Personalized Smart Video is the much-desired breakthrough for the Education Industry

Definition

A personalized video is any video content that’s customized and relevant to each one of your audience groups, be it prospects, customers, or influencers.

Examples of personalized video in education

There are numerous ways of personalizing video in education or for the education industry. In addition to delivering a printed text report in person to the student and parents, schools can also deliver them a personalized video report card, with a personal greeting to start with followed by a report summary & then educating the student about how he fared in different subjects. This can be followed with a specific guidance from the teacher. Imagine what a personalized video report can do for parents and how it can motivate and influence them to participate in the all-round development of their child. One can easily visualize how a personalized report can assist a high school student to enumerate all his or her options including career & college choices. This can compliment the college planning process.

Benefits of personalized smart video

• Creates a meaningful and thoughtful customer experience for students and parents
• Makes it easy for students to comprehend their regular progress reports and report card.
• Makes it easy for parents to comprehend where their child stands and find out the areas of improvement
• Empowers teachers to provide personalized guidance for students belonging to different categories
• Builds a motivated student and parent audience, who want to participate in improving education
• Streamlines the communication between the teacher, student and parent community

Statistics below already demonstrate how the use of video is delivering a lot of ROI for all industries in general. This can only be further enhanced with the user of personalized video, whether it is education industry or otherwise.

• A video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%
• 80% of customers remember a video they have watched in the last month (HubSpot)
• A video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rate
• Consumers, who watch a video are 64-84% more likely to make a purchase

Platforms and tools for creating video

Startups like SundaySky, Ideomoo, Vidyard and several others are building generic platforms and tools to create personalized video from the organized data and applications. With the latest technologies available today, automating the video creation process for each category or a group is feasible and also economical, considering the ever increasing availability of video production platforms. In addition, harnessing the use of metadata to personalize a video asset is getting better every day.

Personalized video in education

Educational Organizations have begun to understand the power of video and how it can assist the student community. There are a number of healthy trends like using augmented reality or other visual technologies to improve how education is rendered in the schools. Along with these new trends, building technologies, platforms and tools for personalized video can assist them to address the challenges of student community and more importantly, it streamlines the communication between students, teachers and parents.

OTT Video in India

OTT Video in India:

• Total Mobile Subscribers - ~933 Million 2^nd Largest in the World.
• Total Internet User base ~230 Million
• Total number of monthly active video users in India rising from 12.3 million people in 2014 to more than 105 million by 2020.
• Total OTT TV and video revenues in the Asia Pacific region will reach $3,628 million in 2015 and $11,293 Million in 2020.
• One estimate points out that the OTT revenues in India is expected to reach around (US) $300 Million in 2020.
• Advertising will continue to drive India's OTT video ecosystem however, contributing more than 75% to overall OTT revenues.
• Pay-TV Arpus ( average revenue per user ) are relatively low in India, at US$3-4 a month.

 Interesting news update :  

1. HOOQ, touted as Asia's answer to streaming service Netflix, has launched a beta version of its premium video-on-demand service in India from May 2015.
   The four-month-old start-up joint venture between Singaporean telecom giant Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros
2. Star India released a beta version of Hotstar, an ad supported video stream service that provides access to TV programming, Movies on 3G & 4G phones.
3. Two other powerful players, Airtel and Reliance, are also poised to enter the market with services of their own, signaling the start of a major shift in OTT video dynamics in India.
4. Hungama.com, an Indian player in the music and video streaming services, seems to make it big on the global platform as they claim to have 50 million monthly active users of their services. With these statistics they are well placed amongst the top 5 global players like Pandora and Spotify. 
5. The $2/$3 Apple Music Pricing Set To Disrupt Indian Music Streaming Industry!               http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/07/03/apple-music-india-pricing-disrupt-music-streaming/

 

Online Video Platform (OVP) – Features and Options

Online Video Platform (abbreviated as OVP) is a SAAS solution (Software as a Service), which enables Companies to manage and publish video files to audiences on every screen. To be precise, Online Video Platform allow Media Companies to ingest, manage, protect, publish, syndicate, track and monetize online Video to their Customers across multiple platforms and devices. The Online Video Platforms also enable integrated advertising and gathering business intelligent analytics data.

