Tag Archive for 'streaming-media'

05
May

We need to stop calling the internet - the internet

By Joshua Nard 0 Comments
Categories: Internet, New Media and advertising

We internet as we knew it, is dead.  The idea of sending bytes of data back and forth for what it was originally intended for, has passed.  Today it has evolved into many different forms.  The definition of what it was, metaphysically, no longer applies.  We certainly don’t say “answer the television” when we get a phone call.  Although some congressmen insist on juvenilely describing it as “pipes,” today it could be described as dynamic channels with networking crossover.  While it’s potential form is still shaking out, it continues to evolve before anything is truly established.

Although it appears unformulated, there really is no confusion as to what it is.  What is familiar within the web as we view it, is various forms of television, radio, telephone and print.  As much as we want to spin the once-formerly-known-as-internet as a new model, it is still very much the same in micro blocks of content through associations that we are easily familiar with.  While youtube and video podcasts appear on the surface to be a craze considered a by some as a revolution, it is still very much television with more channels than your cable tv.  It is a viable medium.  Both advertisers and futurists have struggled for a long while to figure out what the net is to consumers and how it can be formulated into a diplomatic sentence.  In reality, it is nothing more than another channel for us to view or communicate.  A communication tool that is very much apart of the average consumers lives.  It’s television. It’s radio. It’s a telephone.  It’s a newspaper.  Therein lies the identity to advertisers today.  Whether it is Nielsen ratings or CPM’s, advertising is very much a viable driving force for monetary support for content providers.  It’s important that advertisers understand.  Advertising is just as powerful online as it is in traditional media.  Some studies suggest it’s even more captive online - but that’s for another blog entry.

As much as we have improved and attempted to re-invent a “car of the future,” it still has four wheels, an engine and a steering wheel very much akin to the Model-T.  We still call it a car.  Just like a car, whether on a back road or super highway, we, as consumers still drive it.

28
Apr

Some broadcasters still don’t get streaming media.

By Joshua Nard 2 Comments
Categories: Broadcast, Internet, News and Streaming Media

Local news in Chicago is a very competitive environment.  With the promotional clamor to be one step ahead of the other, especially in superior picture quality, you would think broadcasters would understand the importance of streaming media on the internet.  Unfortunately, I still wonder if they really do.  With some video screens either smaller than youtube sizes, pushed to the side of visibility, or in some cases, difficult to find all together.  Other broadcasting sites have a full screen mode, but the frame rate has been lowered to where it causes discomfort or nausea in less than a minute.  Nearly all the sites read more akin to a newspaper site than a television station.  Only one station appears to get it:  ABC 7 Chicago.  Interestingly, they also happen to be the number one station in Chicago as well.  The site is laid out with video at the forefront and center of the homepage, large and easy to navigate.  They also have a great zoom feature that scales the video to a larger size and dims the rest of the page for easier viewing.  Something happens during the viewing: You actually feel like you are experiencing the television news on your computer.  Although the video has compression artifacts, which is expected in today’s high bandwidth costs, the compression is manageable to where you can read the titles to the on-air graphics and map details that are a struggle to read on smaller screens.  There is a greater user experience that draws viewers in - and even more important - does not frustrate your existing viewers who have certain expectations.  Especially when many viewers are so accustomed to full screen video on television as it has been for decades.  It is important to understand what your product is and it’s relation to your consumers and maintain it at all costs.  When you visit a newspaper site, you expect them to have current articles for reading.  When you turn to a television channel, you expect your news in a full screen video format.  Your association to any other associated product, in any form, should be as close to that product as possible.  When you can hardly find even a video stream without clicking a link, or the video is too small as in the case of some affiliates, you won’t find an audience either.  (Disclaimer:  author was a former employee of CBS 2 Chicago)