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How the Exploratorium Live Streamed Eclipses to the World

bsp-admin-1 on December 30, 2021

1.69 MIILLION VIEWERS WATCH VIDEOS OF THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

The New York Times once described the Exploratorium as one of the most important science museums of the mid-20th century, because while most museums prohibit visitors from touching installations, this one does the exact opposite, it encourages people to explore exhibits with a hands-on approach. Located along San Francisco’s Embarcadero waterfront, the Exploratorium shines as an example of a truly unique learning institution.

Without a doubt, the theme driving all of the Exploratorium’s educational endeavors is innovation. In 1994, the museum was one of the first adopters of the internet and one of the first 600 websites, and has since been steadily building a robust digital media collection. In fact, digital media has become a prominent focus of the Exploratorium, as it allows the San Francisco-based learning laboratory to not only deliver experiential learning experiences on site, but also to provide educational materials for people across the globe via live streaming and on-demand video. Their website even contains pages devoted to “Science Snacks,” projects that allow people anywhere in the world to build small-scale versions of exhibits using materials that cost less than ten dollars. The museum has also its own webcast production studio, complete with audience seating, so visitors can see exactly how the Exploratorium creates video content for the web.

As a non-profit museum, the Exploratorium receives part of its funding from private and federal granting organizations, including NASA. It’s this particular partnership that’s helped the Exploratorium create one of its most visible educational ventures to date—live streaming solar and planetary eclipses through its website and mobile app. In 2011, the museum partnered with Brightcove, implementing its video platform to distribute content and provide viewers an uninterrupted, unparalleled view of planets in motion.

DIY SPIRIT LEADS EXPLORATORIUM DOWN THE PATH TO DIGITAL VIDEO

Since the early 1990s, the Exploratorium has had a digital presence, and it’s all because of its DIY spirit.

We use Brightcove to publish our video online to millions of users simultaneously and to provide access points from our website, our mobile app, and through sharing embedded streams on other websites.

Rob Rothfarb
Online Project Director at the Exploratorium

“We are a very DIY kind of place,” says Rob Rothfarb, Online Project Director at the Exploratorium. “We create our own exhibits, and we make our own digital media stories. So, putting together the infrastructure for creating and publishing live and on-demand videos just seemed a natural step.”

Initially, the Exploratorium operated its own streaming media servers, which led Rothfarb and his team through a rigorous process of trial and error to determine the best technology possible for streaming live video. Early iterations unveiled some key challenges, including latency, dropout, pixelation, and audio problems. However, as new technologies emerged, the digital video publishing team at the Exploratorium realized how much better cloud-based services were at managing video distribution.

“For things like live streaming the eclipses, we really didn’t want to take a chance,” says Rothfarb. “We knew we could run into scaling problems with what we had set up on our own.” What they had set up on their own included third-party video players, which were either licensed for use or available as part of the streaming media servers they were running. Recognizing the need to improve the scalability of their video publishing infrastructure, they knew their next step would be to transition to cloud-based systems through a content delivery network.

BRIGHTCOVE LIVE STREAM CAPABILITIES ARE KEY TO EXPLORATORIUM’S VIDEO INITIATIVES

In 2011, the Exploratorium partnered with Brightcove to deliver its on-demand and live video streaming. When asked of the deciding factors for this choice, Rothfarb touched on the museum’s need to focus its efforts on content creation. By leveraging Brightcove’s content management and video player solutions, they could spend less time wrangling the details of video streaming technology and devote more time to creating content and creating unique experiences. In Brightcove, the Exploratorium found a partner that equally valued modernization and advancement, and could also provide the new technologies so necessary to the Exploratorium’s live streaming initiatives.

“It’s certainly been a key reason for why Brightcove has made sense for us,” says Rothfarb. “It’s not just for distribution; it’s also for the practicality of publishing web content. We get a lot back from that, and it’s great.”

