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Aaron Booker on File Syncing Service DropBox

Posted Jan 31 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Cloud Services, Small Business with 0 Comments

Varvid.com founder Aaron Booker is back to tell the world about DropBox, a fantastic backup/file sync utility that he uses to make sure his small business has access to all the files it needs at any time. DropBox, whose free version give users up to 2 gigabytes of storage, offers a wide range of price points for organizations of any size. Quickly and securely, DropBox syncs itself between all of the enabled machines – Mac, Windows, and mobile – ensuring an end to the all-day wait for someone to email you the latest version of a file. DropBox has improved efficiency at Varvid so much that we needed to upgrade our account – and we’re so happy with their service that we’d highly recommend it to anyone who needs a cloud storage solution.

Business Side of Video Encoding Rears its Ugly Head Again

Posted Jan 28 2011 by in Apple, Google, Internet Delivered Video with 2 Comments

Google and Apple are (in a roundabout way) at it again, as both make attempts to bring their own video encoding technologies to the forefront of internet-delivered video. The most recent shot was fired from the Google Chrome camp, when they claimed that future versions of the Chrome browser would not support H.264 (Apple’s favorite), instead boosting support for the WebM and Theora codecs. WebM is Google’s favored “open source” video codec, in contrast to H.264, which is licensed by the MPEG LA patent consortium, who hold Apple as a member.

Google’s announcement comes as another turn in the long-drawn battle for online video supremacy. Back in April of 2010, Steve Jobs wrote a long manifesto on why Apple products don’t and won’t support Adobe’s Flash codec, and would be promoting H.264 as the web-video standard for mobile and desktop viewing. Many were outraged at the time, and couldn’t conceive of an internet video experience without Flash. And yet by May of last year, H.264 was already the format of 66% of web videos. Many more, I’m sure, didn’t notice at all when their beloved funny cats YouTube videos were in a different format than before.

Currently, MPEG LA is offering H.264 as “royalty-free”, primarily due to pressure from the press when they got wind of the free open source codecs. However, “royalty-free” does not mean free for all: H.264 is only free for those who would use it for Internet-delivered non-commercial uses. All other uses of H.264 run the risk of being asked for not-insignificant amounts of money from MPEG LA. Google’s announcement implies that it would be better for everyone if they switched over to WebM – less risk for encoders, better for the open-source community, potentially better for end-users – but the real question remains to be answered: How is it better for Google?

And so, Adobe may indeed be the Helen of Troy in this battle between titans. Because, as it turns out, Adobe Flash supports WebM technologies, and is in fact a WebM partner. Was it a heartfelt plea from Adobe that got Google to lay the smackdown on Apple favorite H.264? Or are they really in it to uphold the principles of open source? As usual, we, the little guys, will have to wait for the next press release to find out.

Thanks to Peter Csathy for his blog post on the background of the encoding business.

Ad-ology Forecast Shows the Number of Small Businesses Investing in Online Video Nearly Doubled From 2010-2011

Posted Jan 26 2011 by in Online Video, Video Delivery with 0 Comments

Ad-ology’s aim is to help media properties, advertising agencies, and businesses get a firm grasp of the industry’s playing field by providing data that these parties can use to analyze their relationships with competitors. According to their website, Ad-ology is “the science of applying consumer insights for strategic advertising and marketing.” The information their reports deliver allows any party to effectively compare themselves to other businesses and companies, and anyone who closely studies the data can tweek their business model to ensure that they’ll stay ahead of the competition.

In a November 2010 study conducted by Ad-ology called the 2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast, it was found that small businesses are looking to new and innovative means of marketing, and the investments being made in these areas are on the rise. According to the study, 45.5 % of small businesses are increasing their spending on Online Video in 2011, which is up from 28% in 2010. This is an enormous increase, and yet another indicator to the trend of online video becoming both more accessible and widely used across the board in the business world.

The president and CEO of Ad-ology Research, C. Lee Smith, says that “small businesses are becoming increasingly savvy on how to market online, and their plans for increased spending on video and mobile show they are ready to try new ways to reach the customer.  They may not have the resources of big businesses, but things like online (video) and social media help level the playing field.” With the new generation of HD video capturing devices, “level the playing field” is a bit of an understatement, which is why the Varvid Staff likes to say that video have become “democratized” as we feel it best defines the significant influence and impact that video is truly having on the business, online marketing, and SEO world. However, whatever words we decide to attach to the internet video phenomena, there is indeed a trend taking place and I know that I’ll be keeping a keen eye out for for future marketing research reports from Ad-ology.

