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3 REASONS WHY VIDEO IS THE FUTURE OF ALL LEARNING

bsp-admin-1 on February 19, 2021

While the global pandemic has accelerated the growth of the e-learning industry, in Asia this trend has been on an upward trajectory for years. In fact, the e-learning market is expected to expand into a $90 billion USD opportunity in five years, with a projected CAGR of 11% from 2020 to 2026.

Due to competitive labour markets, education has always been a top priority in Asian countries. Not only are parents investing heavily in educating their children, national governments are also making learning and development top policy priorities. Lifelong learning, for instance, is extensively promoted by the Singapore government through the SkillsFuture initiative, a national program that seeks to guide learners on how to face new challenges and meet the needs of a rapidly changing economy.

Digital transformation in the education industry is well underway, with video as the catalyst that allows subject matter experts to reach global audiences easily while also making education generally more available and more affordable.

For students, online and on-demand educational videos help them learn anything and everything, from professional skills in information technology to the latest TikTok dance craze.

If you haven’t incorporated video into your online education and training courses yet, here are 3 reasons why you should.

1. TOTAL FLEXIBILITY AND PERSONALIZATION MEANS BETTER LEARNING EXPERIENCES

When it comes to enhancing flexibility and personalizing every step of the learning journey, video offers endless possibilities.

Video allows students to learn on the go and start or pause a lesson at any time. They can easily revisit lectures on demand and spend more time with concepts or content they may have missed the first time around.

For busy professionals spending long hours working and juggling responsibilities at home, video gives them the flexibility to decide what they want to learn and when they want to study.

And for education providers, video enables personalized learning experiences based on each student’s needs, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach typically seen in physical classroom settings. Educators can create videos and learning plans for different demographic segments, and they can reach students all over the world by adding multi-language subtitles.

2. INTERACTIVE VIDEO HELPS KEEP LEARNERS ENGAGED

While video has its advantages, it remains a largely passive experience unless students can actively participate and take control of their learning journey.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to make videos interactive. For instance, including links to additional information or incorporating a multi-view feature allows key lessons to be experienced from different perspectives. Gamifying lesson paths, where learners make decisions about what happens next, can demonstrate how a series of choices can lead to different outcomes.

Educators can also create game-based learning plans in which points are earned for making the right decisions, trophies can reward learning milestones, and a final score can determine overall performance.

3. DATA UNLOCKS AUDIENCE INSIGHTS TO DRIVE MORE MEANINGFUL CONTENT CREATION

When you’re privy to individuals’ viewing behavior and preferences, such as what kind of content they’re watching and for how long, you gain insight into their interests as well as the effectiveness of your lessons or tutorials.

For instance, if a high percentage of viewers are jumping ahead to the next video before finishing the one they’re already on, chances are there are opportunities to make the lesson more engaging. Similarly, repeated viewings or constant playback might be an indication that the lesson is challenging to follow or not getting through to the learner.

By knowing who is watching what, you can also make tailored recommendations for what to learn next based on the content the learner is most likely to be interested in. Then all that’s left to do is sit back and watch student customer conversion and retention rates rise.

There’s no turning back from video in education. Even as in-person learning slowly resumes, we’ll continue to see education providers use video to reach global audiences with interactive lessons that keep learners coming back for more.

If you’re looking to move your class online, optimize your online course offerings with live or on-demand video streaming, or transform your corporate training programs with video, talk to us at Brightcove and see how we can help you deliver effective and compelling experiences for your learners.

TIPS FOR VIRTUAL EVENTS: ADOBE HEAD OF EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

bsp-admin-1 on February 18, 2021

Despite all of the challenges that came with shifting in-person events to virtual ones last year, experimentation became a lot easier. At least that’s one of the silver linings discovered by Ben Rabner, Head of Experiential Marketing at Adobe.

Rabner, like many others, sees virtual events as opportunities to imagine what’s possible instead of feeling creatively confined. And as a result, Rabner has learned a lot over the past year and shared some of his tips for designing virtual event experiences during our recent Bright Spots, Big Thoughts panel discussion.

