Streaming for post: is it a reality?

Post, Oct, 2003 by Christine Bunish

Post houses and content providers with long files or lots of audio and video content in a lightly-compressed Form like AVI, QuickTime Movie, WAV or AIFF files may decide to take advantage of Globix Auto Encoding. "They can FTP to our drop box from a nonlinear editing system and our auto encode system will capture and automatically start the process of encoding to the required Windows, Real or Quick Time file," says Warner

He doesn't see post houses competing with Globix's streaming services. Even if they began to offer encoding they wouldn't have the storage and distribution mechanisms Globix has in place.

In fact, Globix's client base is growing as more and different types of customers recognize the value of the technology. "The corporate and enterprise space is using it as a true tool to save on travel and reach a greater audience; it's no longer just a novelty," Warner points out. "For an entertainment company, streaming can be an extension or any marketing effort. Movie studios, for example, can reach a highly-targeted audience for a motion picture release."

CORPORATE AND POST

New York City's Creative Bubble (www.creativebubble.com) has a long history with streaming. When it was part of IXL, an Internet solutions company, "we got a head start on streaming: It's in our DNA," reports executive producer/principal Carl Levine. "A lot of post houses that came up in the linear video world don't have that experience."

Creative Bubble does Webcasts for large companies, live or on demand, and has formed partnerships with companies providing streaming. It also uses streaming to improve the process of post production.

Webcasting for the corporate market has proved a steady revenue stream for Creative Bubble, which can provide encoding services only or turnkey the entire event for clients like Verizon and numerous financial firms. "Companies have found Webcasting critical for delivering live information and a very efficient way to disseminate information after an event or to repurpose their assets," notes Levine. "Right now Windows Media is preferred for corporate Web- casts, but there's a lot of interest in [Macromedia] Flash 6 for broadband users and on-demand applications. We're very impressed with Flash 6 video."

Creative Bubble and its sound division, Burst, use its own iApprove store-and-forward service for client review and approval. "We started using it on productions where corporate offices and agencies were in different cities, then we built it out and now clients we work with on a daily basis, like Nickelodeon and MTV, are using iApprove regularly," Levine explains. "It has really accelerated the production process. We can turn around changes and make air before a tape could have been delivered."

Creative Bubble is testing a "new, improved version" of iApprove built with Macromedia's Flash technology. The highly-automated, database-driven service will eventually enable Webcam-equipped clients to have live chats with Creative Bubble.

"We're just at the beginning of streaming opportunities," says Levine. "The Internet hasn't had a lot of true uses of video yet but as bandwidth increases we'll see streaming of entertainment programming and real narrowcasting on the Web."