Larry Kless' Weblog: Sorenson Media

Showing posts with label Sorenson Media. Show all posts

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Sorenson 360 v2 Ready to Take on Enterprise OVP Market

At Streaming Media East 2010, Sorenson Media launched Sorenson 360 v2, setting its sights squarely on the enterprise online video platform market with a new and improved version of its OVP solution. I caught up with Peter Csathy, President and CEO of Sorenson Media, to talk about the latest release – which comes exactly one year after the platform’s initial launch at Streaming Media East 2009. Sorenson 360, was released as a SaaS-based video platform that bundled video encoding, transcoding, storage, content management, player customization, delivery and analytics to extend the workflow of video professionals who were already using Sorenson Squeeze.

With 360 V2, Sorenson has expanded its scope beyond its initial SMB customer base to the larger enterprise customers it already serves – in media and entertainment, Fortune 500, education and non-profit sectors – with its Sorenson Spark and Sorenson Squeeze products. Sorenson believes that it can capture a significant market share with its $99/month package that rivals Brightcove's $99/month Express package. Sorenson has included a full new set of features available as part of the standard 360 subscription, not found in any package available from its competitors.

Sorenson has completely rewritten the CMS – moving away from Adobe Flex and fully embracing web application technologies of AJAX and HTML5 – with the goal was to bring greater functionality, speed and customization to video publishers. Among the new features, Sorenson has introduced RTMP streaming with unlimited data rates, auto-generated playlists, drag and drop functionality, complete white-label customization, APIs for developers and deeper integration with social media, SEO and video editing tools. Sorenson has also included intelligent embed codes to automatically detect the client and unwrap the correct player for web or mobile experiences.

Customers can add "high-value" modules for additional functionality for IAB-compliant ad serving, interoperability with all Flowplayer-compatible networks, Drupal and WordPress plug-ins, a Flash Player SDK and SquishNet, its “You-Tube-in-a-Box” browser-based encoder application used by sites like John McCain's video supporter wall to fully incorporate user-generated content.

According to Csathy, Sorenson has a winning solution with 360 v2 – built on its storied history dating back to 1995, and foundation in high quality video encoding and listening to its customers. Sorenson offers a unique pay-as-you-go pricing model based on actual usage, which it's able to do through its partnership with Amazon Web Services. Sorenson is convinced that it offers the biggest bang for your buck by providing every customer, regardless of size, the same benefits of its enterprise-grade features.

View complete details about Sorenson 360 v2 at: http://www.sorensonmedia.com/video-delivery-network/

Read the press release: Sorenson Media’s New Sorenson 360 v2 Online Video Platform Built for the Enterprise

About Sorenson Media
Sorenson Media offers comprehensive, award-winning solutions that empower businesses and video professionals to easily and affordably publish the highest-quality video to the Internet and other media. Included among its products and services are the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (VDN), Sorenson Media’s re-imagined video publishing platform; Sorenson Squeeze, the gold-standard for video encoding applications; Sorenson Squish and SquishNet, which together create an easy-to-use browser-based video publishing platform for user-generated content; and Sorenson Spark, the industry’s most widely used video codec, which enables mobile devices and other consumer products to playback the largest selection of video on the Internet today. Since its inception in 1995, Sorenson Media has been instrumental in bringing Internet video to mainstream applications and is committed to dramatically improving the online video experience for both content creators and consumers. Follow Sorenson Media (sorensonmedia) on Twitter

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Online Video Platform Summit: Redefining Monetization

Established methods of monetizing online video content include: advertisement, sponsorship, merchandising, licensing and acquisition, paid syndication, subscription and pay-per-view, product placement and branded entertainment. And in many cases, businesses may use video as marketing tool for lead generation and sales to promote their products, goods and services and extend brand message. But the question of how to most effectively monetize online video and what revenues to expect, tend to be more difficult to answer for many online video publishers. I led a panel discussion on Redefining Monetization at the Online Video Platform Summit that featured a diverse panel with Benjamin Wayne, CEO of Fliqz, Peter Csathy, CEO of Sorenson Media, Kevin Nalty of Nalts Consulting, and Teg Grenager, co-founder of Adap.tv who debated the viability of advertising in online video and the true value of online video as a marketing tool.