In addition to Brightcove’s innovation, Rothfarb noted the platform’s easy workflows and integration with Drupal’s content management system, which have both helped streamline Exploratorium’s video publishing process. By integrating Brightcove’s video platform with their Drupal CMS, the Exploratorium’s Online Media and Moving Images teams are able to manage video content, players and program metadata from a single interface.

“We were able to connect the Drupal CMS to Brightcove’s platform,” says Rothfarb. “You can now see the result of that in the way videos appear on our website within our newly-designed video portal section.”

The Exploratorium was also taken with Brightcove’s digital security and online privacy features. The museum didn’t want to impose third-party tracking on its website and mobile apps for video viewing. Using Brightcove allows the Exploratorium to publish and distribute content within a native player, eliminating the need for an outside distribution platform, like YouTube. This way, viewers can watch uninterrupted video and stay safe from phishing scams and unscrupulous advertisers.

SOLAR ECLIPSE DRIVES MOBILE APP DOWNLOADS AND 1.69 MILLION VIEWS

In an effort to extend its live stream content to more diverse audiences, the Exploratorium debuted its mobile app, Total Solar Eclipse, in early 2016, just in time for mobile viewers to watch an exclusive live stream of a total solar eclipse from Micronesia. Although the event wasn’t widely recognized in the Western Hemisphere, huge numbers tuned in from Indonesia, India, and other parts of East Asia, all on the mobile app. By the end of that week, “Total Solar Eclipse” managed to rack up over 65,000 downloads.

Afterward, the Exploratorium created on-demand assets from the live stream, distributing the video content to its website and social platforms. Remarkably, the solar eclipse footage attracted over 1.6 million video views and an equal amount of social impressions.
The Exploratorium delighted people once again in 2017 with its live stream footage of the Great American total solar eclipse—one of the rarest astronomical occurrences. In fact, the last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979. Before the event, the Exploratorium’s mobile app recorded over 400,000 downloads, with 95% of them coming from North America alone. Rothfarb reported 228,000 app downloads during the month of the event, with a total of 591,000 people watching the event on mobile, and a cumulative 1.69 million video views between mobile and desktop.

IMPRESSIVE ENGAGEMENT METRICS HELP EXPLORATORIUM CONTINUE ITS EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS

Since using the Brightcove player to distribute video content, the Exploratorium has enabled a new capacity for third-party distribution. Users can easily embed Exploratorium video content on their own website and blogs, which subsequently extends to increased brand recognition and amplified viewer engagement. Plus, with the Brightcove platform providing exceptional viewability for digital audiences, the Exploratorium’s content is highly inclined for third-party public sharing.

NASA, for example, shares Exploratorium’s live stream content directly to its own website and OTT channel, NASA TV. From there, footage is often picked up by news agencies like Reuters, which both extend claim massive viewership.

Another example: in 2012, the Exploratorium live streamed the Transit of Venus, a rare planetary eclipse, distributing the video through the Brightcove player on their website. Wired and Space.com jumped on board, embedding the player on their own websites and pulling in tens of thousands of additional live viewers.

Ultimately, the Exploratorium’s goal is to reach diverse audiences with stories and live viewing experiences, which is why Rothfarb puts so much emphasis on video engagement metrics; they validate the efficacy of the museum’s video initiatives, which translate into donor and sponsor support. With video at the core of its online experience, Exploratorium is well-positioned for continued sponsorship to provide immersive learning opportunities for all.

FINTOS!”, which provides investment information in video format, is growing rapidly. Video use in other departments is also becoming more active.

bsp-admin-1 on December 17, 2020

With the economic environment changing due to the impact of the new coronavirus, and the sense of uncertainty about the future increasing, the importance of asset formation for the future is increasing. In order to form assets, it is essential to have a long-term perspective, as well as to make speedy investment decisions in response to changes in the environment. Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., which provides services such as asset management and fund procurement to individual investors and various companies, was looking for a way to provide the various content it had been providing to institutional investors, such as analysts’ research reports, to individuals. The content provided includes not only text, but also audio and video materials. To this end, they launched the “FINTOS!” service, which provides investment information via smartphone app. They also started video distribution, and the number of users has grown significantly, by 300% compared to the previous year.

