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Overview
The
web of online video continues to be spun by technological "spiders"
who are inventing a new medium. New forms of compression, new kinds
of applications and new ways to deliver video over wide-area networks
seem to come online daily; and although this latest fragment of
the professional video industries is still in its infancy, the pioneers
who are opening these frontiers may be capturing virtual real estate
(or at least learning lessons) that will lead to some of the most
exciting opportunities of our lifetime. If you're interested, and
I think you should be, then it's time to play catch-up with this
fast-moving technology.
But,
there's too much happening in the world of the online video to cover
in one article, so I'd like to offer an updated overview. As my
regular readers (both magazine and online) know, I started covering
The Video Web in the May,1995 Videography with "The Video Surfer's
Guide to Cyberspace" and first wrote about VDOLive and video streaming
in the April, 1996 issue.
 Now, I'm pleased to report that this feature
article will launch a new series of "Video Web" columns which will
appear monthly in Videography and, following publication, on my
Media Mall
web site. So stay tuned, the old axiom is certainly true: "The best
is yet to come."
One
of the most difficult things about writing about The Video Web is
that it is still morphing through a variety of forms, not having
even reached enough critical mass to have one of those marketplace
shake-outs. The latest forms of online compression alone are too
numerous and changing too fast to be covered completely here. What
this article will do, however, is to give you some perspective on
the online compression leaders in the hope of helping you sort out
the differing approaches that are emerging so that you can begin
to determine which approach might be most useful for you. I've also
tracked down some new and interesting Web sites who provide real
world examples of how video is being "webcast," a valuable Technology
Showcase at NBC and some perspectives that I hope will help you
understand how all of this innovation may someday put more money
in your pocket.
The
other, more immediate, reason for video professionals to focus on
The Video Web is the opportunity for all of us to expose our work
in new ways. For example, thanks to a promotional offer from VDOnet
Corporation, I have recently posted my first online
video clip, a fund-raising video for The Hunger Project, "Investing
in The Hunger Project, A New Spirit of Partnership" which, to my
knowledge, is the first non-profit fund-raising video to be streamed
on the Web. This is the video that I shot in Africa on DV and wrote
about in the September issue of Videography. Of course, by posting
this video online with the immediacy of VDOnet's streaming technology,
I'm pleased to be able to offer my client a new way to communicate
with new investors, but I'm also happy to have a new way for new
potential clients to see my work.
"The
heavy compression necessary to
serve-up video effectively on the Internet
changes the nature of the medium."
In
a similar way, eight stock footage companies (A.R.I.Q. Footage,
ABCNEWS VideoSource(TM), Archive Films/Archive Photos(TM), CASCOM
International, Energy Productions, National Geographic Television
Library, Paramount Pictures Film Library and the WPA Film Library)
are using VDOLive on the FOOTAGE.net
web site to offer their demo reels on demand via the Internet. In
fact, FOOTAGE.net president John Tariot points out one of the first
distinguishing factors of streaming video online. He describes the
video clips in his stock footage reels on-demand service as "decision
quality." That's a useful distinction with which to begin our overview
because it acknowledges that the heavy compression necessary to
serve-up video effectively on the Internet changes the nature of
the medium. However, despite the loss in quality, there are still
plenty of situations (including a quick look at the kind of footage
available from a given stock house) where low quality video still
delivers valuable information.
Convergence Continues
 The convergence between TV's
and PC's that so many of us have talked about for so long continues.
Some people are now using their PC's to watch TV while others --
thanks to new services like WebTV,
NetChannel,
Bandai Digital Entertainment Corp.'s", @World" and others -- are
using their TV's to watch the previously PC-exclusive domain of
the World Wide Web. PC-based video phone products are also now becoming
a reality. And high profile events from the national political conventions
to computer conventions like Comdex are being webcast live. (Apple
even has tentative plans to do a live webcast of my web publishing
workshop from MacWorld.) And new Internet services like PointCast
are "pushing" information at users, rather than waiting for users
to ask for the download, which brings the Internet another step
closer to broadcasting.
However,
beyond convergence, as video streaming replaces the more time consuming
and less immediate impact of video clip downloading, the migration
of currently closed video network environments out onto the wide-open
world of the Internet is another major trend. This trend applies
especially to video that is currently on in-house networks that
span the spectrum from small production facility networks to blossoming
corporate intranets and other institutions like the Harvard
Business School which is currently using a switched ethernet
network to create a "new course platform that incorporates streamed
video in 'electronic cases' that are a web-based version of traditional
paper cases." Harvard Business School's Chief Technology Officer,
Susan Rogers points out that the closed nature of this network is
only "temporary given developments in the industry."
Another
"institution" who is getting ready to move video from a smaller
network onto "The Video Web" is NBC
Desktop Video. Sometimes thought of as C-SPAN for the business
and financial communities, NBC Desktop Video currently uses full-motion
satellite and T-1 feeds to provide live full-motion video and on-demand
multimedia directly to the desktop computers of financial analysts
and executives. Kirk Vartan, Director of Product Technology at NBC
Desktop Video told me that they are currently testing most of the
products mentioned below as they prepare to produce approximately
60 - 100 media pieces a day when a new version of their service
is launched onto the Web. In a bit of practical vision, Vartan says
that these "media pieces" will include not only streaming video
clips, but also transcripts, Microsoft NetShow "slide shows," and
RealAudio streaming sound files.
As
Ted Coltman, Executive Director, New Media at the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting points out, "The beauty of digital media
is that it allows for new forms of story-telling. Just because you
have full-motion video doesn't mean you need to use full-motion
video. Sometimes just using a video still frame can be an effective
way to illustrate a story."
Likewise,
in another convergent multimedia twist, NBC is now using its own
vertical blanking interval (v.b.i.) to deliver interactive, Web-compatible
content to personal computers. The idea behind this service -- which
they call NBC Intercast -- is to turn linear television into an
interactive medium by supplementing the NBC broadcast with multimedia
content that viewers receive simultaneously with the television
show they are watching. First tests were with Homicide: Life on
the Street, select NFL Football games, Dateline NBC and the Olympic
Centennial Games. The service is free and does not require a modem,
but it does require an add-in card for the PC which costs about
$150.
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