Redefining Monetization

Different organizations have different goals and business models when it comes to monetization. Some monetize their video content directly with advertising through pre-rolls, post-rolls, overlays and product endorsements or by a pay-per-view or subscription model. But most organizations will benefit by using video as a way to build value by driving sales, highlighting products, expanding brand awareness, and increasing customer engagement. This panel discussion will look at monetization from all the angles, address the different needs of B2B and B2C initiatives, and show examples of successful monetization practices.

Moderator: Larry Kless, Founder, President, OnlineVideoPublishing.com
Peter Csathy, President & CEO, Sorenson Media
Teg Grenager, VP of Product and Marketing & Co-Founder, Adap.tv Inc.
Kevin Nalty, Consultant, Nalts Consulting
Benjamin Wayne, CEO, Fliqz

Highlights from the Panel

Benjamin Wayne noted that until recent years video tended to be viewed in narrow terms of monetizing the video stream, and while ad supported models have proven effective, we're now seeing video used as a marketing tool in broader terms for reaching, building and converting an audience with a call-to-action on the site, with a 3-4 times conversion rate. Some of the businesses now using video are real estate agencies, dental offices, law firms, industrial and manufacturing.

Benjamin said:

"So the question is really, if you have a website and you're using online marketing as a tool to drive people to that website, video really should be part of the marketing mix. And the way in which you integrate it into the site and into your SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts needs to be broad reaching and strategic, as opposed to simply tactical around ad monetization."

Kevin "Nalts" Nalty looks at video as the most visceral form of social media, and initially he looked at it as an awareness tool, but more and more he's seeing it as a direct response vehicle. Now as a full online video marketing consultant, he works with many brands who are afraid of YouTube and video and want a safe place to play. But his message is, that it's the same concern about the web a decade ago, and that you need to be where the people are and bring your compelling message. His videos get about 6 million views per month with the bulk coming from YouTube, and as a content creator that's become a second source of income through the ad sharing revenue program.

Kevin shared some advise for creating branded content.

"When I'm commissioned by a company to do a promotional video, it's got to be entertaining, it can't feel like an ad, where people just turn it off."

Peter Csathy said any business online can use video to monetize their business and that 99% of sites with online video are not content or media sites that serve ads, they're much like the sites that Benjamin described, small and medium-sized businesses that drive revenue through video to showcase their products and services. He said that in 2010, competition in the business sector will drive more adoption of video as successful practices emerge, and high quality video is very important because it reflects on your brand.

Teg Grenager discussed online video from the media company perspective, and that the primary revenue stream for media companies is advertising. But they are faced with challenges of scale and inventory, but with ad networks and companies like Adap.tv, media companies have been able ramp up their online video publishing businesses. But CPM (cost per thousand) impressions vary and large media companies the Wall Street Journal and NY Times boast that hey can command CPMs of $50-60-70, but as Teg maintained that small media companies can run a very good business in a reasonable range of $10-15, which is what direct ad sales teams can get with relatively small but high quality content.

Benjamin pointed out that the page CPM and video ad CPM are different, and that the ability to monetize the entire page gives publishers more leverage. Teg agreed and said that the web offers a unique experience akin to television where publishers can measure time the spent on a page and balance that with an ad load that viewers can accept, such as two ads every 10 minutes.

Nalts shared a pet peeve of his about how impressions and CPMs are measured from a media purchase to a media buyer. Online video ads (pre-mid-post-rolls) and banner ads don't have the same result and level of engagement and until that gets fixed, we won't have real measurement of the viewer experience.

According to Kevin:

"An impression is such a lousy term for video, because an impression isn't an impression unless it MAKES an impression."

The panel discussed online video advertising and balancing the needs of viewers, publishers and advertisers, and that over time through real-time feedback on ads, there will be a more personal viewing experience where you won't get served up irrelevant ads. They also debated the production value of video advertising and the sustainability of amateur video for business marketing efforts, the death of viral video, and how that making a viral video is not a smart business move.