WE CHOSE BRIGHTCOVE BECAUSE IT WAS THE BEST

Akihiko Nasu, from the Future Co-Creation Department, says that they chose Brightcove as their video distribution platform because it was the best.

When you think about global-level development and security, there’s no reason not to choose the ‘best’.

Nomura Securities
“When deciding on a platform, we compared and considered three or four major domestic video distribution companies. We did receive various proposals from domestic companies, including customizations. However, as we are a global company, we felt that domestic platforms would not be very user-friendly when considering their use in other countries and regions. When we considered the necessary requirements, such as high security at a global level, we felt that Brightcove, which has a proven track record, was the best option. Even if there was a slight difference in cost, there was no reason not to choose Brightcove.”

THE VIDEOS THEY PRODUCED ALSO CONTRIBUTED TO IMPROVED SALES EFFICIENCY

Once they actually started producing and distributing videos, the creators came up with more and more ideas. “Up until now, we only produced videos a few times a year, such as for seminars. However, with the introduction of Brightcove, we now have an environment where we can produce and distribute videos on a daily basis. We have a variety of ideas for projects, such as ‘I want to make something like this’ or ‘I wonder what would happen if we made a video out of this text? We have also received feedback from users saying that ‘videos are easier to understand than reading text’.” They say they are also receiving more and more inquiries from other departments about video distribution. “Many people are involved in creating articles in text form within the company, but video production is still rare. We’ve had a variety of responses, such as ‘I didn’t know videos could be made so easily’ and ‘I didn’t know videos could be distributed in this way’.” Before long, the videos created for FINTOS! were being used by other departments. In some cases, sales efficiency has increased by adding videos (links and QR codes) to the materials given to customers by the sales department. “Because the videos we produced to convey investment information were easy to understand, there was a request to add videos to sales materials as well. When you have to talk to customers using only paper materials, you need to digest and summarize many times the amount of information contained in the materials beforehand. However, if you attach videos to the documents, you can convey many times more information than on paper, so the amount of work required for sales preparation is reduced.” There were also survey results showing that ‘the time required for preparation was reduced by 20%’ as a result of improving the documents, such as by adding videos, and it was found that the number of contacts and the contract rate also improved because the time saved could be used to contact other customers.

INCREASE SALES EFFICIENCY BY ADDING VIDEOS TO SALES MATERIALS

FINTOS! Number of users: 300% increase year-on-year
Reduction in time spent preparing for sales: -30

OTHER DEPARTMENTS ARE ALSO BECOMING MORE ACTIVE IN USING BRIGHTCOVE

Not only are the videos created for FINTOS! being used by other departments, but there are also now departments that are creating their own videos. Tetsuo Fujisaki of the Future Co-Creation Department, which is in charge of promoting financial education and financial literacy, says the following

“We are developing a nationwide program of visiting schools to teach financial education, but with just four members in our department, we obviously don’t have enough hands. So, in order to enable members of our branches nationwide to take charge of teaching at schools in their sales areas, we film our lessons and pass the videos on to each branch. With Brightcove, we can set passwords so that only the people who need to see it can see it.”

“We have also started producing a series of videos called ‘First Time Investing’ aimed at beginners in the field of investing. Then, a person in charge of human resources at a company asked us if we could put the videos on their company intranet, as they wanted to show them to all their employees. We are currently in the process of discussing this, but the members of the sales department who heard about it said, ‘I’d like to introduce this video to my customers too. Because of the nature of the financial and economic education content, it is easy for sales members to introduce it to customers. With the growing interest in financial literacy these days, there seems to be a lot of interest in this.”