The primary features of Online Video Platform Solution are as follows:

1.     Video Upload and Ingestion Feature

This feature enables content owners to upload, manage and deliver video over the Internet for viewing across desktops, mobile and connected devices

There are different options provided by OVPs to upload and ingest Video.

i)            Browser Based Ingestion

ii)           FTP upload

iii)          Automated Ingestion via drop folder

iv)          Email Upload

v)           Mobile Upload

vi)          Create Custom Upload App using OVP provided APIs

All OVPs share the common goal of automating and simplifying the various steps involved in upload and uploading videos. The Automation goal can be extended to all features provided by OVP.

2.    Video Encoding, Publishing and Management

This feature allows the users the best viewing experience on their intended target device. Video Publishing feature provides control over when and where your video content is published. Publishing can be done on devices like Roku, Boxee, Apple TV or other Set top boxes with the click of a button.

OVPs also provide an ability to upload the file from the local source to cloud-based storage. This can typically take place either one file at a time or in batches. As part of the upload process, the video file is transcoded and delivered to various sizes and qualities. It is the video transcoding process that optimizes the video to appear in the best possible quality on any given viewing device or connection speed.

3.    Online Video Player

The online video player is the primary viewer experience, serving as the context in which your Video content will appear. Most of these Online Video Players are light weight and therefore very responsive.

• OVP's offer numerous player templates along with vertical or horizontal playlists.
• OVP's also provide several other customization options that allow you to create a player that best fits the environment and the best experience you are trying to achieve.
• The Online Video players will provide ability to control and interact with the content with everything from pause, rewind and fast forward functions
• They provide options for sharing or embedding on social sites.

4.    Video Syndication

This feature allows taking a single video and distributing it across as many video channels as possible. The more places the video appears, there is a better likelihood that users will watch the Video and your brand is popularized.

5.    Video Analytics

This feature allows the Companies to gain business insights, review user trends and find out if content exposure & syndication strategies have paid off.

Different kinds of Analytics Reports can be built to find out

a)    Which content is most watched by end users

b)   Geographical distribution of all the users

c)    Find out how many videos have been embedded outside of your own site

d)   Learn which devices, OS, Browsers and Applications are used by users

OVPs also provide an ability to integrate with other 3^rd Party Analytics Tools.

6.    Video Monetization

This feature allows the Companies to monetize their Video by choosing one or multiple options

a)    Monetize Video by selling Ads

b)   Monetize Video through pay per view

c)    Monetize Video through Sponsorships

d)   Monetize Video through Merchandise

e)    Monetize Video through Freemium or other Hybrid Method

f)    Monetize Video via Licensing

 

Benefits of Online Video Platform

a)   Evangelize your Products Online
b)  Increase Ad Revenue or Conversion rates
c)  Advanced Targeting via increased distribution
d)  Increase Brand Awareness
e)  Monetize your Content

Online Video Platforms are getting built and enhanced with wide array of capabilities from content management, encoding, advertising, syndication and monetization. As the market further expands and consolidates more choices become available and education becomes key to better understand, purchase and deploy the solutions available. 

Streaming Video - Past, Current & Future

Streaming Video - Past, Current & Future

Past - History

1) 1997 : Real Networks ( started by ex-Microsoft Rob Glaser ) launched the first video streaming.
    A baseball game was streamed between the Yankees and Seattle Mariners - on September 5th,   1995.

2) 1997: Microsoft introduced DirectShow, which allowed streaming media and then later merged into Windows Media Player. ASF File format referred to as Multiple Bit Rate ASF allowed storage of multiple video and audio tracks in a single file.

DirectShow became a standard component, when Windows launched Windows 98.

3) 2002 : Adobe announced the unified streaming format - which merged the Web and Streaming Media for the 1st time. This product took the industry by storm however had issues relating to bandwidth, scalability & reliability.

4) 2007 : A Company named Move Networks ( later bought by EchoStar ) invented the HTTP based adaptive Streaming. This Startup used the standard HTTP protocol to deliver media in small chunks.

5) 2008 : Microsoft launched Smooth Streaming Technology now based on plain HTTP protocol.

6) 2010 : Adobe joined the party in 2010 with HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS).

 7) 2012 : a new standard was born – Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, known as MPEG-DASH.