Kevin shared a few videos, this is sponsored video:

And this one that he almost didn't post, which now has over 14 million views

People always ask Nalts, "what works?" and he said that he has no clue, because he thinks that Scary Maze Game is a terrible video, but things that people should take into consideration are a few basic elements: good thumbnails, title, brevity, being a little edgy, sometimes sincere or moving, you've got to hook them at the beginning and adding that human element, having a face or person that the viewers can connect with really works - and all of these elements are transferable to publishers.

Kevin said a key strategy is that businesses can use YouTube to drive views back to their own sites, which can increase conversion and brand awareness. Benjamin said, video SEO is the "neglected gold mine" in the online space and that using proper submission techniques to Google, video is 53 times more likely to generate a first-page Google ranking than using traditional SEO techniques. He shared an example of a search term, "social product development in action" which when searched, brings up their customer's same video as the top first-page ranking with the video on YouTube and on the customer's own site. Email marketing with video thumbnails is another area that's been incredibly successful for another customer, Military.com, which Benjamin showed increased their views 800% to 10 million views a month.

The panel closed with final comments with shameless plugs and advise. Nalts said to become your own audience, sit through videos and realize what's good and what's bad, where you irritated and captivated and subscribe to WillVideoForFood.com. Benjamin suggested that sponsorships can be a great way for content publishers to escape the CPM lock and reach a niche audience. Brand advertisers can sponsor the page for month rather than video, which can be much higher rate of return.

My thanks to Benjamin, Kevin, Peter and Teg for a great a panel discussion!

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Online Video Platform Summit: Online Video Platform Showcase, Day 2 - Multicast Media, Datpresenter, Sorenson Media, Ooyala

This is the second Online Video Platform Showcase from day two of the Online Video Platform Summit, featuring Multicast Media, Datpresenter, Sorenson 360, and Ooyala. As in the previous showcase from day one, each of these providers differentiate themselves through a range of features, pricing, customer value and market focus. While they differ, they each offer a similar solution as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model with key capabilities in media management, encoding, publishing, distribution, analytics and monetization. Watch the video to learn more, and visit their websites for more information and free trials.

Online Video Platform Showcase - Day 2

Lou Schwartz, Chairman and CEO, Multicast Media Technologies, Inc.
Datpresenter, presented by IdaRose Sylvester, Co-founder of Silicon Valley Link
David Dudas, VP of Product Management, Sorenson Media
Sean Knapp, Co-Founder & CTO, Ooyala

For the latest updates on these OVPs, follow them on Twitter:

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Monday, December 14, 2009

Streaming Media West 2009 Red Carpet Interview - Peter Csathy, Sorenson Media on Redefining Monetization

In this Streaming Media West 2009 Red Carpet Interview, Peter Cervieri talks to Peter Csathy, President and CEO of Sorenson Media. Sorenson Media has a long history as an encoding solution that powered the early development of online video in Quicktime and Flash. Peter Csathy took the reins of the 14-year old video encoding and compression company turned video delivery network earlier this year. 2009 saw the successful launch of Sorenson 360, and the release of a major upgrade to Sorenson Squeeze 6 last month, which garnered the 2009 Streaming Media magazine Readers’ Choice Award for Encoding Software under $1,000 for the third year in a row. Peter also spoke at the Online Video Platform Summit on the Redefining Monetization panel session, which I had a lot of fun moderating. I've also spoke with Peter on several occasions this past year and recently featured him in two-part post, CEO Conversations: Peter Csathy, Sorenson Media's Digital Media Mastermind. He blogs regularly on his own personal blog about the digital media industry at Digital Media Update. See my post, Online Video Platform Summit - Sorenson Media to Showcase Squeeze 6 and Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network for more on their integrated video workflow and delivery solution.

Peter Cervieri also just posted his write up on Sorenson Media in his post, ScribeMedia.Org: Sorenson’s Online Video Platform. As a long-time Squeeze user, he provides a great overview of his production workflow with actual screen shots of the interview while encoding. Peter says that combined workflow of Squeeze with Sorenson 360 might just convert him into a full-time customer of their online video platform. The automated publishing and notification features in particular really help ease the "pain points" for video professionals like him.

The Q&A that follows was conducted with Peter Csathy for the Online Video Platform Summit panel session. He discusses his unique perspective on the topic of monetization of online video.

The title of this panel is Redefining Monetization. What do you think this is referring to?