1. TEST, LEARN, OPTIMIZE, REPEAT

COVID-19 happened to hit just before Adobe’s annual marketing event, the Adobe Summit. “I think we were one of the first major brands to come out and say, ‘We’re pausing the live event, and we’re going to put this thing on virtually.”

When Adobe had to quickly shift to virtual, Rabner says the process of experimenting, asking, “Why can’t we do this?” and working through the tech to make it happen was the most exciting part.

Based on the team’s experience reimagining the Adobe Summit, they applied their learnings to their next virtual event: Adobe MAX, Adobe’s annual creative conference. And in the words of fellow Bright Spots, Big Thoughts panelist Elise Swopes, “Adobe MAX by far was nuts … they snapped on that.”

2. FIND THE STORY, AND THEN WEAVE IT THROUGHOUT

A virtual event’s story must be woven through every aspect to intentionally build and help advance the overall journey. Every interaction, starting with the initial invite and how attendees register, must be meticulously thought through.

According to Rabner, “You can really get creative and play with themes, and then pay it off when attendees come to the virtual event and you continue that story.”

One recent virtual event concept Rabner brought to life was based around the idea of taking attendees on a road trip. And what does every good road trip need? A special “mixtape,” of course. The team created a Spotify playlist and sent out printed cardboard “cassette tapes” with a QR code that directed attendees to the customized playlist.

Rabner suggests event planners “live the theme and topic” they are trying to convey, and the ideas will start flowing.

3. DON’T WAIT FOR THE EVENT TO START TO BUILD AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

According to Rabner, building connections virtually starts with meeting our basic human needs. “It’s about going back to the basics of behavioral economics. How are we really wired? What motivates us and inspires us as humans? And then how we can use technology and things to help us connect that?”

Rabner has seen great success with sending out curated packages in advance of events that are specifically designed to build anticipation, ignite the senses, and deliver emotion.

“Some of the things that I choose intentionally are things that activate additional senses because those connect in our brain. The part of our brain that houses our senses is located right next to the part that has the emotions […] so if you can engage those, they love to connect and work together.”

4. THINK OF YOUR ATTENDEES AS FRIENDS

When it comes to virtual events, it can be challenging to really empathize and think through the entire attendee experience end to end.

“I think it’s harder to have intention and purpose, and I hate to use the buzzword, but authenticity. It’s harder for that to come through in virtual events, and so you have to work so much harder to really help that translate through the virtual touch.”

Something that has helped Rabner to get over this hurdle is to not think of the audience as attendees but rather as friends. “My approach has been to think about it like I’m gathering people back around our family table for dinner, sharing this [experience] with them, and how can I do that in this really crazy environment now?”

5. USE QUESTS AND CHALLENGES AS ENGAGEMENT TACTICS

Session length, screen fatigue, and attendee engagement are important things to consider when designing a virtual event experience.

According to Rabner, “One of the challenges [with virtual events], and this is what the research and the behavioral economics show, is that you need to break up things. And generally, 15 to 20 minutes is the ideal time where you can have someone’s attention, and then you need to switch it up.”

According to Rabner, small group breakouts where participants are given a specific task or challenge that relates to the concept just presented are an effective engagement tool. “They get to work through that challenge, then they come back and share their learnings on it.”

6. TAKE INSPIRATION AND LEARN FROM OTHERS

Finally, Rabner suggests that with so many virtual events continuing to be made available, both live and on-demand, it’s a great opportunity to see what other brands and organizations are doing.

“I’ve attended a lot of virtual events and more so not because I’m bored and have nothing better to do […] but more out of curiosity because I’m trying to see what are other people doing that’s really good, and can I pull an idea out of it?”

More often than not, attending a virtual event, even one outside of your own industry, will likely spark some new ideas for you to consider or apply to your own virtual event experience.

If you’re planning a virtual or hybrid event, we’d love to help. Get in touch with us here.