The trend of producing videos spread further within the company, and the business division also started producing videos. Ryujiro Kitamura of the Asset Formation Promotion Department says

“We offer a financial wellness program, a seminar for employees of listed companies to help them reduce their future financial concerns. However, there are many cases where people are unable to attend the live seminar on the day because of other commitments. For this reason, we have been asked for some time whether it would be possible to provide the seminar on demand as a video. When we heard that Brightcove was being used for financial and economic education to produce and distribute videos, we decided to give it a try.”
In the production of videos for the workplace, they are using Brightcove’s engagement score to make the next proposal

“In the past, we used to make relatively long videos of around 60 minutes, but when we looked at the engagement score, the average viewing time for the videos was around 30 minutes. Based on these scores, we are now able to make the next proposal to our customers.”

Kitamura also says that Brightcove’s powerful security features have increased the flexibility of their proposals and use.

“The videos of the Financial Wellness Program seminars also provide information in line with the systems of listed companies. However, personnel-related system information is also confidential information for those companies. For that reason, we often receive requests to ‘make it so that it cannot be viewed from outside’.”

“To solve this problem, we added a viewer security option to the Brightcove system, so that we could restrict the IP addresses from which people could connect. I think this has helped us to gain the trust of our customers, and has given us more freedom in our proposals and use of the system. I think another convenient aspect of Brightcove is that we can flexibly rearrange the modules as needed.”

WE WANT TO PROMOTE THE USE OF VIDEO WITH THE CONVENIENCE OF OUR CUSTOMERS AND COMPANIES IN MIND

The company is also promoting the sharing and joint use of videos produced by different departments. Regarding future video utilization, Mr. Nasu, Mr. Fujisaki and Mr. Kitamura had the following to say “The investment information provided by FINTOS! is something that can be described as ‘perishable’, so we want to shorten the lead time between an event occurring and the provision of information as much as possible. Ideally, if we could provide videos of what happened today as soon as it happened, we think it would be even more convenient for users” (Mr. Nasu) “We are developing financial education for teenagers. They are a generation that find even three-minute videos long. For this reason, we will also take on the challenge of producing and providing short videos“ (Fujisaki) “We want to develop our business in the workplace to meet the needs of each company. We want to have a lineup of both long and short videos so that companies can choose the videos that suit them” (Kitamura)

HOW ONE CAREER DISTRIBUTES RECRUITING VIDEOS TO JOB HUNTERS

bsp-admin-1 on August 13, 2020

ONE CAREER Inc. is an IT/HR service provider whose mission is to craft as many careers as there are people. Their services include ONE CAREER for new-graduate job hunters, ONE CAREER PLUS for those seeking to change jobs, and ONE CAREER CLOUD for corporate HR clients.

In 2021, ONE CAREER launched a video distribution service for corporate briefings and other events through YouTube Live as well as the ONE CAREER app.

ACHIEVING IN-APP VIDEO DISTRIBUTION QUICKLY AND EASILY

ONE CAREER faced a turning point in February 2020. The emergency declaration to stay indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of in-person events such as joint corporate briefings. This drastic shift in business operations troubled both job applicants and HR departments. In an effort to break the deadlock, the company began streaming corporate briefings on YouTube Live.

“We were concerned about the reliability of YouTube’s data to determine things like viewer demographics and total video views,” said Mr. Tada. Furthermore, they needed to control which users could view the content and prevent unwanted disclosure of company information. “We wanted to create an experience for watching videos within our app by the end of 2020. While we still distribute videos on YouTube, we only use it for marketing.”

We were able to launch the service with Brightcove in two to three months. Developing it quickly while keeping costs down was the deciding factor.

