Submitting Videos To Search Engines

We've long had all the tools for video search engine optimisation built into VidZapper.

Here's a quick guide on how to use them.

First of all, you will need to open an account at www.google.com/webmasters/tools and register and verify your account.

Next, you go to VidZapper and select Distribution > Export.

Select your Channel and Playlist, then the MRSS format and add your Player Base URL and DirectLink URL so that the resulting video in played in your website and not the video player directly.

Then click 'Generate'. You can then cut and past the resulting file on the right hand side into a notepad file. This is your MRSS sitemap for this playlist. You can repeat the exercise for any other playlist you wish to submit.

Finally, there's a detailed guide on how to submit your sitemap to Google here.

VidZapper Integrates With WordPress

We've been launching more and more channels using WordPress as the content management system, including Control TV, and have launched a demo site to show how easy it is to set up quite a comprehensive site in an hour or so without writing a line of code.

You can spend a lot of time replicating what is by today pretty basic functionality such as contact forms, forums, ecommerce and even more specialist functionality such as requiring logins, or use the vast array of freely available plugins and widgets for WordPress.

And since building players is now a cinch using VidZapper's Player Builder, you can be up and running in no time.

Simples!

VZLive Sneak Preview

We do an awful lot of live events here at VidZapper. The last couple of weeks alone has seen the usual simulcast of TV stations, live world championship boxing, political party rallies, government announcements and religious services. Now we're gearing up to a six week major live event with 24 x 7 streaming from multiple feeds in the US sponsored by the biggest names in US business.

It's resulted in work on developing something we think is quite unique - the VZLive Mixer.

The Mixer allows you to select any file from your archive, along with any live feed and place it in your playlist queue and then select the order in which it is seen. We've set this up so that it can take feeds from multiple live publishing points and output to rtmp and m3u8 - i.e. web and mobile. We're also building in a feed delay in case anything 'untoward' happens.

On top of our unique scheduling application, VZLive is another step onwards from the run of the mill video management systems out there...

Creating an iPad Player With VidZapper

One of the exciting new features we've added to VidZapper is the ability to build iPad and iPhone players without writing a line of code.

We somewhat disingenuously call this the HTML5 version of VZPlayer. Here's how:

1) Go to your Channel and click on Player, then click on Add Player:

2) This will open up the Player Builder:

3) Now you can select and add components such as the Video, Controls and Playlist from the drop down list.

4) Select a playlist from the dropdown on the left and you're done!

5) You can preview your Player by clicking Code and selecting the HMTL5 option, opening it in a HTML5 compatible browser such as Google Chrome or Apple Safari. You can also view it on an iPad or iPhone of course.

VidZapper Upgraded

We've just released a major new upgrade of VidZapper. Version 2.6 has a whole host of exciting new features and improvements.

Scheduler v2 – the new release of the scheduler enables drag and drop scheduling against a timeline and also supports overlays. Therefore it is possible, for example, to schedule a simulcast for 24 hours and then to overlay particular programmes, slots or ad breaks. Schedules can be pre-prepared for a limitless amount of time in the future.

Player Builder v2 – the latest version of the player builder enables sophisticated players to be built with no coding at all. A new scheduling component has been added, along with a considerable enhancement over the settings and controls for the player, which can only be exported in Flash/Flex at present. The Player Builder is fully compatible with VZPlayer 3.0.

HTML5 Support – you can now generate HTML5 players that will work on any HTML5 compatible browsers, provided you use compatible video. These players are ideal for iPhone and iPad distribution.

Previews – players and videos can now be directly previewed.

Faster Searching – in all views a new, faster search algorithm has been implemented; this particularly helps clients with large data sets. Also, search queries now paginate.

Expiry Date – a stamp is now placed on expired content.

Statistics Enhancements – the speed of lookup has been considerably enhanced and stats can now be filtered by the hour.

Content IDs – meaningful names can be given to metadata content ids, e.g. SD/HD, or Web/iPhones/Blackberry so that it is easy to manage different content types; also it is now possible to search by All content ids. This feature can also be used for supporting multiple language players.

VZPlayer 3.0 – a new version of VZPlayer is available with far greater customisation, enhanced performance and control and a smaller footprint.

API – the API has been considerably expanded.

Please contact us if you'd like a demo of the new system.

VidZapper On The iPad

Despite being Flex based, it was pretty easy getting VidZapper to work on the iPad:


I simply loaded an app called Desktop and then connected to a remote server, pointed the browser to the VZAdmin console and then logged in. Now I can get into it with two taps on the iPad, or indeed my iPhone.

Sportzzone's Up And Running

Great to see the multichannel Sportzzone TV up and running in time for some major sailing action from Korea. The internet still lacks great destinations for sports content, so we hope this will be a great success, especially since the team behind it have a ton of experience in this field.