CURRENT SITUATION - WHAT IS HAPPENING IN VIDEO STREAMING ?

Netflix

Netflix becomes the first Video Streaming Company to air original programming to end Customers.
Back in January 2013, Netflix released its original program House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey.

Netflix released the much-anticipated fourth season of “Arrested Development” on May 26. There has been a tremendous positive response to this release.

YouTube

During the recent I/O conference, Google announced that its live streaming service will allow operators to broadcast live content to viewers on all devices. Some 53 paid channels have been added to the YouTube website, as part of the YouTube partner program. A small group of partners will also offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month.

ABC News 24 is planning to stream news broadcast live on YouTube.

Amazon

Amazon, a key player in Video Streaming services is planning to air original programming to end-users. Amazon announced multi-year deal with Viacom to bring 4000 more TV episodes to instant video customers.  Amazon announced last week that it's creating five original TV series including a political comedy with John Goodman.

Amazon seems to be interested in adding market share at this point of time and has a well thought out long term strategy in this space. Amazon is said to be losing between $500 Million to $1 Billion a year on Video Streaming however is making consistent efforts to provide the best value for its prime customers.

Hulu

Hulu has gained rights this year to stream current-season episodes from Nickelodeon and CBS.

Among the other Nickelodeon shows available on the streaming site are Robot & Monster, The Penguins of Madagascar, The Legend of Korra and the recently rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Hulu's revenue in 2013 grew 65% to $695 million compared to last year. However Hulu has not been able to make more profit considering it spends lots of money in purchasing content.

Dish
Dish is one traditional satellite provider, who has spent good amount of efforts in streaming video through its products and services as DISH Anywhere, and Hopper with Sling.

Video Streaming Market Share
According to a survey released Tuesday by Sandvine, Netflix has 32.3 percent of the market share, while YouTube has 17.1 percent, Hulu has 2.4 percent, and Amazon has 1.31 percent.

Apple iTunes

Apple is THE most prominent player in Online Music, Video and Video On Demand business.
iTunes has a market share of 45% in the Music & Video On Demand market space. iTunes Store is the 2nd fastest growing revenue stream with a quarterly revenue of $4 Billion. According to reliable reports, Apple is building a new Set-top box device for live TV broadcast. Apple will be one of the most formidable player on Video Streaming in the near and long term future.

FUTURE OF VIDEO STREAMING

According to a Insight Research Report, Streaming Video and Music will generate $70 billion in revenue over the next six years.

The current Subscription Model on Video Streaming will continue to be prime business model beyond 2013. A new monetization model beyond the traditional and subscription service may arrive after few years.

MPEG Dash seems to be the future of online Video Streaming. A list of 60 big Companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Akamai, Ericsson, and Viacom are investing in the Mpeg Dash.  DASH allows not only adaptive streaming, but it can also carry multilingual audio tracks and closed captioning. The stream can also have Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption that protects copyrighted video from potential video pirates.

Traditional Cable and Satellite Companies like Comcast, Dish and several others are already adopting to the Video Streaming's future. These Companies are complimenting their traditional service with other new services and solutions built on video streaming protocols.

It seems to be seen whether the Streaming Services will eventually kill the traditional TV however this is the direction it is heading as of right now.

There is one sure winner here. The Customer.

Note : My sources to this blog are other news articles and blogs written on Online Video & Video Streaming. My goal is to present all the facts in this specific format in addition to sharing my knowledge in this space.

Take-away from CES 2013 - How can I increase my Life's productivity?

Like everyone else, I was interested to learn about new Technology offerings or cool gadgets introduced at this year's CES 2013. Finding about new Products every year at CES or elsewhere is no less exciting than watching a grand block buster Movie. I kept pondering a question to myself at the end of CES 2013. Without thinking about the budget, how many gadgets one can buy which can help improve life’s productivity. To extend it further, are there any new gadgets one can buy in the coming years with little amount of spending. I am not specifically interested in Ultrahigh definition connected TVs or a Gaming System which costs, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Here are some exciting gadgets, which may fall into this category. Yes it is a debatable topic.