Peter Csathy: The popularity of Internet video has many businesses searching for ways to monetize this powerful tool. The conventional thinking surrounding this monetization question focuses on serving ads to monetize videos themselves. While this way of thinking works for video destination sites like Hulu and YouTube, it is completely irrelevant to the other 99 percent of businesses on the Internet that are not content destination sites. For the vast majority of businesses, ad serving not only is irrelevant, it is counter-productive. The focus, instead, should be about how to use the extremely powerful medium of Internet video to drive more sales, better showcase products, and more fully engage current and prospective customers.

Peter, you often say that monetization in many senses goes beyond selling ads around videos online, what do you mean by that?

Peter Csathy: What I mean is: Can businesses use video on the Internet to spur sales, engage better (and longer) with customers and potential customers, and otherwise market more effectively? It cannot be doubted that the answer is a resounding “Yes” -- Internet video can be, and has been, effectively “monetized.” Countless businesses today use video on the Internet to drives sales and engage with, and educate, their customers and potential customers. Think showcase videos that are far more descriptive and engaging than textual or pictorial depictions of goods and services. Think engagement videos that hook you into a site to dig deeper and discover more. Think instructional videos. The travel business is one great example of the power of Internet video to monetize -- and monetize in a big, big way.

What role will video play in web development in the future? What kind of timeframe are we looking at (years, months, weeks)?

PeterCsathy: In 2010, expect the business of professionally produced online video (and those services enabling it) to expand dramatically. We will see accelerating use of video by businesses of all sizes to more effectively market and showcase their goods and services; communicate who they are in the marketplace; interact with customers and prospective customers; and ultimately grow their revenues and monetize their business. In other words, businesses will increasingly use video to drive their overall success.

What is the current market for businesses to incorporate video into their Web sites? How will some providers excel in this competitive market?

Peter Csathy: This accelerated realization of -- and dependence on -- the unique power of video will not just result from proactive foresight. Much of it initially also will happen reactively. Many businesses will see their competitors increasingly use video to give themselves significant advantages in the marketplace. In other words, they better jump on the video train before it leaves them behind. Why? Because there is no more effective medium to communicate messaging than video - video is far more powerful than text or mere images. We are visual creatures, and we will be drawn to video over all else...

... So long as that video is done right. “Right” in this context means high video quality and overall process simplicity, in addition to the actual video content itself. This will increasingly separate the winners and losers in the video-enabling world in 2010. Those who enable services that make it easy to publish the highest quality video over the Internet will realize this online video market opportunity. Quality is absolutely essential, because quality is credibility. Video quality reflects on the business’ products, services, and overall brand.

See this related post, Video is an Effective Sales Tool – Interview with Sorenson, on ReelSEO. Grant Crowell interviews Eric Quanstrom, VP, Marketing & Strategy at Sorenson Media.

About Sorenson Media

Sorenson Media offers comprehensive, award-winning solutions that empower businesses and video professionals to easily and affordably publish the highest-quality video to the Internet and other media. Included among its products and services are the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (VDN), Sorenson Media’s re-imagined video publishing platform; Sorenson Squeeze, the gold-standard for video encoding applications; Sorenson Squish and SquishNet, which together create an easy-to-use browser-based video publishing platform for user-generated content; and Sorenson Spark, the industry’s most widely used video codec, which enables mobile devices and other consumer products to playback the largest selection of video on the Internet today. Since its inception in 1995, Sorenson Media has been instrumental in bringing Internet video to mainstream applications and is committed to dramatically improving the online video experience for both content creators and consumers.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Online Video Platform Summit Monetization Panel - Redefining Monetization

Larry Kless
Founder and President,
OnlineVideoPublishing.com

Larry Kless is President and Founder of Online Video Publishing [dot] com a new media resource firm for sharing strategies and best practices for online video publishers. He writes a personal blog and is a contributor on Vator.tv and ReelSEO focusing on streaming media, online video, startups, gadgets, social media, advertising and marketing, videoconferencing and collaboration. He recently was named a 2009 Streaming Media All-Star by StreamingMedia.com, an annual team of the most innovative, influential, and important players in the online video arena.