How to ‘monetize’ online events

bsp-admin-1 on February 12, 2021

If you need to make a profit from your event, what are the main ways to do this for online events? As with offline events, the two main methods are “charging participants” and “advertising sponsorship fees”. In this article, we will introduce the main points of these two methods for online events. Please refer to them according to the characteristics of the event you are planning.

HOW TO SCALE A ZOOM MEETING WITH BRIGHTCOVE LIVE CONNECT

bsp-admin-1 on February 4, 2021

ZOOM MEETINGS HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS BEFORE

Hear ye, hear ye, we would like to introduce you to Brightcove Live Connect, the latest integration of Brightcove Live and Zoom, available now on the Zoom Marketplace!

With 2020’s rapid pivot to video, organizations have had to kick their digital transformations into high gear. Using video tools to continue to stay connected internally and externally has quickly become business as usual.

Brightcove and Zoom are two industry leaders that have helped organizations remain connected virtually – and now Brightcove Live Connect brings our famous reliability, scalability, and security to the Zoom platform.

With Brightcove Live Connect, you can simply connect to a Zoom meeting or webinar and stream it to any size audience you want, securely and glitch-free. And with the Brightcove Video Cloud platform, you can create a fully branded experience that includes advertising, picture-in-picture, powerful analytics, and more.

Download Brightcove Live Connect on the Zoom App Marketplace, then stand back. Your Zoom meetings are about to get a lot more powerful.

10 VIRTUAL EVENT TIPS FROM THE CEO OF FREIGHTWAVES

bsp-admin-1 on February 2, 2021

Like many organizations, FreightWaves hosted its first major virtual event in 2020. This three-day virtual conference, FreightWaves LIVE @HOME, was proudly streamed by Brightcove and was a big departure from their in- person events.

Despite having only eight weeks to pivot from in-person to virtual, the event was hugely successful, and the organization learned some valuable lessons along the way.

Here are 10 virtual events do’s and don’ts FreightWaves’ Founder and CEO, Craig Fuller, discovered firsthand.

5 DO’S

1. DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE ABILITY TO PRE-RECORD SOME CONTENT

“This was key for us. We wanted to eliminate all of the technical issues that are normal in same-day broadcasts. We knew that we were trading off some of the impromptu elements of our event by having the videos pre-produced, but we were comfortable with that, knowing we had great speakers and that video, audio, and production quality were the most important things to keep the audience engaged. We did have a few talks that included both live and recorded elements. We pre-recorded opening statements and speeches and then went to a live video Q&A.”

2. DO ENLIST THE HELP OF A MODERATOR TO KEEP ATTENDEES ENGAGED

“For us, we are fortunate to have professional TV and radio talents on staff that can bring the audience into the discussion. For me, this feels a lot like a half-time show during a broadcast event. Our moderators would share their thoughts and observations about the talks on the day of the event.”

3. DO KEEP VIRTUAL SESSIONS SHORTER THAN IF THEY WERE IN-PERSON

“People have a shorter attention span virtually than they do in-person, so keep the content more concise. We would try to go for less than 20 minutes for many of our talks but occasionally ran over 30 minutes. None of the video content was more than 35 minutes long per session.”

4. DO GIVE YOUR AUDIENCE A CHANCE TO TAKE A BREAK

“We would run 4 to 5 [commercials] per break. For sponsors, this gave them a chance to talk about their product in a quick format. For the viewer, this provided a natural transition between topics. Effectively it was a book-end. We had more than one person comment about how it reminded them of the Super Bowl. In their words, ‘Come for the game, stay for the commercials.’”

5. DO OFFER VIDEO-ON-DEMAND POST-EVENT

“We found that more content is viewed on-demand than during the live broadcast. Users want to get access to the content they missed or to re-watch a session. Your sponsors and speakers will also want [video-on- demand] so they can post it on their website or social media accounts for future use.”