1.      Next Gen Pocket Radar -> Said to be World's smallest radar gun. A handy tool for coaches, athletes, and Spectators alike.  This  Innovative technology allows you to measure speed of anything from a fastball to a race car with remarkable accuracy, to +/- one mph

You can buy this Today @ Amazon for < $200

2.      The $49.99 Beam Tooth Brush uses a sensor that records when and how long you brush, beaming this data to an iPhone or Android app so you can keep track of how well you’re keeping up your dental hygiene habits.

      There are other singing tooth-brushes, which can make you oral hygiene a fun activity.
       One can argue the real advantage of using these tooth-brushes.

3.      This innovative Fork from HAPILABS keep track of how long you eat in addition to how quickly or slowly you eat. It then shares these metrics for your offline viewing. It can vibrate in case you are eating faster or slower.

4.      Fitbit Flex, a $100 wrist-worn product that collects activity, sleep including how much distance you travelled on your Treadmill. Fitbit isn’t new this year however they are innovating every year.

5.      iPhone based Security Alarm

A Start up based in Mountain View, CA is selling a Security system starting $79, without the monthly fees or installation hassles of a traditional security company's set-up. This is a easy way to monitor your Home from your iPhone without the need of ADT or any big security Company.

6.      LG demo’ed a new and improved Magic Remote with Voice controls. 

7.      Next Gen Mobile Projectors (incredibly portable measures 4 * 4 inches) – Brightest mobile projectors with 300-lumens bulb. You don't need a VGA cable to connect it to your computer. Just plug it into the wall, and wirelessly transmit your content from your PC to the wall.

 

8.      In the future, your refrigeration technology will help you get your beer cans get cold in five minutes!

9.      Smart Cooking Range Owen (introduced by LG) : Send recipe from a Mobile to the Smart Cooking range owen, which will automatically set pre-heat time. Just hit start & cook your recipe.

10.   Samsung Wireless kitchen appliances that use direct power, rather than charging like mobile phones. Samsung also launched the Microwave with an LED light for cooking, supposed to use 1/10^th of power used by Conventional Owens.

11.   Samsung’s refrigerators viz. Model no. RF4289, RSG309 LCD have kitchen-relevant apps on a WiFi-enabled 8-inch LCD touch-screen.

The Grocery List app will allow consumers to create their own highly personalized shopping lists at the touch of a button, while the Facebook app will provide instant access to consumers’ newsfeeds.

12.   Smart Washers from Samsung

Through a WiFi network and a smart phone application, users can monitor cycle selections, remaining time and finishing alerts. You can start this Smart Washer remotely or even pause it sitting at your work-place.

TV-Everywhere Strategy

TV-Everywhere Strategy

Introduction

By 2016, more than 30 million households will be using operator provided TV-everywhere services according to market research firm TDG. This means every Cable, Satellite Operator or even the Content Provider need to define their TV-everywhere strategy. A lot of Companies serving the Video Industry viz. Top Cable Providers, Top Satellite Providers and Content Providers are already in the foray and have started defining their TV-everywhere strategy. I want to discuss in this post all the different factors involved in defining TV-everywhere strategy.

What are different factors involved in building a TV Everywhere Strategy?

Define an applicable Business Model

TV-Everywhere service is a key to a Cable or Satellite Operator. TV everywhere involves costs however presents a revenue opportunity to Operators in addition to creating a product differentiation. TV Everywhere service can influence the customers to perceive their cable or satellite service is desirable and also encourages healthy competition amongst cable & satellite operators.

Based on several surveys, it is already known to us that a Customer is willing to pay an addition fee to get his favorite shows on all 3 Screens viz. TV, PC & Mobile ( including Tablets ).

Define Authentication Rules on different devices

"Authenticate" is a term adopted by TV Everywhere providers to let viewers know they need to prove they are a pay-TV subscriber in order to access content.

In other words, there should be a defined mechanism to enforce rules to deliver content to all 3 screens viz. TV, PCs + Tablets & Mobile Devices. Evaluating the different authentication mechanisms and choosing the right one will go a long way in delivering the simplicity required for an end-customer.

Applying a uniform authentication scheme for watching Live-TV, DVR & VOD content can be useful.

Authentication rules depend on what different mobile, tablet & PC-MACs will be supported. It is important to understand what streaming protocols & encoding solutions are available on these devices.

Work with Content Providers and Studios on approved digital rights management schemes.

