Solid Webcasting, Video Technology Help Clients Communicate Effectively
By Stephanie Molnar
Technology gives companies and brands new power to inform. For example, Webcasts eliminate travel expense, while offering an interactive audience. Video can intensify reality in ads, corporate communications and social networking. In addition, many organizations have found that user-generated video can help them market with passionate, unsolicited product testimonials.
Harnessing that power is a common goal; however, organizations must make sure to work with proven technology. Choosing the wrong vendor or platform could lead to unsatisfactory user experience: complicated log-ins, component downloads, start-stop video footage, and slow slideshows. Those experiences can lead to negative feelings about an organization’s ability to deliver.
Infinite Conferencing and Onstream Media are dedicated to making the Web work for their clients. Experts help clients develop solutions that meet communication goals and capture valuable mind share, whether the objective is selling product, creating a community or broadcasting events.
Reliable Webcasts
Onstream Media Webcasts make information transfer rapid and reliable, regardless of audience size. Twenty thousand servers support real-time Webcast capabilities, allowing for maximum interaction speed for 90 percent of the world’s population. Multiple encoding centers back up client Webcasts, so participants consistently have a positive experience.
Our clients demand an economical one-to-many broadcast experience,” says Scott Farb, Onstream Media vice president of Sales and Business Development and director of Webcasting Sales.
You name it, we’ve held it: everything from earnings calls to continuing education, product roll-outs, and HR events on the corporate side, to consumer events like the Golden Globe Awards, red carpet events and live concerts.”
Rapid Video Access
Onstream Media also hosts recorded video for a variety of purposes, whether it’s a Flash Video ad on your Web site or a total pay-per-view experience,” says Greg Ellis, Onstream Media’s Director of Sales, Auction Video. And you don’t have to “sit and twiddle your thumbs” while you wait for it, he says.
With Onstream Media, you get video almost instantly. That’s compared to an industry average of anywhere from one to five seconds. If your user has to wait 10 seconds, you’ll likely lose that viewer--they’re on to the next site,” added Ellis.
Andrew Gregory, Onstream Media’s National Sales Director - Digital Media Services says clients are putting this cost-effective and quick technology to use in creative ways.
Imagine you’re Dell, and you want someone to see a happy client using your computer when they log into your Web site. You aren’t going to want a potential customer to wait for video. It doesn’t meet your ‘on-demand’ image. So Dell comes to us for video hosting,” says Gregory.
Or, Field & Stream, one of the (43) Bonnier traditional publishing titles using video to support its readership’s identification with its brand,” Gregory says. “Soon, thanks to our user-generated video technology interfaces and video hosting, readers will be able to upload videos of their latest fly-fishing catch.
Not only do they share their success with the world, they feel like they’re part of the Field & Stream community,” continues Gregory. “That’s a wonderful coup for a print publisher who might otherwise lose readership to online communities.”
eBay is also permitting the use of user-generated video formats as of June 2007. Ellis says eBay was understandably cautious about video. He says, “Ultimately, they’ve decided to allow a handful of hosting services--Onstream Media being one of them--to support Video product listings.
It adds a ‘usability’ angle. If a’68 Chevy pickup on eBay motors says ‘Will Start,’ how much better is it to see a 15-second user-generated spot of the engine turning over? People are willing to pay more for something they see works.”
Gregory says this also applies to corporate sites and social networking. “If I’m going to meet an executive, or even a date, I’d prefer to see those people speak for themselves, rather than rely on just a picture and a paragraph,” he notes.
How Onstream Media Delivers
Unlike a lot of “free” video hosting services that allow clients to use their platform for a portion of ad revenue, Onstream Media delivers everything clients need to use high-quality video for reasonable set fees. The economics of this model allow these fees to be aggregated for users with multiple instances, thereby immediately lowering the cost.
This winds up being more cost-effective for our users in the long run, as well as functionally effective in the short term,” says Gregory. “We are able to do the work of actually hosting video for our clients, unlike our ‘free’ counterparts who pass off the video processing to their client’s computers and bog down their systems.”
It’s part of the maxim that ‘free isn’t really free,’ because when ‘free’ hosting services slow down your network, or take a long time for your users to process and upload, you lose views,” says Ellis.
Our extensive ability to host and back up video and other Digital Media Services like Webcasting worldwide means we are able to offer the highest video quality in addition to speed,” he continues. “That’s why our clients--and their users--keep coming back.”
For more on Onstream Media’s Webcasting and video hosting capabilities, visit www.onstreammedia.com, or send an email to digitalmedia@onstreammedia.com.
