Watching Jeremy Allaire demonstrate Brightcove’s value proposition in person, I immediately understood how powerful and fast it would be in enabling video content to be assembled, ads inserted, and delivered in Flash by a non-technical user.
This Boston Globe story tells the tale of Brightcove announcing later today that they’ve acquired Seattle-based MetaStories.
Why is this important? Because cool technology — and the reach of the global internet — is interesting, but without enabling tools *that manage and accelerate workflows* for mass, *non-technical-user* use, any new thing is less useful and thus slow to be adopted.
From what I’ve seen and what others have said, Brightcove was missing really robust, multiple-media assembly tools that took content and delivered a highly refined and finished product able to be delivered in Flash (running on 97% or so of the world’s web browsers). With the acquisition discussed in the Globe article, Jeremy Allaire ha’s vaulted Brightcove forward and will be in a better position to provide tools for rapid assembly and delivery on the internet.
Brightcove’s technology could help fuel ”an Internet video explosion,” in which publishers large and small would be able to easily put video online, said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge.
It will remain to be seen whether or not these tools are affordable. Yeah…it’s nice that Apple’s iMovie/Final Cut, Adobe Premiere and other non-linear editing tools exist, but it’s a stretch to go from creation to delivery published on the Web. If there are true enabling tools for the masses creating and delivering content on the Web already, this truly will manifest as an “internet video explosion.” If not, then it will be relegated to those with big budgets and making your own internet TV station (WYOU) isn’t going to happen.
About Steve Borsch
There are already many tools that enable video creators publishing abilities online. Take a look at freevlog.org for examples.
Numerous videoblogs, vodcasts, online documentaries, news programs, music videos, online digital films,etc have been gaining audiences without the need for a company like Brightcove.
anne
Brightcove acquires MetaStories
Steve Borsch of Connect the Dots claims that Brightcoves acquistion of Seattle-based MetaStories will make WYOU (user generated internet television) possible.
Where have you been, Steve?
Yeahits nice that Ap…
Anne,
Ahh….I do know much more about media than that single post suggests. In fact, I worked for Apple, Authorware, and the company that kickstarted non-linear video editing (NewTek). So I’ve got a couple of decades of experience at big company video publishing and personal video publishing off and online.
Having seen Brightcove up close (have you?) and gone through MetaStories from a high level, it meets needs in new ways.
Personally I podcast, do photo restoration, use Final Cut Pro and iMovie for video editing, publish print and ebooks with InDesign, so am well aware of all the enabling tools out there.
But tools do NOT handle workflow and don’t scale past an individual. Even the five person company I’m working with on their needs right now need scalable tools. That’s the point to Brightcove and why MetaStories is a good fit. Maybe I didn’t make the point well enough.
hey, steve.
thanks for double posting this reply to my site. I responded to you at loadedpun.com. i’m too lazy to double post. probably why i don’t get invited to places like Brightcove!
Good post. I agree, easy creation tools are still not out there.
I wonder though – this tool seems focused on “small companies”, doing the Yahoo-like video/Flash stuff. Will it allow regular users to create tv shows? Will the videos be portable in RSS feeds, and onto devices like iPod and all? I think there lies the challenge. Video online is not really online if it’s not portable in the sense that it has a URL, can be added to RSS feeds, can be shared like that..