Mr. Kumpei Tada
Consulting Sales Division Event Producer/ONE CAREER for Engineer Service Director
ONE CAREER initially considered building their own solution using AWS and compared it with other services. However, they decided to adopt Brightcove after considering the time and effort needed for development, as well as the cost in terms of training and maintenance. “With the onset of the pandemic, our competitors also began to offer online and video services. We wanted to launch our service ahead of the curve, so the deciding factor was developing it quickly while keeping costs down,” said Mr. Tada. “Brightcove meets our needs precisely; it’s simple to use and easy to understand. We were able to launch the service in two to three months, and since then, we haven’t needed to do very much development ourselves,” said Mr. Yamaguchi. Three years after launch, ONE CAREER continues to appreciate the level of customer support and user-friendliness that Brightcove offers. “Whenever I have questions, I email Brightcove’s account manager and customer support, and I always receive prompt responses. I often feel grateful to have a very good support system, including face-to-face communication and video calls,” said Mr. Yamaguchi.

SURVEY RESULTS FROM A ONE CAREER CLIENT

Students with Increased Interest After Viewing Videos: 95%

Job Entry Increase: 10%

INCREASING INTEREST AMONG STUDENTS WHO VIEWED VIDEOS

ONE CAREER is also starting to utilize Brightcove’s video data, and they’re providing feedback to recruiting companies on their video content based on user surveys.

“By distributing videos and gathering feedback, we successfully changed the employer brand perception of some companies. For example, one company changed from a large, old-fashioned firm to one with a flat communication style and a friendly atmosphere.

According to a survey of one client, 95% of students who watched the videos on their apps said that it “increased their aspirations for that company.” The survey also found that the number of entries actually increased by 10%.

Videos are not only enhancing student interest, they’re improving the efficiency of recruitment activities. Companies can see whether students who viewed videos applied to jobs and whether they’re progressing to the next stage of the selection process. We hope to use the data to increase the effectiveness of our video distribution,” said Mr. Tada.

Overall, students appreciate the new app because it provides them with a single destination to research companies, watch videos, and apply to jobs. And recruiters value it because, in addition to providing engagement data, the new system limits the disclosure of company information to job-seeking students.

This app serves as an excellent tool, providing convenience and value to both students and recruiters alike.

From Left: Mr. Kumpei Tada, Consulting Sales Division Event Producer/ONE CAREER for Engineer Service Director; Mr. Takuya Yamaguchi, Senior Engineering Manager/ONE CAREER Product Manager, Technical Development Division

COMBINING VIDEO AND OFFLINE DATA TO IMPROVE RECRUITMENT

In the future, ONE CAREER wants to develop services that support more effective and efficient recruitment activities by combining viewing data with offline methods. “After the pandemic, job hunting has increasingly taken on a hybrid model. However, I think we are merely mixing online and offline activities without effectively integrating them. A key challenge moving forward will be connecting users who have interacted offline with those who have interacted online. To achieve this, we need to make better use of data,” said Mr. Tada. “Currently, we have a platform where job-seeking students can watch videos from recruiting companies, but in the future, we plan to implement more advanced content management. This includes distributing videos and sending messages based on applicants’ interest and attributes, allowing for seamless and thoughtful communication with students,” said Mr. Yamaguchi. Through in-app video distribution, ONE CAREER supports the recruitment activities of hiring companies, setting a new standard for how recruiters use video in the future.

HOW “K” LINE CONNECTED EMPLOYEES AROUND THE WORLD

bsp-admin-1 on February 23, 2020

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha specializes in international shipping. Its employees are active not only in Japan, but also at ports and on ships around the world. From October 2021, the company began producing its own internal communication video media as a tool for sharing its management plan with employees around the world. The company had previously been using Microsoft 365 to share videos, but in December 2022 they switched to a platform using Brightcove’s Video Cloud. They were now able to distribute videos that had previously only been shared with a limited number of members in Japan to employees working overseas and those on secondment to other companies.

