A Cooler way for video on the Web: Last Exit is among the first to fully exploit QuickTime as a means for video file sharing on the Internet - Post News - WaterCooler software is being introduced

Post, April, 2003 by Ken McGorry

NEW YORK -- Last Exit has come up with a QuickTime app to make any Mac lover proud. The new company, formed by former members of the QuickTime encoding team working for new media house Deepend in London, is introducing WaterCooler, software optimized for sharing rich-looking video clips on the Internet -- without a browser

Last Exit's NewYork office is run by partners Nun Djavit and Andy Beach, with a lot of the R&D heavy lifting coming from engineer John Howell. It's instructive to note that Howell works from home. He telecommutes from Jacksonville, FL.

WaterCooler, which is now in use at NewYork's Eyeball (www.eyeballnyc.com) for both archiving and presenting their trove of commercial and other work, presents surprisingly clean video images in a 400x300 window that's, as Last Exit (www.lastexot.tv) says, "big enough for previewing work manageable enough to stream effectively." That window can be enhanced with a full screen module for more intent viewing such as client review and approval, and content may be separated into that presented to the general public and more limited, encrypted work-in-progress viewing for clients and colleagues.

Last Exit will also customize the WaterCooler interface for the client. The company offers a design service providing your own company's, or your client's, look and feel creating, as Beach says, "a fully branded and 'owned' tool according to clients' brand guidelines and design requirements."

The new version of WaterCooler I saw in action at Last Exit's office employed familiar video controls, play, pause, fast forward, etc., and showed big, clear images of video content And where there's content, there's content management. WaterCooler provides a simple interface allowing you to manage and maintain all the content the system handles. It's simple enough, Beach says, that a new user's grasp of content management -- including the uploading of new video and audio files, documents and text, the deletion of old files and the assignment of new users [including their associated permissions] -- "requires little or no training."

But you can get training from Last Exit -- particularly in the fine art of encoding. Beach and Djavit say that the whole WaterCooler installation process, including testing and verification of the tool on the client's Web server, takes two days. They recommend a day of training on the content management tool, and a day of training in the formerly arcane art that has become their specialty -- "optimal video encoding for the Internet"

"WaterCooler," says Djavit, "is a collaborative tool between the producer, the ad agency and the end client" Producers now don't have to endure an exhaustive sign-off process, sending tapes out or relying on balky URLs; WaterCooler's common interface will bring creatives and clients together, Djavit says, adding that Eyeball, for instance, works with clients in Chicago and LA.

The successful www.terrytate.com site is a prime example, Beach says, of the new marketing model that video on the Web is spawning. The site features an actor and former college football player portraying the fictional "TerryTate, Office Linebacker" in a series of imaginative scenarios that involve taking out underachieving office workers. Created by Hypnotic (www.hypnotic.com), the original spot a huge hit for Reebok with Super Bowl viewers, spawned the site with its "branded entertainment" of short movies.

The good look of these short movies as Web content is attributable in part to Last Exit's skill in encoding video, the same skill they share. when installing WaterCooler.

Although Last Exit is composed of Mac guys, Watercooler works on Windows, too. Beach relies on the OS X's digital color meter to maintain color values when creating a QuickTime movie. He will often start with a non-compressed Beta SP master and encode using Discreet's Cleaner and AJA's Kona card, bringing an 8GB movie down to a bitesize but very watchable 20MB.

WHAT'S NEXT?

So what else can WaterCooler do for hardworking professionals? A digital dailies app, Beach says, could be bundled with WaterCooler later this year It's not a stretch for focused computer geniuses. "Maybe a system which captures at DV quality," Beach imagines. "Then at the touch of a button, it compresses a lower rez MPEG-4 version of the clip -- the fastest and smallest kind of clip -- it would be possible. The technology all exists; if someone had the tutelage, they could be doing this very task right now, with a laptop, Apple Final Cut Pro, a copy of Cleaner and an Internet connection like a DSL modem. All Macintosh laptops are powerful enough to use for capture and with a wireless card, you can use any network you can connect to. And, as we know, Intel is frying to push wireless out more now -- soon all Starbucks and McDonald's will have wireless."