We recently had a client ask us if we were able to distribute their corporate video as a file that could be viewed on Blackberry Phone. Yes it is possible to view videos on a blackberry phone but it’s not as simple as putting something on Youtube. We wanted to share what we discovered.

The important thing about watching video on your blackberry is the file type and codec. For those non-video nerds, a file type is the way the file is saved or exported- i.e. .mov. mp4, avi, etc. A codec is a subset, often regardless of file type. Here are the Supported Media Types for BlackBerry Smartphones.

As you can see from that PDF document, Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry’s hasn’t made the task easy, because almost every model has different requirements. Good thing there is at least one file type that can work on almost all models. We chose an MP4 file and also had success with the AVI format.

This Promo Video Optimized for Blackberry Curve 8300 was compressed as an MP4 file at about 600kb/second, 320×160 resolution at 24 f/s.

One last important detail to note, watching video on a blackberry is also subject to file size. You can’t email large files to Blackberry users, even if they try to download via wifi, this often is subject to the blackberry file size limits. The work around is to download the larger files from a web page on the Internet using the Opera browser.

For best results, blackberry users would visit this page on the Opera Browser and download the file to their blackberry as opposed to attempting to stream the video from a web server. This is done by selecting the link below within the Opera Browser and “Save” the video to the video folder or somewhere else on the blackberry phone. Then open the file with the Media application. The media application has an icon of a film reel.

We have decided to output the final file in at least two formats. One in a small version as an .avi, mpeg4 format for the people with older less expensive Blackberry phones and another higher resolution in quicktime for the users with the latest and greatest smartphones. We also recommend that the 10 minute video be chopped into three minute chunks. This way more users would take the time to download view the videos.

Eric Wolfram, a principal at WPRNY, has experience editing news with CNN and streaming live video events for WPRNY

Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation - A cure is only a breath away

WPRNY recently steamed three live internet events for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. The reason the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation decided to host live events, as opposed to taping the events and posting them for viewing after the fact, was so that viewers would be able to call in with real questions, which could be answered by the panel of experts.

The first web broadcast was from Columbia University on Lung Transplantation for Pulmonary Fibrosis. The second webinar was broadcast live from Yale University on the various forms of Pulmonary Fibrosis called IPF. The third live internet broadcast was from the Hershey Medical Center, part of Penn State, and the subject matter was developing advocacy and support groups for IPF.

People with Pulmonary Fibrosis may find it difficult to travel. So the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation did a great service to bring the leading physicians onto the screens of those effected.

• SOT – Sound on Tape. This refers to what people often call a “sound bite”. It’s generally a short (8 second -30 second) moment of a person (generally a medium shot) saying something apt.
• Butted SOT – This is two or more SOTS butted together, often with a white flash or blur transition or some other conspicuous edit…ie, there is no attempt to hide the edit and, on the contrary, we want to show that time has elapsed between the moments.
• Tease or TZ – This is a short edited and often effected summary of some upcoming moment, used extensively by news programs and reality TV program, generally played prior to a commerical.
• Bump – This is a tease that is played at the start of a program block, generally after the commercial, to bump the viewer back into the action.
• Beeper – Sound under the verbatim graphics, ie graphics which show the words that are being said on tape. This is generally used during phone interviews, 911 calls or any time you have bad, but relevant, audio.
• Interview or INTV – This is an edited interview between at least two people using over the shoulder or picture in picture.
• Big Little – Anytime you have two video feeds on one screen where one of the screens is smaller than the other
• Cluster Buster – This is a short bump or tease that is played between two commercials, designed to stop people who have Tivos or to otherwise keep people viewing between commercials.
• VO – VO is video that is edited for the purpose of being shown while somebody is talking. So if two people are talking about the hurricane, the VO would be images of the hurricane. VOS is silent. VON is video with natural sounds played soft enough so that you hear the people talking but the natural sounds are still there.
• Package or PKG – This is a completed news segment that generally contains a corrispondant’s track or narative, sots from interviews, still strings, graphics and VO which are all edited together in a compelling fashion. It ends with the corrispondent’s sig-out, ie, “This is Eric Wolfram from WPRNY reporting from the Auto Show in New York City”
• Dounut or DNT – A donut is the package without a sig out.
• Program – A fully edited program block
• Look Live – A segment of a live program that is taped and edited prior to an event or program, but which is broadcast as if it were happening live.
• Still String – A series of still photographs edited together with slow cross disolve transitions and moves on the photos — generally slow push in or slow pull out.
• Promo – a short promotional video of an upcoming show or event.

• Aircheck — This is recording of exactly how a program aired, including bumps, fonts and commercials.

• Animation — This is any graphic that is animated.