BRIGHTCOVE ADOPTED AS A PLATFORM FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VIDEO MEDIA

The Corporate Planning Group is at the heart of the company. In order to ensure that the management plan, which sets the direction of the company, is correctly and effectively communicated to employees, we have been considering various methods of communication. “In the past, the president would hold town hall meetings to explain the financial results and management plan for each division, but if we made the basic content into videos, we could convey the same message to all employees at once. We also thought that we could make past videos available for viewing, and that we could gauge the level of understanding of employees based on information such as viewing history” (Mr. Tamura) In this context, the outbreak of the new coronavirus infection provided the impetus.

We wanted to pay attention to the design so that employees would want to visit the site frequently. Video Cloud has a wide range of galleries for posting videos, and it was good that it was easy to set up, with customization options such as brand colors.

Mr. Kazu Murakami
Corporate Planning Group, General Planning Team
“The coronavirus pandemic began at the end of fiscal 2019, disrupting logistics and making it difficult to forecast business performance. At the same time, lifestyles and work styles changed significantly, and we felt even more strongly that we needed to share information about the world and the external and internal environments surrounding our company, and to disseminate our management plan. However, town hall meetings could no longer be held face-to-face due to the coronavirus. At that time, my boss suggested that we try using videos, and in May 2021, the Corporate Planning Group and the Sustainability, Environmental Management Promotion, IR, and Public Relations Group collaborated to launch a video distribution project” (Murakami). They used an application that was already in use within the company, and in six months they launched the internal video media ‘K’ Line With. “At first, we uploaded videos explaining the quarterly financial results and the progress of management plans. As a place for sharing information within the company, we also distributed videos created by other departments, and the content became more and more substantial. On the other hand, we who were in charge of distribution began to feel that there were issues with the time and effort required to upload videos, adjust the entire site, and make updates. In addition, problems such as slow playback speeds and freezing due to heavy traffic began to occur. Due to security issues, the distribution destination was limited, and it became a bottleneck that we could not deliver to employees who had been transferred to other companies or were working at overseas subsidiaries.

THE APPEAL OF THIS SYSTEM IS THAT IT IS EASY TO CUSTOMIZE WITH A FOCUS ON DESIGN. WE WERE ALSO ABLE TO REDUCE THE WORKLOAD BY 50%

They say that they were able to solve these problems by using Video Cloud provided by Brightcove. “From the beginning, we wanted to focus on the design so that employees would want to visit the site frequently, but because we were doing it in-house, we couldn’t get around to it. However, I liked that Video Cloud had a wide range of galleries for posting videos, so we could choose the one that suited our needs. For example, even the play button could be set to our corporate colors by specifying the RGB colors. Of course, we were also able to clear issues such as global distribution and a stable playback environment” (Murakami) “I also liked the fact that the Brightcove sales representative gave us a friendly lecture even before we signed the contract. Functionally, we were able to easily set up detailed publishing settings such as thumbnails, and I think we were able to reduce the amount of work involved in setting up by about 50%. We were also concerned about work becoming too personalized, but with the ease of setting up, even if we were reassigned, it would be easy for our successors to take over,” (Aoki)

IN-HOUSE COMMUNICATION MEDIA USING VIDEOS TO SHARE AWARENESS WITH EMPLOYEES WORKING AT BASES SCATTERED AROUND THE WORLD. SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVED COMPLETE IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION BY IMPROVING WORK EFFICIENCY

Time required for distribution settings: 50% reduction
Frequency of distribution by in-house team: At least one video per week

IMMEDIATELY DISTRIBUTE EXPLANATIONS OF FINANCIAL RESULTS TO EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE.

TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE BENEFITS OF VIDEO DISTRIBUTION WITHIN THE COMPANY.

