Sunday, 20 October 2019

Internet Video Publishing Advice, Best Practices and Tips


Internet Video Publishing Advice, Best Practices and Tips
1.    To Host or Not to Host – 3 Options for Website Video Publishing Environments
o    Self-Hosted
o    Online Video Platforms (OVP, e.g. Brightcove)
o    Post & Embed (Social video, e.g. YouTube)
o    Things to Consider
§  Purpose for video?
§  Sales & Marketing
§  Customer Service, How-to
§  HR, Internal Marketing, Training
§  # Videos
§  Monetization strategy (ROI)
§  IT resources?
§  Need deep integration?
2.    Advantages / Disadvantages
3.    Self-Hosted Video
o    Use-Cases
§  Few videos
§  No need for integration
§  Good technical resources
o    Advantages
§  Complete control
§  File formats, delivery, players, monetization
o    Disadvantages
§  Need resources for:
§  Storage
§  Delivery
§  Integration
4.    Video File Formats
o    Use Flash Player/Container – Ubiquitous
§  SWF NOT a movie – player only
o    File Formats & Compression?
§  Flv vs. mp4 vs. m4v vs. mov vs. wmv, etc…?
§  .h264 vs. MPEG-2 vs. Vorbis, etc… ?
5.    Recommendations
o    Mp4 .h264 codec w/AAC (audio)
§  Highest quality for file size
§  Supported by:
§  Mac, PC, Flash 9+, iTunes
§  Mobile devices (iPhone, etc…)
§  Broadcast
§  Blue-Ray
o    Tools for Transcoding
§  Sorenson Squeeze
§  Macromedia Flash Media Encoder
§  Handbrake (free)
§  Encoding.com
§  VideoRX.com
6.    Delivery Best Practices
o    Lots of video? – You’ll Need a CDN (content delivery network)
§  Recommendations
§  Amazon S3 + Cloudfront
§  Akamai
§  Bitgravity, etc…
o    Players
§  Custom branding, interactivity, analytics?
§  Recommendations:
§  JW Player/Longtail
§  Flow Player
§  Macromedia Flash
7.    Video Hosting Platforms
o    “An online video platform is a free or fee-based self-service platform that offers hosting, encoding, customizable & embeddable players, and metrics for organizations that wish to upload and distribute their own video content.”
8.    Dedicated Video Hosting Platforms – Shopping for an Online Video Platform
o    Evaluate Options
§  Monetization
§  Customization
§  Interactivity
§  Analytics
§  DIY or plug-n-play
§  Plugins & API
o    Get under the hood – test-drive
§  Most offer free trials
o    Month to month agreements
§  What’s their migration policy?
9.    Dedicated Online Video Hosting/Delivery Platforms
o    All-Purpose
§  Brightcove
§  Vzaar
§  Fliqz
§  Bitsontherun
§  Ooyala
§  Kaltura
§  Sorenson 360
§  60 +
o    Sales & Marketing
§  Veeple
§  Wistia
o    Live
§  Ustream.tv
§  Livestream.tv (formerly Mogulus)
§  Justin.tv
o    WordPress
§  Tons of plug-ins available (JWPlayer, Kaltura, etc…)
§  Video press
10. Post & Embed – “Social Video Platforms”
o    Advantages – Less Expensive, simple to use, social nature
o    All – Social nature, destination sites…
o    YouTube = Free, easy to use, large audience, etc… (rights->YouTube)
o    Vimeo= Inexpensive, HD, customizable player (no products)
o    Blip.tv = Cheap, customizable players, ad support, syndication, iTunes
o    Viddler= Customizable players, HD, syndication, in-video commenting
11. Uploading to YouTube
o    Recommendations/ Guidelines for Uploading to YouTube
§  HD – best quality, multiple options
§  16:9 Aspect Ratio Recommended (4:3) letterboxed
§  Resolution
§  HD = 1280×720
§  Else = 640×360 (16:9), 480×360 (4:3)
§  Mp4 file format
§  .h264 video compression
§  AAC or MP3 audio compression
§  Frames per second: 30
§  Maximum length: 10:59 (we recommend 2-3 minutes)
§  Maximum file size: 2 GB (still says 1G, but trust me)