Hot flicks?

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Fall 1999

Video has become a popular medium for colleges trying to differentiate themselves with prospective Students, donors and others. But videos have always had two key disadvantages: they are linear and allow for no interactivity.

Now, a new medium offers video's advantages without those limitations. Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) can hold up to 4,8 hours of full-screen, full-motion, broadcast quality video on a single 2.6 GB disc. They can be viewed on either a television set (via a DVD player) or a personal computer with a DVD-RAM drive-expected to be standard on all new computers.

The user views only what is of interest. If a potential donor wants to see the architectural detail of a new academic building, he can immediately locate the information on the menu and view it. A prospective student might instead skip forward to varsity basketball highlights.

Moreover, DVDs can be pressed from a master for under $1 each and the price will only go down. DVDs may cost $25,000 to $100,000 to Produce. But the per-unit cost of mailing will still be lower than videos and most printed material, DVD producers say.

"The implications for fundraisers, enrollment managers and public affairs marketers are enormous," says James Hormel, chair of Communicators Group, a Brattleboro, Vt., firm that produces DNT)s for colleges. "A college could literally include a 10minute video introduction, several clips of classes and professors, highlights of each athletic program and still have used no more than a fraction of the disc's capacity."