In January 2023, they started using Video Cloud to distribute videos. Despite the unique circumstances of Kawasaki Kisen, which has many employees working overseas or at sea, they say, “We now have a video medium that helps to foster a sense of unity within the company.” “Most recently, we released a video commentary on our financial results on the same day. We created the video alongside our usual financial results announcement work. Specifically, we examined the scenario, asked a professional narrator to provide the narration, created the PowerPoint presentation, combined the audio and video, and previewed the video. I think it took about two to three days in total. After all, there is a lot of interest on the day of the financial results announcement, so the probability of people watching the video increases, so we are particular about the release date. We have to release it quickly on the day of the financial results announcement. I think the speed we can achieve is because we produce it in-house. “We also post videos from other departments, and upload videos taken on ships sailing around the world. The view from a ship at sea is something that people working on land will never see, so we release a new video every week with the aim of connecting the sea and land. Basically, we ask our employees to film the videos, but we don’t force them to do so. It seems that the company is beginning to recognize the effectiveness of publishing videos of matters that we want to share company-wide.

A TOOL FOR FURTHER DISSEMINATION OF MANAGEMENT PLANS AND FOR SOLVING INTERNAL ISSUES

The internal video media “K” Line With has just started full-scale operations. They are considering various developments for the future.
“We have finally been able to start global distribution, which we have been hoping for. First, we will continue to post project videos that other departments want to share, while also promoting understanding of the management plan by referring to the reactions to the content we are currently developing. In the future, I would like to create an owned media for external audiences that has content that can enhance the company’s value” (Murakami)

Kawasaki Kisen has taken the step of producing its own videos, as well as creating documents as before, as a tool for connecting employees. It seems that the day when a deeper understanding contributes to business performance is not far off.

Customer Contact: https://www.kline.co.jp/ja/index.html

HOW BENESSE CORPORATION REDUCED COSTS AND DOUBLED EFFICIENCY

bsp-admin-1 on August 28, 2019

Benesse Corporation is a company that mainly operates distance learning services for infants, children, and junior high and high school students. For its “Kodomo Challenge” distance learning service for children aged 0 to 6, the company had previously created video learning materials and delivered them to customers on DVD, but it has now switched to providing them online only in response to changes in customers’ viewing environments. The service has been highly evaluated as one that meets customer needs, and the company has succeeded in providing content that is even more popular with customers. Brightcove’s Video Cloud is supporting this system.

VIDEO CLOUD HAS ACHIEVED A STABLE DISTRIBUTION ENVIRONMENT AND COST REDUCTIONS

Kodomo Challenge provides video teaching materials, including animations of the program’s most famous character, Shima Jiro, and how to use the teaching materials. Previously, some videos were distributed on the website for members, but the teaching materials were basically distributed on DVDs. However, as the number of members who do not have DVD players has increased in recent years, “we began to explore the possibility of distributing everything online,” says Daiki Kubota of the Kodomo Challenge Engineering Department, Engineering Division, Kodomo Challenge.

“The first thing we considered was video distribution via mobile apps. While this would have the advantage of allowing parents to watch the videos anytime, anywhere, we also anticipated that some parents might be concerned that their young children would be watching on a small screen, which might be bad for their eyesight. In that respect, we felt more comfortable with the idea of DVDs, as they are usually watched on a big TV screen at home.” (Kubota)

The service we were using when we were already streaming some videos on our website did not support TV streaming, so we decided to look into using a different service. After comparing several services, we decided on Brightcove because of its ease of use on TV devices and its stable streaming environment. From April 2023, we will be streaming all of our video teaching materials online.

“We knew that Brightcove offered an all-in-one service for video distribution, and that we could use it to provide a stable service for video distribution of Kodomo Challenge. For these two reasons, we decided to make Video Cloud the standard for use within Benesse. Of course, video distribution is also more cost-effective than DVD distribution” (Yuki Shibata, Infrastructure Strategy Promotion Section, Infrastructure Solutions Department)

Kodomo Challenge has six courses, each with 10 to 20 editing staff, and the video teaching materials are produced with the cooperation of production companies.

