Archive for March, 2008
Reality Digital announced the closing of $6.3 million in its Series B round of venture funding from OpenView Venture Partners. The company provides an on-demand platform that enables businesses to add video sharing, social media and networking features, as well as business tools to their digital media initiatives. The flagship product, Reality Digital Opus, applies a software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model that can be rapidly launched as either a brand new Web environment, or within an existing Web domain to allow users to upload, manage and share digital video, audio and images online. Reality Digital customers include some of the leading players in media, publishing, and online entertainment, including MTV Networks, ITV Local and Lonely Planet.
Today, Vonage founder Jeff Pulver throws his hat into the ring with PrimeTimeRewind.tv. Like the others, PrimeTimeRewind.tv attempts to put a consistent skin on what is fast becoming a disjointed experience. Pulver’s contribution to this user-interface challenge is to turn the TV Guide into an interactive video cube. When you go to PrimeTimeRewind.tv, you are presented with a cube filled with video thumbnails on each face. Spin the cube horizontally and each face shows the Web video offerings of a different TV network (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT and USA). Rotate it vertically and each face shows a different category (action, comedy, reality, drama). Click on any one thumbnail and you are taken to another page in which the full player opens up.
More details via: Tech Crunch
By using a methodology that analyzes in fine detail 17 key Web site variables, the VideoBloom VIEW Index tracks, for example: placement of video within the Web site, the Web video formats used, the uses of online videos, and if there is an Internet video center. VideoBloom VIEW then offers analysis of these trends along groupings of companies.
VideoBloom breaks down its results into three main percentages that indicate organizations’ use of video on their main Web sites. For example, in February 2008, the VIEW main index for the 30 Dow Jones companies was 13-93-7, which indicates that 13% of the companies had video on their home page, 93% had video on their site, and 7% didn’t use video at all. As more and more companies discover the effectiveness of Web video, this information will become an invaluable resource and window into online video’s evolution.
How would you like to be handed this IT project: create a website that will present 2,200 hours of live, interactive video, plus integrated broadcast coverage. The site will have huge spikes of traffic, and operate under worldwide scrutiny, so it has to be designed for performance. It has to be done in the next 150 days; no schedule extensions are possible. And it must deliver a brilliant user experience.
It’s the job in front of developers for the NBC Summer Olympics website, which also will offer expert commentary and sports biographies and permit users to share links to favorite event videos.
More via: CIO: Computer World
Dailymotion will begin hosting host an exclusive premiere episode of My Damn Channel’s newest web series, Bedtime Stories. Written and co-directed by Steve Kerper. In addition to the exclusive Bedtime Stories premiere, Dailymotion will now feature My Damn Channel’s original comedy and music videos including Horrible People, a soap opera with an evil, comedic twist written and directed by A. D. Miles (Wet Hot American Summer); Cookin’ with Coolio, a production of Dead Crow Pictures featuring hip-hop star Coolio creating his favorite funkalicious dishes and Wainy Days, an hilarious, fictionalized account of comedian David Wain’s (The State, Reno 911) search for romance. My Damn Channel artists also include Harry Shearer, Andy Milonakis, Big Fat Brain (You Suck at Photoshop) and Don Was.
During the 78th Intl. Motor Show in Geneva, Peugeot unveiled it’s new video streaming website based on the white-label solutions offered by Kewego. In addition to the French version, Peugeot Web TV is also available in English, Spanish, and German. Beyond advertising films, visitors will find automotive tests, crash tests, as well as updated information on the group. By launching Peugeot Web TV, the brand seeks to take advantage of audio-visual technology to better communicate with Internet users and highlight its know-how and products.
The left nav. scrolling Flash interface is pretty slick!
