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.

VidZapper Integrates With Amazon CloudFront

We've now launched a version VidZapper that's fully integrated with Amazon’s S3 and CloudFront cloud computing network. The launch follows yesterday's news that the Amazon cloud computing service now supports Flash Video streaming.

The VidZapper integration includes support for http progressive downloads of WMV, MOV andFLV video formats as well as RTMP, or streaming Flash Video.

Detailed statistics are available via S3Stats, the long established statistical package for the cloud service.

This should be ideal for anyone wanting a low cost video platform based on a highly scalable and flexible CDN solution.

How To Set Up An Internet TV Channel

Introduction

The internet has opened up extensive new business opportunities and is currently transforming the way television works. This guide takes you through setting up a commercial Internet TV service using TV Everywhere’s VidZapper enterprise video management system.

VidZapper was specifically developed as a platform to enable the rapid development of commercial TV services over the internet and it should be possible to launch a simple service in minutes using the system.

Of course, a more comprehensive and customised service may take a while longer to established, with a typical time to market of a couple of weeks.

Revenue Streams

There are a number of ways to make money from Internet TV. Some of them are listed below:

Banner advertising – traditional banner and MPU adverts

Video advertising – pre-roll and instream, but the system also supports overlays; you can also consider advertorials

Sponsorship – the above can be combined into sponsorship packages

Syndication – you can charge for your content or revenue share with third party publishers

Affiliates – earn money by referring customers to ecommerce websites

Ecommerce – is surprisingly effective for online sites – the propensity to buy from online video sites is very high

Text advertising – it’s unlikely to make you rich on its own, but systems such as Google Adwords are worth putting into the mix

Below is an example of some a channel combining many of these revenue opportunities into a highly profitable channel:

Below is a typical channel income model:

No of Viewer Visits			35000	70000	80000	90000	100000	110000	120000
Length of Visit			12	10	10	10	10	10	10
Ads seen	$28	net CPM	2.4	2	2	2	2	2	2
Banners seen	$3	CPM	48	40	40	40	40	40	40
Adwords	$2	CPC	$560	$1,120	$1,280	$1,440	$1,600	$1,760	$1,920
Affiliate	$8	CPA	$2,800	$5,600	$6,400	$7,200	$8,000	$8,800	$9,600
Vid Ad Rev			$2,352	$3,920	$4,480	$5,040	$5,600	$6,160	$6,720
Banner Ad Rev			$5,040	$8,400	$9,600	$10,800	$12,000	$13,200	$14,400
			$10,752	$19,040	$21,760	$24,480	$27,200	$29,920	$32,640

The success of the model above is based on two key drivers, namely the ability to:

· attract the audiences figures and viewing times indicated

· sell all ad inventory at the indicated rates

Another key performance indicator is the revenue per viewer visit. In the above model it’s around 28c. However, we’ve seen some ecommerce channels manage $1 per viewer visit.

Costs

There are three main cost areas related to operating an internet TV business:

Technical – VidZapper takes care of all of the technical costs in one competitive package, including storage, bandwidth and content management;

Content –producing original content can, of course, be very expensive, but repurposing content that has already been produced can be an effective strategy. VidZapper supports access to third party content anywhere on the web, supports moderated user generated content, in addition to enabling you to upload and manage your own professionally produced content;

Audience Building – just building a service isn’t enough, building and retaining an audience is essential; there are a wide range of ways to do this, but VidZapper can help with its MRSS distribution tools and syndicated players. We can also advise you on other ways to promote your channel.

Naturally, you will also have the usual costs of running a business, and it’s worth bearing in mind that a percentage of ad sales will need to be paid to a sales house if you’re not selling the ads yourselves (the figures in the illustration above are after the commission has been deducted).

VidZapper can provide you with a detailed channel income model where you can model at the costs and revenues of your proposed service.

Stages of Development

Developing a commercial service couldn’t be easier with VidZapper; a basic channel can be built in minutes, with a highly customised service taking little more than a couple of weeks to deployment, reducing time to market and optimising revenue opportunities.