• Audio Track — This is the narration of a documentary or news package.

• ISO — An iso is a medium shot of a single person, typically a pundit,  in isolation. As opposed to split or big little.

• Master — This is the main wide shot which contains all the action.

• Presser — Typically a statement given by politicians or police. You’ll see this where there is ample press waiting in front of an empty podium with many microphones on it. The subject walks up and makes a statement.

• Raw — This is raw unedited footage, which might contain broll, interviews or anything.

In January 2010, I approached five or six CDNs that specialized in streaming services and who have networks & datacenters in place. I requested a quote for only bandwidth for a 2 hour program where we were giving 1.5 Mb/sec up and streaming down about 500 kb/second to 500 viewers.

Quotes for bandwidth varied greatly — one quote from LimeLight was for $4500. A couple other quotes were in the $1500 range. A couple of hosts had prices in the hundreds of dollars. I think the $4500 quote was a qualifier number…it was from a big corporate provider and who didn’t want to be bothered with customers who balk at that sort of number. In other words, the quote had nothing to do with the cost of the bandwidth. The $1500 range providers seemed to have other services that they wanted to sell us, like their flash player or their media management systems, etc.

The places in the hundreds of dollars range seemed to require more technical knowledge, ie, they were selling pure bandwidth while the more expensive options seemed to be selling “solutions” or something that spoke more to the need of communicating rather than the need for bandwidth and data centers.

We went with a streaming video CDN who seemed to have the most open and simple pricing system and which had the most information and support documents published. I also met with their CEO and Founder and got to hear all about their backend. Many of these providers have bandwidth calculators on their site to help people estimate their cost. Their costs were good.

Interesting though, the free solutions (with adverts) ustream and livestream, actually cost about $1 per viewer per hour if you go with their non-adverts “pro” service — which is way more than some of the other CDN were charging for bandwidth.

First, let’s take a step back.  What is the purpose of your webinar?  Education? Marketing?  Informative or Team Building?  This is a critical question that needs to be asked from the outset.  It will determine the direction your entire production will take. 

As you plan your webinar, think of the questions in the above paragraph?  Make sure you know the exact reason you are holding this event.  It is important to know who your audience will be and thus allow you to know what the dialogue should be during the event.  Each webinar has a particular message- making sure you convey that message and answer any hanging questions is critical for your event to be considered a success.  Next, you have to know who will be the voices speaking for your organization: Your own staff?  Industry experts?  Happy clients or customers?  Make sure that everyone knows the message and stays on it.  Scripting will help with this, but will also require the skill of a writer.  If you do proceed without a script, make sure you go through a few dry runs before going live.

Next, you need to make sure that people are actually going to see your broadcast.  Market it! You have to begin marketing your event in advance of its broadcast.  Whether you will just play the webinar live or post it for on-demand re-broadcast, you need to make sure your audience is aware of it.  Send emails to current or potential clients.  Post a notice on your website.  Announce it on your phone calls while people are waiting to speak to someone.  The more people who are aware of it, the greater the success it will be.

Finally, you have to actually produce it for people to watch.  There are several options in this area.  You can purchase a program which allows you to produce your own events in-house, but stills leaves you with a heavy tech burden.  You can have an intern research and attempt to produce on your own (not necessarily recommended).  Or you can hire an outside company to produce and handle post-production/ posting to server so your attendees can view.  Some companies can actually handle all three steps for you; it all depends on your budget and end goal.

We would be happy to discuss how a webinar can help your business.  Contact us with questions you may have or if you need an extra hand in production: 646-519-2451  or sales@wprny.com

Many companies however, don’t want to take on the management and technical role of producing a webinar.  There are numerous companies and styles to assist with hosting a webinar.  The most basic of services is essentially a broadcast over the internet of your powerpoint or presentation slides along with the presenters voice which is being recorded over the phone.  The next step up is to have the presenters computer equipped with a webcam, allowing their image and voice, along with presentation slides broadcast over the net.  Finally, you have a custom broadcast which in viewing looks similar to a television broadcast, multiple professional cameras, name fonts, full screen graphics and seamless transitions between them.  

Naturally, the price for these services ranges.  For voice and slide presentation, they begin at only a few hundred dollars a month.  For video- your webcam- the price really doesn’t increase much.  For the highly produced broadcast, add a zero to the aforementioned prices.  

Of course, with quality comes perception.  If you are a company that isn’t flashy, your clients aren’t with you because of social perception, then the final product doesn’t matter as much.  If you conducting this in hopes of getting new business, then obviously, the more professional you look to your end user, the higher chance of success will be with their business.

