DeepDive: BrightCove
In class we all have gotten a chance to try brightcove, and so have some experience with what it takes to encode video for the platform, upload content, and create a brightcove player.
I will break down this investigation into a few components. Often the answers to questions are better explained elsewhere, and where that is true I will just link to the appropriate resource and give a brief synopsis of the content in that resource.
Also, Brightcove's scope runs from individuals to big media outlets. Here I tend to focus more on the issues concerning individuals.
Before we start, some general thoughts on Brightcove
You as the content creator and attempter of figuring out their system:
So now, after quite a few hours sifting through their site, and using their software to create a player, I have an odd overall sense of Brightcove. Their site and systems feel very polished and yet slightly byzantine. Getting content into their system was easy enough (provided you had windows and IE), but there was so much fluff surrounding everything that it was a bit distracting. After a fair amount of use, it would probably be fairly straight-forward. Most confusing though are the variety of ways you as a content creator can use Brightcove to get your stuff on the web. Personally I found the descriptions of the different account types they offer a bit confusing, and information was spread all over the site. A major reason for this seems to be that despite an end of 2006 date for introduction of their system (beyond the free commercial preview and specific big deals with media corps.) there are still a large number of unknown facts encompassing everything from price to how much video you can post.
Despite this, it is very easy to get an attractive site up very quickly. I will just be curious to see how well they can clarify what options you will have as a publisher.
The last thing, is that what is clear to me the more I compare brightcove to sites like Youtube, is that the point of Brightcove is far less about providing a forum for people to go find and upload video. It is more about creating a high quality experience that integrates well into a producer's exsisting web presence, about moving the technical burden off you as the content provider, and finally offering you pre-packaged ways to monetize your content.
You as a viewer coming to a site built with their tools
It's nice and clean, and navigation among videos within a player is very easy. Plus the videos stream very quickly, if you have flash 8 installed for your browser of course.
Creating an Account with Brightcove
Currently you can sign up for a free commercial preview account of Brightcove technology, which includes many options and features.
However, this will only be available though the end of 2006, which is rapidly approaching. After that time you will have to switch to one of the new brightcove account types.
There are no prices yet on these account types, though Brightcove is apparently rolling these out before the end of the year. Despite the deadline for switching away from the free preview system, much of the detail surrounding the new account types is very vauge. A look at the faq page above makes that clear. I find it a little odd.
What it takes to get content up in Brightcove
We have all tried this as part of the class, but I will summarize the main points and issues. In addition this page links to most of the relevant help documents: Brightcove help
First off, what software/systems do you need to work with brightcove?
- To upload files you need Explorer 6 on Windows (oddly I used IE7 for the brightcove assignment, which they claim isn't supported)
- There are plans to make upload tools availiable for the Mac and other browsers like Mozilla and Safari. Of course no date for that.
The form of your content:
- Video:
- Videos uploaded into brightcove must be flash video (7 or 8). This is a little tricky because there are no free flash video converters.
- Windows Media Videos can also be used, if you have a Pay Media Account.
- Brightcove provides a list of "approved" applications to convert to flash
- Brightcove's info on encoding video
- What resolutions are permittable? 480 x 360 or 480 x 270 depending on if content is widescreen or not.
- What lengths for a single video are okay? There seems to be no answer to this question.
- What is the total amount of video you can have on brightcove? Again no answer, though this may be in part because for the public they only have the trial version up. Once the specs for the various account types is released this may be clarified.
- In the future Brightcove plans on supporting downloadable formats like mpeg-4 (no time table though)
- Banners and graphics:
- Jpeg only, which you must create and edit with tools outside of Brightcove.
The structure your content sits in on Brightcove
Brightcove uses a somewhat overdone interface system to help you create and manage your brightcove channels. The system is very clear however, and they break up managing your content into the following hierarchy: Assets, Titles, Lineups, and Players.
- Assets are simply all the source videos (.flv) and source images (.jpg) you will use.
- Titles are individual videos wrapped with still capture images, a preview clip, and informational tags.
- Lineups are created by ordering a set of Titles together and providing optional information on how they should be played (at certain times, on demand, etc.)
- The Player is both the graphical look and feel of how users will interact with your videos, and it is tied to specific Lineups which it shows. Brightcove provides a wide variety of player types. The main features you can include involve creating scrollable menus of the Lineups and Titles next to the actual video screen.
Pre-Viewer question: How do people find your content?
Brightcove summarizes your options here.
- Brightcove has an example channel directory, which has about 160 channels listed.
- Obviously you can link to your brightcove player from any number of social software sites, and you can also embed the player in any site you choose (so long as that site will allow you to)
- You can also make your players discoverable by search engines by entering the URL where you are posting your player into a field under the Player tab in the Brightcove manager.
- Brightcove is also adding rss features, so that you can syndicate your content, and alert viewers whenever you add new content. This of course assumes they have already found you.
- Another way that brightcove allows you to both spread your own content and utilize others', is via syndication. Essentially you can submit a package of content to brightcove which will then be listed in their affiliates list. At that point sites can ask to syndicate your content.
What is the viewer experience within the platform?
The first question is what does the viewer need to utilize the platform?
- They need a web browser with flash player 8, and often must have java-script enabled.
- We know it will work with the PC, but what about mobile devices and traditional televisions?
Is it searchable?
- How can people search your content from within brightcove.
- What about changing the size of windows, or going full screen?
Long term use with Brightcove:
Do you have to pay brightcove to have your player up? The answer should be clear, but as of yet it oddly isn't. As mentioned in the Accounts section, Brightcove has yet to make specs on it's various types of accounts public. This goes for both the monetary and technical sides.
However, to the question of how you can create revenue with your content on brightcove:
- Promo: (e.g. you don't create revenue) but you aparently will have to start paying brightcove to host you
- Ad supported: you place ad's within your content. There are a number of ways to do this:
- You get your own ads, place them in there, get money independent of brightcove
- Brightcove Prime: Brightcove has an ad network, which you can join, and as your content is viewed you get a sliver of that revenue
- Currently how this works isn't entirely clear, and below are sample questions without clear answers:
- How exactly does this work? Can you pick who sells ads for you?
- Do you have to be vetted by the advertisers.
- What is the scale of the advertisers? E.g. only large brands (cars, airlines...)
- How are the ads be embedded?
- Pay Media: This is basically the idea that people can pay to buy your content piecemeal. At this point the main aspects of this model are that:
- The files for rent/sell must be .wmv format, and the preview of the content as a flash video
- Brightcove claims they can only provide this service to customers with PCs (because of DRM)
- They have 1,3,7,30 day rentals with a minimum cost of $.99
- In this model it is not clear if you must pay to be hosted, however it is clear that you get 70% of the revenue your content generates.
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Jeff — 13 November 2006, 16:10
Note that every single one of my links above is now broken!
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Jeff — 03 November 2006, 19:59
I should note that brightcove has recently completely overhauled their website and answered many of the questions I raise above. Hopefully I will be able to review the changes and update this soon.