Speakers

Peter Csathy
President & CEO
Sorenson Media

A 20-year digital media veteran, Peter Csathy's expertise encompasses all major facets of managerial leadership - including high-level business development, strategy, product development, marketing, finance and legal affairs. Csathy has held C-level roles at several high-growth companies, including CEO of SightSpeed, president and COO of Musicmatch, and COO of eNow, all of which achieved successful exits.

Teg Grenager
VP of Product and Marketing & Co-Founder
Adap.tv Inc.
An innovative leader in emerging technology and the co-founder of Adap.tv, Teg guides the product vision, roadmap, architecture, and user experience for OneSource, a best-in-class unified video ad monetization platform that empowers more than 300 publishers globally. This popular platform has helped many publishers increase video ad revenue, simultaneously boosting views without compromising viewer experience. Teg brings a unique blend of theory and practice from his academic work in the Ph.D. program in computer science at Stanford and his current role managing engineering, product and marketing at Adap.tv.

Teg has also provided strategic consulting services to many Fortune 100 companies as well as Travelocity.com with global management consulting firm Arthur D. Little. Teg holds a MS in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BA from Brown University. He has published extensively on machine learning and natural language processing in the academic literature arena. Past speaking engagements include instructing several classes at Stanford University and the IT Forum lecture series in Japan to consumer electronics executives.

Kevin Nalty
Blogger, WillVideoForFood.com, and Consultant
Nalts Consulting

Kevin Nalty - founder of Nalts Consulting, is the only career marketer who also is one of the most prolific online-video creators. Kevin has created nearly 800 videos that have been viewed throughout the world more than 105 million times. Kevin is also a highly experienced marketer with inline brand and agency experience. In addition to his Johnson & Johnson, KPMG Consulting and Qwest Internet Solutions experience, Kevin was most recently the Product Director of a top Merck consumer brand. Kevin is in a unique position to help translate social-media and video marketing into business impact.

Kevin's unique "inside out” and “outside in" perspective helps clients add value to both their company and their "target" market (customers, prospects, brand evangelists or large audiences). The sustainable programs are a win for both the company and the people with whom they engage. Nalts Consulting helps brands engage with lower risk, greater agility and speed, and defined success metrics. By drawing from his own experience and taping into experts in a variety of other "conversational" mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, Nalts Consulting helps to provide a return on the investment in social medias. Dozens of trusted brands -- Fox, Mentos, MTV and Crowne Plaza -- have benefited from Kevin's experience and skills.

Benjamin Wayne
CEO
Fliqz

Prior to Fliqz, Benjamin was President & CEO of Collabrys, a leading provider of outsourced customer acquisition and retention solutions for Global 1000 corporations, including Bank of America, Capital One, Visa, Estee Lauder, Clorox, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Target, New York Life Insurance, and Prudential. Collabrys was acquired by E-Centives in 2004.

Prior to Collabrys, Benjamin was the founder, president, and CEO of Smartshop.com, an online comparison shopping portal that was acquired by CNET in 2000. Prior to Smartshop, Benjamin was president of BG&W Consulting, a South Korea-based market-entry consultancy whose clients included Coca-Cola, Disney, Benetton, Cathay Pacific Airways, Samsung, and the U.S. government. Benjamin holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and he was a Fulbright Research Scholar to South Korea.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Online Video Platform Summit - Sorenson Media to Showcase Squeeze 6 and Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network

Sorenson Media has been on a steady pace of innovation to meet the video publishing challenges faced by video professionals. The 14-year old company redefined itself this past year by expanding the workflow of its best-in-class encoding software solution, Squeeze, into a full fledged video delivery network called Sorenson 360. The combination of client-side and browser-based encoding with a high-quality scalable content delivery platform has helped Sorenson Media solve video publishing puzzle for its core customer base with an "all-in-one total workflow."

Sorenson Media is in a unique position as it's the only company in the online video platform space that has been around more than 14 years and profitable for a long time. Sorenson Media introduced its first video codec in 1997. Apple licensed the Sorenson Video 1 (SV1) codec for inclusion in the Apple QuickTime video player, which helped established a new and higher standard for video quality on the Internet. The Sorenson Spark codec was the first Flash video codec and was also licensed as the original video codec used on YouTube. Since then, it has become the industry’s most ubiquitous codec, with well over one billion videos on the Internet encoded exclusively in the Sorenson Spark format.