The typical stages for developing a service are:

Business model and business case	First of all, we will work with you to build a business case for the service, ensuring that the project is viable and establishing key performance indicators for the project
Player design & development	Next comes the fun bit – designing and specifying the player (or players if you are syndicating your channel); there may be a need to develop some additional functions depending on the player specification
Content production	This is the part we can’t help you with, but we presume that you’re already pretty good at producing content or know people who are!
Content encoding and uploading	Next you’ll need to prepare your content for playout by encoding it; our system can do this for you, or we can help you do this locally
Scheduling	Finally you can make the content available by scheduling it or placing it in playlists

Once you’ve deployed your service we can help you with the statistics and feedback: VidZapper supports most common statistical services including Google Analytics.

Sneak Preview Of New Syndicated Players

Here's a sneak preview of one of our new range of syndicated players. This one is written in PHP using the VidZapper API and features content item details pulled from a third party CMS and a playlist as well as an area for an MPU. You'll notice that there's also a not-clickawayable pre-roll ad.

Content Publishing Windows Added

A number of new features have been added to VidZapper, including the ability to set a publish and expiry date for content so that the video does not appear either in timelines nor in search unless it is within the publishing window. The system's drag and drop capability has also been significantly improved.

New Moviebeat Film Portal Launches on VidZapper

Moviebeat has launched its new video channel, Moviebeat.tv on TV Everywhere’s VidZapper enterprise video platform.

The new portal features exclusive interviews with stars and directors, exclusive red carpet premier coverage and all the latest movie trailers, as well as competitions and opportunities to attend screenings.

This weeks’ exclusives on Moviebeat TV include an interview with director and cast of gritty London drama, The Firm, as well as a red carpet report from the film’s premier; a behind the scenes look at the saucy playboy comedy Miss March, and interviews with Julie and Julia stars Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Nora Ephron. Viewers can also catch sneak previews of over twenty movies set for release over coming months.

“Moviebeat will bring the best exclusive reports, interviews and premiers from around the world,” says channel boss Nick Adams. “VidZapper has been instrumental in enabling us to build and manage this service. They integrated with our existing content management system and transformed our site from a flat, information based service to a fully functional video portal.

“They also extended this to our newsletter service, which has now become a video newsletter sent to nearly 70,000 registered users and have built tools to meet the needs of Microsoft, Coolroom and other syndication partners.”

The channel is monetized through VidZapper’s network of ad sales houses and affiliate schemes. The platform supports standard advertising delivery platforms such as DART and Atlas.

“We ran a three month trial earlier this year and the channel was profitable from the outset,” reveals TV Everywhere’s Iolo Jones. “Moviebeat TV is a real model of how Internet TV channels can make money.

“The combination of TV Everywhere’s consultancy services and the low cost VidZapper platform means that Moviebeat will be running a profitable service from launch and establishing a model other internet tv channels can follow.”

VidZapper Insider - Extensibility

VidZapper has come a long way in a very short time; after just a year on the market it's overtaking the established players and winning major deployments. But we're not complacent. We know that we need to keep on developing. Indeed, we have a two year development cycle worked out, which is adjusted to the needs and demands of our resellers and their clients.

But sometimes some substantial changes in approach are called for and we are constantly looking at the core architecture underlying the application.

After recently introducing an API, two fundamental elements of the platform we're currently looking at are the player (or, as old timers would call it, UI or GUI) and what we call the VidZapper Component Framework, or, as they are now called, plug-ins, or apps.

Over the next few months we will be releasing a new player builder for non-technical developers, and will also introduce the VCF, to enable anyone to develop new apps, or to integrate VidZapper with existing applications.

Introducing Parallel Streaming

Parallel streaming has been added to VidZapper v2 enabling a range of new features, including:

• Multi-lingual players
• Multi-terrirory players
• Support for multiple data streams
• Support for multiple players with the same content but different metadata

Content can be tagged and grouped and then called via the VidZapper API.

New Website for VidZapper

You can find VidZapper's new, revamped website here.