Aaron Booker On Cisco and Their HD Flip Camera

Posted Jan 24 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Cisco with 1 Comment

Varvid’s founder Aaron Booker talks about Cisco’s Flip HD camera , the value it adds to our VENUE Packages, and explains why it’s such a great product. The quality of video that the Flip Ultra HD captures is phenomenal, and it’s perfect for filming interviews and testimonials. Matched with it’s intuitive interface, and how easy it is to use, Cisco’s Flip Ultra HD is an amazing video capturing device that any marketing guru should include in their arsenal. The Flip Ultra HD features a one-touch record button, 8 GB of built in memory memory which records up to 2 hours of footage, image stabilization and a USB port built in to the device to easily upload your footage to the computer of your choice.

How the Video Viewing of Tomorrow Looks from Today

Posted Jan 20 2011 by in Mobile Video, Tech Tools/Gadgets, Video Delivery with 1 Comment

With the close of the Consumer Electronics Show 2011, and so many exciting and innovative new products revealed, I thought it would be appropriate to look ahead at where these technologies will take the video-viewing world, and whether they’ll have the impact their manufacturers are hoping for.

Let’s start with technology we already have: mobile video. Everyone with a smartphone has the ability now to stream any YouTube video or show on Netflix into the palm of their hand. In fact, the number of mobile views of YouTube videos in 2010 tripled over the previous year’s to a whopping 200 million views per day. With over a billion smartphones in use worldwide, not everyone’s watching – but almost. And many companies who have traditionally only broadcasted their content are now turning to mobile and other app-based interfaces for distribution.

Some – including FCC chairman Julius Genchowski – are even getting worried that the current US wireless infrastructure will not be able to handle the growth in mobile data transmission that is sure to come in the next five years. When Genachowski spoke at CES, he said that he is currently seeking approval from Congress that will allow wireless carriers to buy unused wireless spectrum from TV broadcasting companies at auction, with the government (who licenses the spectrum) and the broadcasting companies each taking a cut of the profits. According to Genachowski, all but 10% of American TV watchers get their TV by digital signal, not by transmission over the wireless spectrum, so a significant portion of it is going un-utilized.

As smartphone adoption grows, so too will their technology continue to approve. What’s next for phones, tablets, and maybe even magazines and newspapers? OLED.

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode, which is just what it sounds like – a thin film of organic compounds which produce light when stimulated by an electric current. The big buzz around OLED is that it can be used to make paper-thin, flexible screens, as seen in Samsung’s CES demo above. Not only are the resolution and brightness outstanding, but it also uses a fraction of the power that it takes to run the LCD screens in today’s phones.

In addition to changing the face of smartphones, OLEDs could potentially be used to replace the many millions of tons of paper waste created by the magazine and newspaper industries each year – buy a Wall Street Journal OLED 2-pager (with subscription fee) and it automatically updates itself every morning (while storing a week’s worth of back issues). This platform would also allow to content providers that have traditionally been stuck in the time-consuming text-only medium to branch out and start providing vital information in video form. Sure, many magazines and papers are currently supplying iPad apps that accomplish this, but many iPad news consumers find they miss the convenience of the old form factor. Whether this tech will trend towards tablet consolidation or ePaper diversification remains to be seen.

Finally, most of the consumption of high-value content like shows and movies remains on the only medium which has utterly dominated for over 50 years: the ubiquitous household television.

And of course, the biggest change that’s coming to TV in 2011 is 3D. You’ve seen it on the floor at CES, you’ve seen it at Best Buy, you’ve even seen it in the Target newspaper insert. It seems like the entire TV industry – top-to-bottom – is going whole hog for 3D. But it isn’t without its issues. Many of the current 3D TVs must be viewed with glasses to get the 3D effect. Of the two types of glasses, Active Shutter glasses must be charged, cost over $100 each, and have been said to cause nausea, while the cheap-as-free Passive Shutter glasses take an apparently harsh dip in image crispness, brightness, and 3D “popitude”. Neither technology seems ready for every household, especially when you consider that most Americans would not be too excited about having to wear some fancy glasses just to watch The Office in 3D. That’s why I am personally excited about the forthcoming glasses-free 3D TVs (video above) that we just got a taste of at CES this year. Although plagued with a host of their own technological hurdles, glasses-free 3D seems like it has the best chance of wide adoption, due to ease-of-use and potentially lower cost.