Over the past several months I've had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Csathy, who joined as President and CEO earlier this year, and according to Peter, "we are still in the very early innings (inning 2 of a 9 inning game) of the Internet video opportunity" and the game changes everyday. Last week Sorenson Media announced a major upgrade to its well-known player with a new version 6.0. Sorenson Squeeze, which was launched on November 3.

Squeeze 6 includes a redesigned user interface with many enhancements in features and capabilities with innovative tools – such as email and text notifications and a secure review and approval process – that simplify the overall workflow and allow them to more easily encode and publish video files on the Internet. Optimized video codecs and new filters have also been added in Squeeze 6, significantly improving video quality and encoding speed. Also, tighter integration with video editing applications and direct publishing to multiple content delivery networks and social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, Akamai, Limelight and more. The VP6 codec is now included as part of Squeeze and encoding speed has been improved by 500%. Additionally, Sorenson Media includes a complementary annual account on the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network and has created Preset Exchange, a community web site which is an online repository of professional video encoding recipes or presets by industry experts.

For more on Squeeze 6 see Jan Ozer's review on Streaming Media.com, New Features Abound in Sorenson Squeeze 6.

Sorenson Media is a Platinum Sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit, and David Dudas, VP of Product Management, Sorenson Media will be demonstrating Sorenson Squeeze and 360 in the Online Video Platform Showcase on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:30 AM. Following the showcase Peter Csathy will speak on the panel discussion, Redefining Monetization, at 2:00 PM. See Sorenson Media on the exhibit floor in Table Top 2.

About Sorenson Media

Sorenson Media has been the global leader in video encoding and compression technology for nearly a decade and a half. What does that mean? It means that every day thousands of people rely on Sorenson Media for all their video encoding, publishing and delivery needs. So then the question becomes: Why wouldn't you? When quality counts, turn to the company you can trust, turn to Sorenson Media.

Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network
What is a Video Delivery Network? A Video Delivery Network (VDN) is a video publishing platform, re-imagined. This includes all elements of a professional video workflow: video encoding, hosting, management, syndicating, streaming and analysis of video to end-users on any device, across the Internet. The benefits of our Video Delivery Network include: significantly enhanced video quality, performance, scalability, ease-of-use and affordability. All of which are included standard in the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network.

Follow Sorenson Media on Twitter

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

CEO Conversations: Peter Csathy, Sorenson Media - Part Two

In part two of this CEO Conversations with Peter Csathy, we talk more about how Sorenson Media differentiates itself within the market and Peter offers his mid-year review of the online video space. We also talk about how in the midst of the economic recession his company continues to grow and hire more positions. Earlier this month, Sorenson Media reported that the number of international visitors to its Web site now exceeds domestic traffic as a result of the demand for the company’s digital video solutions. International sales are up and Peter attributed that to "a direct result of our established brand name and reputation for quality,” adding that, “It is also a testament to how important online video is becoming to businesses globally.”

In part one, Peter described their offering as the portfolio approach where you have the products and services. While they have the video publishing platform of Sorenson 360, they also have the separate encoding solution, Sorenson Squeeze which can work seamlessly together or completely independently.

Here's an overview video, Video Publishing Made Easy | Sorenson Squeeze + 360:

Here's the conclusion of our conversation:

Larry Kless: Last month Sorenson Media issued a press release that said, Sorenson Media Plans Further Expansion to Meet Growing Demand for Innovative Online Video Services, can you speak to that statement and further expand upon what you've been quoted there?

Peter Csathy: So, the exciting thing about this space, when we talk about the macro environment is that it's crazy economic times. It's very painful out there and we all know that. At the same time, we in the online or Internet video space who provide the toolsets (and there are a number of companies), all of us are very good position because the market for our kinds of services and technology is growing literally exponentially. So these are good times for our company.

And as a result, you see hiring going on with other companies that are in and around the space rather than retrenchment. We've already done significant hiring since I've come on board and we're continuing to do that. So we have a number of job reqs right now and we're about to announce some very important hires very soon for both the San Diego office and the Salt Lake office. The reason being is this massive opportunity that we're extremely bullish on and we're already capitalizing on. But this is just the beginning, we believe in what I'd like to say, the second inning of a nine inning game.