5 DON’TS

1. DON’T ASSUME YOU CAN PULL OFF HIGH QUALITY WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT

“We estimated our budget all-in was over $500,000 for the three-day event. While this seems like a great deal of money, it is far cheaper than doing an in-person event at a convention center, which can run close to $2 million. We also had a team of 8 full-time production resources and about 15 on-camera talents that participated in the hosting or moderating of our live event.”

2. DON’T EXPECT VIRTUAL EVENTS TO BE LESS WORK

“Most people assume that virtual events are easier to pull off than in-person events. While that is true if you only did a Zoom event that should be marketed as a webinar if you want a highly professional virtual experience, you need to produce it like a TV program, and that takes work.”

3. DON’T JUST TRY TO REPLICATE YOUR IN-PERSON EVENT ONLINE

“This seems obvious, but I know a lot of event planners have stressed about that. In reality, the two experiences are very different, so approach them that way. We treated the three days as if we were a broadcast cable network. We wanted to make sure that the audience was able to get the highest quality content, delivered to them with the highest production quality.”

4. DON’T CUT CORNERS ON LIGHTING, CAMERA, AND AUDIO TECH

“Avoid using the built-in camera on computers for recording talks. While these are decent for video conference calls, they don’t produce a high-quality image for an HD streaming event. For our remote guests, we would either make recommendations of what someone should purchase or even send a kit to them that contained a camera, external light, and microphone.”

5. DON’T DEVIATE FROM YOUR SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

“Your virtual attendees will be coming and going throughout the day in terms of tuning in and will become very frustrated with an event that isn’t organized and zealous about schedules. This is true of in-person events as well, but even more so for a virtual event.”

If you’re planning a virtual or hybrid event, we’d love to help. Get in touch with us here.

EXPERT PANEL: THE UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITIES VIRTUAL EVENTS PROVIDE

bsp-admin-1 on January 29, 2021

It’s no secret that 2020 was a year full of challenges. But, for people who knew where to look, it also brought with it opportunities. Our virtual panel discussion, Bright Spots, Big Thoughts, brought together a handful of those amazing people:

  • Ben Rabner, Head of Experiential Marketing at Adobe
  • Natacha McLeod, Senior Director of Marketing at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
  • Elise Swopes, Photographer and Visual Storyteller

The conversation unintentionally, but unsurprisingly, shifted to focus almost exclusively on virtual events – how to have great ones, the unexpected opportunities they offer, and why they’re here to stay.

Here’s what they had to say – and how you can put it to use as you’re thinking about your own virtual offering.

TO MAKE A VIRTUAL EVENT GREAT, CONNECTION (HUMAN AND INTERNET) IS KEY

Yes, video allows you to stream your virtual event. But it also allows you to go deeper with storytelling.

Our panelists saw the biggest success when they used video to:

  • Facilitate the types of spontaneous meetings and side conversations that happen at in-person events through breakout rooms.
  • Offer exclusive and behind-the-scenes content – in-depth interviews to get to know speakers and up-close-and-personal footage of performances to make attendees feel like they’re more fully immersed in the experience.
  • Make the experience interactive by giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers through a live Q&A or chat with fellow attendees throughout sessions.

To continue the experience of your event beyond the virtual, you can experiment with non-video ways to create moments of connection with your attendees. Some ideas that our panelists shared:

  • Use snail mail to send thoughtful packages to attendees ahead of the event that’ll bring your experience off the screen and into their home. Include things like inspiring books, treats or recipes, notebooks, or a small art project to reset during breaks.
  • Share music playlists to set the vibe.
  • Send along printed pre-reading or follow up reading materials on topics attendees might want to go deeper on.

WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR VIDEO STRATEGY, START SMALL AND BUILD FROM THERE

For some of our panelists, video was only a very small part of their strategy before 2020. They knew successfully utilizing video would be crucial moving forward – but felt overwhelmed by the opportunity.

Their advice? Start with simple video projects you can accomplish quickly and easily. Over time, as you gain confidence, expand your video offering.