“We create around 10 videos for each course each month. These include new video teaching materials, re-edited versions of videos we have used in the past, and supplementary videos that are not the main teaching material, but by switching everything to online distribution, we have been able to provide around twice as many videos as before. Also, with DVDs, we could only deliver them once a month, but now we can also deliver them on a weekly basis, for example, every Saturday, and we are really feeling the benefits of this” (Kubota)

BEING ABLE TO WATCH VIDEOS ON MOBILE DEVICES HAS BEEN WELL RECEIVED BY

The biggest challenge after introducing Video Cloud was transcoding. Of course, if the data size is large, you can deliver beautiful videos, but if you’re watching on a smartphone, it will take up a lot of space. We had to experiment to see how we could reduce the data volume while maintaining a satisfactory quality.

For example, with anime, you can watch it relatively easily even if the file size is small because it’s a series of still images, but with video teaching materials that have actually been filmed, if you reduce the video file size too much, things like video distortion and dropped frames will occur. While actually watching the video, we adjusted it by saying things like, ‘This is a little too compressed’ and ‘This is too big’.” (Kubota)

As a result of being able to watch it on a mobile app, the way it was traditionally viewed became possible.

“We’ve received a lot of feedback saying that it’s great to be able to watch videos while you’re out and about, such as in restaurants or while waiting to buy something, when before you could only watch them at home on your TV or in-car DVD player. Also, with DVDs you have to change the disc, but with streaming there’s no need to do that, so it’s less of a burden for parents. Plus, unlike free video platforms, there’s no risk of being taken to unintended videos or being interrupted by ads, so people say they feel more at ease about showing them to their children” (Kubota)

BY ACQUIRING VIEWING DATA, WE CAN ALSO PICK UP ON HIDDEN NEEDS

In addition, the ability to acquire viewing data, which was not possible when DVDs were distributed, has also led to changes in video production. “When we were delivering DVDs, we could only obtain qualitative feedback from questionnaires. However, by switching to online distribution, we have been able to find out in real time which videos are popular with children of which age groups. We knew from a gut feeling and from the results of questionnaires that the videos featuring Shima Jiro were popular, but it was only when we obtained the data that we realized that the English-language videos were also being watched a lot. We can now make use of this data to create videos,” says Shoji Ueda, General Manager of the Infrastructure Solutions Department. Benesse Corporation, which has many other projects in addition to Kodomo Challenge, is moving towards consolidating all video distribution for other departments on Brightcove’s Video Cloud. “Kodomo Challenge“ distributes a lot of video content, but other projects don’t do that much video distribution yet. Even in cases like that, we can make a single contract as a company, so it’s also great that it’s easy to get cost benefits. Now that we know we can do stable distribution with ‘Kodomo Challenge,’ Benesse will continue to provide video distribution to customers using Video Cloud” (Ueda).

Video brings about a revolution in internal communication at McDonald’s Japan

bsp-admin-1 on March 3, 2014

Video messages are a very convenient tool for communicating with a community of this size. We believe that Brightcove is the best solution for providing an efficient environment for viewing videos in stores.

Yotsuya Nobuyuki
Director, Technology Architecture & Service Management, Operations & Technology Division

McDonald’s Japan has been growing for 40 years and is the dominant player in the fast food industry. It now has nearly 3,000 stores. Unfortunately, the development of training programs has lagged behind. Until recently, the head office had been compiling training information in booklets. In that case, the entire booklet had to be reprinted and redistributed to all McDonald’s Japan stores every time it was updated. Furthermore, employees had to go to the back room every time they had a question and flip through the booklet to find the answer. With the number of non-native Japanese employees increasing and turnover reaching 50%, McDonald’s Japan needed to implement training for all employees in an efficient manner.

By using video training on iPads and Brightcove in the backend, McDonald’s Japan has revolutionized training for its multilingual employees. The revolution is not limited to training. Now, messages from the CEO and team building are also shared via video. Now, all teams can get the latest information they need with a single touch. By using Brightcove, McDonald’s Japan has been able to transform internal communication by energizing employees with video, accelerating the delivery of messages and training.

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