Forge Relationship with Consumer Electronics Partners

TV Operators need to work with Consumer Electronics Manufacturer to ensure their services are working on the latest devices pushed to the Market.

Depend on Third Party CDNs or build your own CDN

For delivering a high quality video (VOD content service can be clubbed into TV-everywhere Product) or for large scale deployment and management of TV-everywhere product, it is necessary to build your own Network or hire a CDN Operator viz. Akamai or Limelight. This involves costs to delivering the high quality TV-everywhere service.

Support Service Operator’s Infrastructure and Ease of Integration

Cable or Satellite Service Operators must be able to bundle your TV-everywhere service with their other value-add services. What does your TV-everywhere platform provides in terms of SDK or Libraries or Software Components to integrate their current offerings with TV-everywhere. Cable Operators are used to TV-centric model and now they need to move away from Single Screen to Three Screen Model ( TV, PC/Tablet & Mobile screens ).

Interesting Technologies at CES 2012

My experience at CES 2012 was very productive.

It was a privilege to represent all the new Technologies/Solutions at Sling Media. The response to Sling Media Demos/ Products was very encouraging.

I wanted to share few interesting technologies seen at CES 2012 with a focus on ‘TV Everywhere Technologies and Solutions’.


Technologies for TV-Everywhere Enthusiasts
 

Technicolor M-go Cloud Media Storage Application.

This App supports TV – everywhere functionality either by connecting to the set top box or connecting directly via the TV Operator.

Consumers on the go can play out live TV content similar to Slingbox.

· M-GO will come pre-loaded on Samsung’s 2012 Smart TVs and Blu-Ray Disc players and will be accessible on Galaxy tablets.

Additionally, with M-GO while watching a movie on the TV, users can simultaneously get bonus content, such as deleted scenes and games on your connected Galaxy devices.

· It will come pre-loaded on Vizio's televisions, tablets, Blu-Ray players and stream players.

· Intel Ultrabooks through the Intel AppUp center, bringing HD content for television, movies, music, and apps

            IOGear Wireless Media Kit Streams

The Wireless 3D Media Kit consists of a wireless 3D transmitter and wireless 3D receiver.

Users can connect a Blu-ray player, DVR/Set-top Box, DVD player, Media Server or computer. The USB port on the GW3DMKIT is ideal as a wireless keyboard / mouse connection, allowing mobile control of a home theater PC or laptop.

The IOGear Wireless 3D Media Kit lets you conveniently share content around the home without the unsightly wires or a visible rack of equipment.

COMCAST AnyPlay

Comcast launched a set-top box called AnyPlay at the CES. The box allows Comcast customers with Xfinity Internet service to watch live TV on their Apple tablet.

MobiTV App

MobiTV working with Duetsche Telecom on TV Everywhere initiative to bring Television to Smart Phones, Tablets, PCs, Set-top Boxes.

 

Espial TV Everywhere

Espial, a software Company based in Ottawa demonstrated TV everywhere at CES. Their Media Services platform allows carries to monetize LiveTV streaming, VOD & other video services.

Smart Appliances- Home Electronics

It is interesting to see how Home Appliances are getting smarter.

LG Fridge demo App demonstrated what to cook based on what vegetables are    inside the Refrigerator. Think about all other possibilities.

SMART TVs

Super OLED Displays from Samsung ( 4-credit card Thick, Ultimate Picture Quality, Sharper Image, 4 * 1080p resolution )

Samsung Dual View TV – Dual View Glasses

Two People can watch two different channels at the same time on the same TV by wearing Dual view Glasses. Best TV to buy for people with 2 kids or couples, who do not want to watch the same channel.

Other Interesting Ones

     1. Tobi Gaze demo’ed Eye control technology on Windows 8

– Why need a touch or voice, when eye can control what you are doing on screen ?

2. Kinect Apps allowed a Customer to see how he looks on any Dress in the Closet without wearing them. Best App to buy for Ladies.

3. Lenovo demo’ed a Android 4 based Smart TV. Can you imagine this ?

4. Voice Controlled TVs ( Nuance announced a platform for all TVs the same company who created the famous ‘Siri’

5. Windows 8 Tablets built on NVIDIA Tegra , Tablets built on Android 4.0.

6. 3D GPS Navigation as expected