Going Live and Scheduled

We do a very large number of live events on VidZapper. This week, for example, sees addresses by the Spanish Prime Minister, live European Speedway and live World Match Racing Tour sailing from Korea.

Setting up live events takes seconds on VidZapper and now we're also introducing new simulcast technology that enable live broadcast streams to be shown online at the same time as live telly. Actually, we've had basic technology to enable simulcasting for a long time, used by broadcasters such as Spain's Giralda TV, but now we've introduced the ability to 'over schedule', or drop in new or different content via our new VZSchedule tool.

You can now create schedules for any date and enable 'cut outs' by placing on demand or local video content within the schedule:

For example, you can replace ad breaks with your own ads, or change content that you don't have rights for online.

VZ Goes Mobile

With the latest release of VidZapper we're now supporting a wide range of mobile devices, including Android devices, iPads and iPhones.

Here's an example iPhone app built by our partners at Vivocom for leading European bank BBVA:

Here is the landscape view with a video carousel and the portrait view with the playlist, both managed from VidZapper:

VidZapper v 2.5 Is Here!

We’ve been gradually extending VidZapper’s capabilities and are delighted to announce that the new version is ready for release. We’re already rolling out our new configurable VZPlayers for multiple platforms, along with VZPlugins and the ability to create widgets for a wide range of social networking sites and portals.

New Interface

We’ve revamped the interface for VZAdmin, making it easier to use and navigate.

Detailed Statistics

The system has a new statistics system which is based on a player ‘heartbeat’, providing second accurate metrics on all aspects of playout. This is also used for VZSync (see below). You can also query the bandwidth and storage you’re using in real time.

Extended Character Support

Special characters are now supported in metadata fields, including support for Unicode 8 and Unicode 16 characters.

VZFeeds

You can now create sophisticated RSS and MRSS feeds to distribute your content to third party systems, including deep linked content.

iPhone and Android Support

There are new players for the iPhone and Android cellphones.

Ecommerce

You can now add values to content items so that they can be placed into a shopping basket or ecommerce system such as Paypal or Ecwid.

Extended Content Search

Content can now be searched by id.

Improved User Generated Video Capabilities

We’ve considerably enhanced the user generated capabilities of the system and added them to the API.

VZSync

VZSync enables in and out points to be defined for content and for events to be associated with these points. These events can then be targeted to areas of the video player. For example an overlay on the video can be triggered, or the changing of a banner ad.

Extended API

We’ve considerably extended the API to make the system far more powerful for developers. The API has now been broken down into a number of interoperable web services.

VZPlayer 2

A new Player framework has been introduced that is very configurable. A Player can be built from scratch in a few minutes using an XML configuration file. Designers can also totally redesign the Player by using the built in skins.

Two Million For Easter

We're seeing extraordinary traffic for the Easter celebrations being broadcast by Giralda TV using the VZPlayer designed by vivocomtech, and using VZPlugins to integrate a live chat feed from Facebook.

We're estimating up to 2 million viewers over the course of the week building up to and over Easter.

New Interface for VidZapper

Here's a quick sneak preview of our new v2.5 interface. Feedback gratefully received:

Going Mobile

Hot on the heals of the VidZapper iPhone app developed by our colleagues at vivocomtech in Spain we've just begun testing the beta version of our new Android app. It works well on WiFi and we'll see how it fares on Vodafone's 3G network later today.

One thing that particularly impressed me was the quality of the video: this was encoded using Handbrake, which is well worth investigating if you're preparing video for mobile distribution.

We'll post a trial app with instructions in due course.

Ten Steps To Creating Widgets With VidZapper

Widgets are becoming more and more popular and VidZapper gives you a very easy way of creating widgets for a wide range of outlets including Facebook, Beebo, Blogger, WordPress and iGoogle. It only takes a couple of minutes in each case.

Here's how:

1) Go to www.widgetbox.com and create an account ( if you don't already have one)

2) Click on the green 'Make a Widget' button

3) Select HTML/JS

4) Next you'll need to name the widget and then click onto the next screen. Now, get the embed code for your VZPlayer, e.g.:

5) You can then set the size of your player (these should match the size of the iframe and the VZPlayer itself if possible).

6) Once you've entered the parameters above you should now be able to preview and save your widget.

7) Once you have your widget saved you can access it by clicking on 'Widgets Made' in the top navigation bar:

8) Then click on 'Test & Get Widget' from the left hand menu:

9) This will then show you the code you need to create widgets on a wide number of platforms:

10) Finally, just follow the instructions on the Widgetbox screen for the plugin you want to create!

You'll have noticed that Beebo works in a slightly different way - again just follow the instructions on the screen.