Moving away from pure tech for a moment, I’d like to comment on another aspect of TV viewing that will grow in the next five years – interactivity. Devices like Apple TV and the Google TV-powered Logitech Revue have already added some apps and streaming-content services to our boring old TVs, allowing us to sever the cable connection. But is that enough to call our TVs truly “smart”? Music identification service Shazam is hoping that its new TV tagging platform will take that next step. Currently only available for one show on one channel, Shazam’s TV tagging will allow viewers to active the app (currently on for smartphones) and participate in social activities populated by other current viewers, such as discussions, polls, and even contests.

Broadcast organizations have been bemoaning the great migration of consumers towards online streaming content, which saps the broadcasters advertising revenue. But by linking social media with real-time broadcast (or streaming) content, broadcasters can hope to draw consumers back to the as-it-happens world of scheduled programming (and advertising). Potentially, shows could even have multiple storyline options, with the audience determining which one they want to see broadcast, which would also drive traffic of everyone wanting to see the other option to the broadcaster’s streaming site. I predict we will see a grand evolution in how we watch TV in the next five years – we will be doing much more than watching.

NW Projections Film Festival 2011 Open for Submissions!

Posted Jan 18 2011 by in Local Business, Varvid Partners, Video Delivery with 2 Comments

NW Projections 2011 Call For Entries from Wilson Large on Vimeo.

The NW Projections Film Festival, born in 2000, is dedicated to showcasing the filmmaking talents of artists from Washington and all over the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia). They are currently accepting shorts and feature films from now until the Early Bird deadline of February 6th, and the Late Registration deadline of March 7th. See the NW Projections website for details.

Check out the winner of last year’s festival, “Dry Rain”.

In addition to getting to see a bunch of great films by local filmmakers, festival goers will also be able to attend workshops from real film industry professional. The list isn’t final yet, but keep checking the NW Projections website to find out more information.

Varvid actually played a role in this years festival, helping festival director Wilson Large set up the first-ever online submission portal for NW Projections. We are proud to help put local filmmaking in the spotlight here in Bellingham. At Varvid, we recognize the importance of visual media, as it allows human beings to express themselves in ways that were entirely impossible prior to the establishment of the cinematic art form.

Aaron Booker to Host Social Media Webinar January 26th

Posted Jan 12 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Social Media with 2 Comments

Aaron Booker, Founder and CEO of Varvid, will host a webinar on January 26th, entitled “How to Harness Social Media to Serve You and Your Customer“. Co-hosting with Aaron will be Frank Gurnee, Vice President of CharTec, one of the country’s leading Hardware-as-a-Service providers.

Frank Gurnee, Vice-President of Chartec

Aaron and Frank have been in the game a long time – long enough to see the rise of social media and its growing influence on the business community. Combining their decades of business acumen with the secrets they’ve learned from being inside the industry at the start of “Social”, Aaron and Frank will be updating the old business playbook for modern concerns. Topics will include the best social media tools available today, how to create content that is worth distributing, how to brand your voice, and the benefits of living by Aaron’s mantra: “Create once, and publish many.”

Click here to reserve your spot in the webinar.
“How to Harness Social Media to Serve You and Your Customer”
January 26th, starting at 10am PST.

More Executives Turning to Video for Business Developments, News and Potential Clients

Posted Jan 10 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Internet Delivered Video, Video Delivery with 1 Comment

According to Forbes Insight’s December 2010 report “Video in the C-Suite” more business leaders are altering their habits and becoming more open to video as a means of communication and embracing the non-text web. The study was conducted on more than 300 C-level and senior executives at large U.S. companies valued at $500 million-plus in annual revenues, in order to gain a perspective on how some of the industries major players utilize web-video as a source of news, information and marketing.

