset management platform) a PAM (production asset management platform) a CMS (content management system) an ECM (enterprise content management system) or another 3-letter acronym. And the thought of bringing on new technology fills you with dread.

But what if:

You integrated with the existing tech stack to get moving quickly
Roll out the new system incrementally without having to suffer the pain of a “big hit”
Use simpler tools so that more employees can manage the content
Scale your operations to be able to deliver video content to new channels from a single point of truth
Ultimately shutter the systems that you no longer need

4. Service infrastructure needs to be modular

Content management is changing daily. It is no longer possible for organisations to manage large monolithic infrastructures along with siloed services – it’s simply not scalable.

To future-proof your technology roadmap, new infrastructures should be cloud-native, API-orientated solutions that orchestrate micro-services and are able to be containerised on-premise.

The separation of content from the presentation layer is key – it means with APIs you can deliver the same content to multiple platforms without duplication.

5. Support new channels of distribution

Content is distributed everywhere, by multiple types of organisations and for multiple reasons. The number of channels, devices and methods of using video is expanding rapidly.

Content management solutions need to support all “tier 2” customer interactions including:

Sales
Social
Apps
Partner networks
In-store experiences
Immersive experiences like AR and VR
…and much more.

6. Content systems need to support the developer and business users

Developers are able to access APIs or services that allow them to maintain a “single point of truth” for the content while making it possible to easily develop new channels of distribution.

Business users have easy access to a “single pane of glass” that allows them to easily manage content across multiple channels without needing specialist training or audio-visual qualifications.

7. Use AI and Machine Learning to reduce complexities

Standardisation of video formats will not happen any time soon. Compression, frame rates, pixels, codecs – working with video is more complicated than other file types.

New developments in AI mean that we are automating and optimizing many mundane technical tasks (like transcoding). By automating these tasks, we are expanding video management within organisations to less technical employees creating efficiencies.

We use AI and machine learning to analyse video content to allow the automatic development of subtitles, image recognition, compliance and other solutions that make it easier to search and find content.

8. Digital Transformation includes embracing video

By 2021, 90% of global organisations will rely on system integrators, agencies and channel partners to design, build and implement their digital strategies. Currently, less than 1% of eCommerce sites are video-enabled whereas virtually all social is now video.

Organisations use video for everything from Marketing to HR, Product, Corporate Communications, Training and much more. It is no longer the role of the IT department or if you are lucky, the audio-visual department to manage video content. Everyone who operates a PC, laptop or Mac can manage video just as they would images or word documents.

DAM! Enterprise Video Is So Popular — Part 3

Posted on December 10, 2019August 22, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

What Do You Need In A DAM?

As the use of video in business continues to increase, enterprises need to have a growth strategy in mind in addition to fulfilling their current needs. So, they need to look for a platform that provides extensive management capabilities to streamline their process, combined with the facility to scale up video production in the future. The Aragon Research Globe for Enterprise Video 2019 identifies the following key capabilities of a DAM as essential:

1. Capture/Recording and Publishing

– Ability to capture, tag, and edit a video recording
– Ability to publish

2. Video Content Management/Portal

– Ability to store video content and display it in different modes for users
– Ability to deliver video content to multiple devices (includes transcoding)
– Ability to provide delivery of video content to global locations (via content delivery network capabilities)
– Ability to search for content
– APIs for integration

3. Live Video: Streaming and Integration

– Ability to deliver a live broadcast to a large number of users
– Ability to record the live broadcast for later use
– The ability to connect with existing video conferencing systems for capture or for broadcast federation

4. Content Analytics

– The ability to analyze what is happening in a video, either live or after the fact
– The ability to recognize people and images in a video or image
– The ability to recognize sentiment of people talking in a video

Why Use Overcast?

Overcast is specially designed for enterprises. Our streamlined process means that your team will be able to collaborate effortlessly on video. You’ll be amazed at how fast reviews and approvals are, no matter where in the world your team is. AI-powered search enables you to find whatever clips you’re looking for in the cloud-based repository. You’ll save lots of time with speedy file transfer and no-one will be tearing their hair out trying to format videos for various channels: our platform will do that for you at the click of a button. And since it’s encrypted, you can feel secure in the knowledge that your files are protected. So why not contact us today for a free trial to make your life easier and save you time and money?

DAM! Enterprise Video Is So Popular — Part 1

Posted on December 10, 2019August 27, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

Enterprise video is proving to be a critical asset to the digital enterprise and is on a collision course with digital asset management — that’s one of the key findings of the Aragon Research Globe for Enterprise Video 2019.

Video is proving its value to the enterprise in nearly every department and every use case. However, many enterprises are still struggling to make the shift. But with video use continuing to expand and more devices capable of capturing video, there’s an increased demand to manage video.

Why Video Is Critical for a Digital Enterprise

While video growth is largely organic, there’s still a need within the enterprise to have a comprehensive, measurable video strategy. An ad hoc approach just won’t cut it. In developing and implementing a video strategy, two groups of people are very important: your employees and your customers. Video can be a key tool in streamlining their respective experiences, if done strategically.

Enterprises need to evaluate their video strategy based on both customer and employee experience.

Video Powers Customer Engagement

Long gone are the days when you had to entice potential customers to your workplace in order to work your sales magic on them. Nowadays, you can convince them with a virtual video sales presentation or a webinar. But, this means enterprises need a video platform to manage this growth and deliver video to users through a variety of means.

The Battle for Talent

Since knowledge workers have more opportunities than ever before to work internationally, the battle to attract and retain talent is intense. But video can get employees engaged and keep them engaged — from the recruiting stage, during which videos can be used to entice candidates through what’s said about the company, to employment, during which they can learn more about the corporate culture through video. It’s also a fantastic training tool and is being leveraged by many companies to ensure consistency of learning for all of their employees, no matter where in the world the knowledge workers are based.

In Part 2 of this blog post series, we’ll explore how video DAMs facilitate global collaboration and we’ll reveal the secret weapon for enterprises who are using video.