Be sure to look and listen to examples before you commit to a provider.  Look for a clear  and audible broadcast and the quality of the images, as a viewer, are you engaged?  If there is video, does the audio synch with the video or is there ‘lip flap’?  Remember, once you commit to a provider, you want to feel comfortable with their work so that any headaches are removed.

We are happy to discuss any needs you may have concerning a webcast or webinar for your company.  WPRNY provides high-quality, professional webinars and webcasts to our clients.  We know that customer service, hassle-free broadcast are reasons they choose us.

Contact us at 646-519-2451 or sales@wprny.com

Traditionally, this has been geared towards undergraduate and graduate level courses, however, many continuing educational programs are now taking their curriculums online.  These professional courses are broadcasting their material online both live and on-demand.  For example, WPRNY has begun consulting with a large Continuing Medical Education (CME) program and outlined ways to monetize from extending their attendance and revenue from what was previously a one-off event.  

By helping to broadcast their CME conferences, we now have given the ability for doctors in Africa and Europe and all over the world to attend these specialized meetings, who previously would have been unable to participate in the dialogue unless they travelled to the conference.  The educational reach is tremendous, and what follows for the CME is increased attendance, revenue and notoriety.  In turn, doctors and other medical professionals can now gain their mandated CME credits at their convenience by watching the conferences online.

Almost any educational opportunity can be produced for a webcast.  Providing a professional stream of this material can greatly enhance your organizations’ awareness and balance sheet.  We work with both educational organizations and businesses to webcast their meetings and courses.  Contact us to discuss how you can increase your awareness and attendance for your courses.

Contact us at 646-519-2451 or sales@wprny.com

A webcast is a like a TV broadcast, but via the internet.  It can be structured exactly like an entertainment program, or simply filming a live meeting that is then broadcast to people watching from their computers.  There is little to no interaction between the viewer and the material that is being broadcasted.  Often they are viewing purely for the purpose of watching (either for entertainment or educational), rather than becoming engaged in any dialogue.

Webinars are more informative in nature.  These have become the choice for a lot of instructional and informative web broadcast that supplement any in-person attendance.  A webinar can be anything from a panel of commentators in front of a live audience to a solo speaker discussing the benefits of their company in TV studio.  Depending on the webinar style and technology, the viewer can have limited interaction with the presenters– often by email or chatting, rather than by audio or video.

Finally, web conferencing typically involves two or more parties who carry on a dialogue between themselves.  Each participant has the ability to speak and view the others involved in the conference.  Think of this as a conference call with video. These are most common in office settings.

While web conferencing can typically be held on a very low budget. Webcasts and webinars often require a little more technological know-how and design.  

If you are considering a webcast or webinar, contact us.  We would be happy to discuss the logistics and costs.  

• Film the signage
• Film parts of the event
• Film some interviews & testimonials

Then edit it all together something like this:

Tip 1 — Notice that the video is only 1 minute long. The sound bites are short, taken from much longer bites, they are all actually just part of longer sentences.

Tip 2 — because they wanted us unobtrusive during the event, this was shot in a very low light situation. Consequently, the footage is rather grainy. You can still work with this sort of video in a promotional video by color correcting, adding glow filters & textures, saturating or desaturating, etc., turning the weakness into a strength.

Tip 3 — Audio is ultra-important, especially when you have grainy video. We use Seinhauser G2 wireless lav mics and a softbox light for the interview. We use natural sounds to give the effected footage a feeling of authenticity. We also use distinctive natural sounds, the dinging glass and the champagne cork pop, to set the tone.

Tip 4 — Underscoring the event with some electronic club music can make almost every subject matter seem “cool” — even a rather dry round table about hedge funds.

Tip 5 — Pans, rack focus and reverse zooms while shooting and then edit in a path to give the video some motion. Pan over, wipe up, pan side, wipe back, pull out, cross zoom in, reverse zoom out, etc.

I keep telling her, let me film one of your presentations, this way you can simply archive it and distribute it to your global offices and keep you from having to waste your time in each city.  (And show to all the new hires as she continues to build her teams.) One of her major concerns is that the information is proprietary and sensitive.  

Well, this is completely understandable.  I know how much time and effort she has put into researching, developing and implementing this new coverage.  The last thing I want is for her to feel like she is mass distributing this for any competitor to gain from.

I tell her that access to the videos can be managed in an easy and inexpensive way.  Just as their is technology to broadcast it clear as TV, there is obviously technology to allow only those who you wish to invite viewing it.  It would be as simple as setting up a page on your intranet site which requires a unique user name and pass code.  

I am still working on swaying her.  Deep down, I think she actually likes traveling to all these places– she gets a break from me.  

Nonetheless, business video presentations are a great, efficient and cheap way to distribute your message to a wide internal audience.  We would be happy to discuss how you can use technology to professionally reach your counterparts around the globe.