The Forbes study reveals that a little over 80% of executives said they are watching more online video today than they were a year ago, 75% watch work related video on business related websites at least weekly, more than half (52%) watch work-related videos no less than once a week on YouTube, and a whopping 65% have visited a vendor’s site after watching one of their videos. The data also suggests that web-video is indeed a business trend and not an ephemeral phase, as younger executives tended to be more fully engaged with online video media and were more viable candidates to make a purchase, call a vendor, or respond to an ad than their elder counterparts.

Aaron Booker

“There’s a significant paradigm shift taking place right before our eyes.”
I showed these results to Varvid CEO Aaron Booker and he wasn’t in the least bit surprised. He told me “I remember back in the early days of the IT industry when we’d all say ‘if it’s not online, it doesn’t exist’. Well, now there’s a significant paradigm shift taking place right before our eyes. We live in a world where everything and anyone can be found online in pictures in text, and it’s video content that is lacking. Now, the standard has become ‘if it’s not on internet video, it doesn’t exist’ which is why I see so much value in what Varvid offers our clients”.

To view the report yourself, check out: http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/video_in_the_csuite/index.html and the pdf can be found here: http://images.forbes.com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Video_in_the_CSuite.pdf .

RED Scarlet (EPIC-S) and Pals: A Leap Forward in Digital Video?

Posted Jan 10 2011 by in CES, Tech Tools/Gadgets with 2 Comments

Professional and hobbyist camera fiends have been long awaiting a hands-on experience with RED’s new super-HD digital cameras, and they finally got it this week at CES 2011. Check out Engadget’s hands-on with RED’s Ted Schilowitz

RED’s compact, high-resolution digital cameras have been in use in Hollywood for a few years now, having been used to shoot such films as District 9, The Social Network, and the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. So far they’ve made shooting easier and quicker, but some argue that the look of RED’s 4K digital can’t stand up to that of cinema’s traditional 35mm film. RED begs to differ, and offers statistics to back it up: 35mm film is about 3000 pixels wide in digital resolution. For reference, the resolution of typical HD video is about 1000 pixels wide. Meanwhile, RED’s 4K sensor has an approximate resolution of 3200 pixels (when converted). Film buffs may be able to notice a difference between 4K and 35mm, but the average movie-going public will enjoy it either way. On the other hand, what RED has got coming down the pipe might be enough to make even the most hardcore film-o-philes sit up and take notice: a camera with a 28000 pixel resolution. Remember how I said 3200 was high? 28,000. I’m not even sure there’s anything that can display so many pixels at once.

Will RED cameras soon be available for non-professionals? Probably not to buy, since the core of the camera alone costs a cool $25,000. But indie filmmakers out there shouldn’t despair – RED rigs are frequently rented out for rates in the mid-hundreds per day, far cheaper than standard 35mm rentals. But, as time and technology march onward, prices will hopefully drop far enough that making cinema-quality films won’t be restricted to big studios. Of course, by then we’ll all be accustomed to 3-D movies, TV, video games, and billboards, and it won’t matter how many pixels your silly 2-D camera has. Countdown to Facebook 3D photo support and Canon’s new 3D point-and-shoot starts… now.

City of Bellingham Beseeches Google for the Gift of Fiber

Posted Jan 6 2011 by in Google, Local Business, Web/Tech with 1 Comment

In February of last year, Google announced that it would be establishing a series of experimental high-speed fiber-optic networks in locations around the US, which would offer speeds more than 100 times faster than what most people are used to.

Rather than simply opening up Google Earth, spinning it around and choosing whatever location their mouse landed on, the cooler heads at Google decided to allow local governments and citizens to prove why they’re more worthy to get a taste of that sweet, sweet fiber. And in the two-month span while they were accepting proposals, America answered emphatically: Google received over a thousand responses from communities around the country.

In addition to the heartfelt plea above, the City of Bellingham also produced several testimonial videos from notable Bellingham residents who argue the case for fiber in Bellingham. But will Google listen?

We at Varvid sure hope so. Fiber would allow us to send and receive high-quality video files much faster and more cost-effectively, and potentially to create more comprehensive solutions for those who need them. Events could be streamed live at a much higher quality. Most of all, we love the city of Bellingham and those who live here, and think they all deserve to have the best internet experience available.

Unfortunately for us and the rest of the country, Google has delayed the supposed year-end announcement of which cities were charming enough to get the gift of fiber. For now, they’re working on installing a small test network at Stanford, and we will have to wait to learn of their decision until “early 2011.”

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