  • Start with short videos you can share on social media to build engagement.
  • Expand to longer-form video-on-demand content – interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, or storytelling around your product offering.
  • For your first virtual event, start with something pre-recorded or “simu-live.”
  • When you’re ready to go live, experiment with an hour-long panel discussion or two before committing to a full-day event.

DON’T MISS THE CHANCE TO EXPAND YOUR AUDIENCE GLOBALLY

When you host an in-person event, there’s no denying the obstacles to scaling – location, venue size, travel limitations, schedules, and so much more…

When our panelists first pivoted their in-person offerings for virtual, their primary goal was to retain their current customer base. With their successful switch to virtual, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra retained 99% of their subscriber base – a huge success. They never considered they’d be pulling in new attendees too, until they dug into their analytics and saw that people were tuning in from other states and even other countries. So they evolved their strategy to expand that growth and reach beyond their immediate region with their world-class music offering. The result? They’ve seen subscriber growth in just a few months.

What started as a happy accident turned into a shift in strategy.

The lesson? Pay close attention to your audience’s viewing habits — in a virtual world, you have more access to analytics than ever before — and use that information to evolve your strategy for growth.

“Hybrid” is a word you’re going to be hearing a lot in 2021 as the world continues to shift. The question is no longer, “Is virtual here to stay?” The answer to that is a resounding, “Yes!” The question instead is, “How will we integrate virtual and in-person experiences in a way that is intentional and engaging?”

In the words of Ben Raber, “video is where the future is.”

ENCODING AND TRANSCODING EARNS EMMY AWARDS

bsp-admin-1 on January 26, 2021

BRIGHTCOVE HONORED BY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES

January 26, 2021 marked an important day in Brightcove’s history. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized Brightcove with two Emmy® Awards for excellence and creativity in technology and engineering. We’re proud to join a distinguished group of honorees that have had a material impact on television and video viewing experiences.

For video technologists, an Emmy® is the highest technical achievement award that exists. Only a handful of organizations in the history of television and television arts have been honored with an Emmy®, and for contributions of major importance. We’re talking about the people and companies who invented CCD camera sensors, LCD panels, and even streaming.

At Brightcove, we live and breathe video every day, and we’ve always stood behind our technology and our talented team of engineers, developers, and innovators. This recognition proves what we’ve always known: We are shaping the future of the most powerful means of communication ever invented.

While these Emmy® Awards were given to Brightcove, our customers are the real winners. It is because of them that we reach farther and push harder to extend the boundaries of what’s possible with video. We could accomplish nothing great without their support.

See below for more details on the awards we won.

EMMY AWARD #1

Our encoding technology, Brightcove Context-Aware Encoding, won an Emmy® Award in the “Development of Perceptual Metrics for Video Encoding Optimization” category.

For our customers, this patented technology enables dramatic reductions in media distribution costs, such as network-, storage-, and CDN-related costs. It also eliminates guesswork, manual entry of encoding parameters, and any possibility of human error. For audiences, this technology enables the delivery of higher quality video, increasing viewer engagement and satisfaction.

EMMY AWARD #2

Our transcoding technology won an Emmy® Award in the “Development of Massive Processing Optimized Compression Technologies” category.

This technology is at the core of our Brightcove Player and Brightcove Zencoder products. Zencoder enables our customers to quickly compress and convert thousands of videos in parallel, with minimum delays and high reliability. Our player helps to securely and reliably manage extremely large amounts of video content at scale. In other words, this technology helps our customers save precious time and money.

While we may have won these Emmy® awards in 2021, this recognition has been years in the making. In fact, some of our researchers have been thinking about and working on this technology since the early 1990s. Since the mid-2000s, Brightcove has been pioneering cloud-based transcoding and cloud-based online video platforms as categories of products.

We didn’t need another reason to keep pushing our video technology to new heights, but these awards are certainly motivation to continue to create new innovative technologies for our customers, and to make video encoding and delivery as robust, efficient, and easy to use as possible.