Larry Kless: Pete Wylie just gave us a mid-year review, and Will Richmond how much funding there's been in the online video space this year. So there's no question that there's continued innovation and continued funding. Based on that, what's your mid-year review and where do you see the industry is going and where Sorenson Media has gone and will boldy go?

Peter Csathy: Well, let's talk about the industry first, and this gets back to the discussion we've already had. There's a tremendous opportunity in any two of a nine inning game. That's where we are. As pervasive as Internet video is today this is only the beginning haven't seen any yet. Nobody's denied that there's this opportunity that's significant, and there will be plenty of room for many winners in that space.

Having said that, as a mid-year review, you see almost on a weekly basis a new entrant coming into the space. Let's face it, there are a lot of challenges for the breakout players within the universe of companies that are now trying to compete in that space. So the reality is, especially during tough economic times, that there will be a lot of shuttering of doors in many of the various participants who are trying to be winners in the space. You've already seen that with a number of companies including some that have been funded by some very big names that have come and gone. That doesn't mean the overall market opportunity is going away. It just means that you need to have a compelling reason to for customers to come to you and use your service. You need to be differentiated.

When we look at our company and where we fit into the ecosystem, I've mentioned some of these points already, we're uniquely situated in many different ways. So I won't repeat them all, but from a funding perspective we don't face the challenges that most others do. We've been around for fourteen years, we have a portfolio of services with multiple revenue streams. We have our Spark licensing business, our Squeeze sales business and our subscription SaaS (Software as a Service) business, Sorenson 360. We've been profitable for a number of years and we have a very healthy balance sheet. So we don't need to go out to the external world and raise money.

We're in very fortunate position where we're a successful stand-alone business and we're positioned well. We have a strong brand and we know who we're trying to meet the needs of, and we're not trying to be everything to everybody. We're looking at solving the problem and providing solutions to the video professionals until that space grows itself exponentially. We believe that we're positioned to be a winner in that space.

Now just a final thought, that doesn't mean we're complacent at all. We know that there's a lot of smart people out there doing a lot of great things. We need to always stay ahead of the others and continue to innovate. We have a history of fifteen years but we need to look at each day as a brand new day and not look in the past. That's the challenge that we face as a business just like any other business. We believe we have the right team to meet that challenge and we definitely have the passion internally to make that happen.

End of this CEO Conversation.

Sorenson Media is a platinum sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit and will be showcasing Sorenson 360 at the two-day event designed to help organizations of all types, not just those for whom video is their core business. Additionally, Peter will be speaking on a panel session at the Online Video Platform Summit which will be held on November 18-19 in conjunction with Streaming Media West in San Jose, and is designed for video publishers of all types and sizes, whether small businesses looking to publish content for the first time, independent entertainment content creators, large media organizations, or anywhere in between.

For more updates: Sorenson Media Blog

Follow: Peter Csathy (pcsathy) on Twitter

Follow: Sorenson Media (sorensonmedia) on Twitter

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

CEO Conversations: Peter Csathy, Sorenson Media's Digital Media Mastermind

Since Peter Csathy took the helm of Sorenson Media as President and CEO, the 14-year old company has expanded the capabilities of its core customer base by launching an easy-to-use and cost effective video delivery network, Sorenson 360. By combining Sorenson Squeeze encoding tools with Sorenson 360, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) and video professionals, have a dedicated workflow that extends into online video workflow. According to Dan Rayburn, EVP of Streamingmedia.com, who spent several months reviewing the product a hands on review, he said, "Sorenson Has A Winner With Their New 360 Video Platform." Dan provides a thoughtful review and gave Sorenson 360 a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 and noted that Sorenson 360 was designed to address the needs of the SMBs and bundles all the key services including transcoding, storage, delivery, analytics, player customization all within an easy to use system.

Here's a brand new About Sorenson Media video, that makes an exclusive world premiere right here on this blog, in which Peter illustrates the key features and benefits of the Sorenson 360 video delivery network.

The following is recent conversation I had with Peter to catch up on the latest developments at his company. He also shares his perspective on monetizing of online video, the importance of high quality video encoding and what differentiates Sorenson 360 from the offerings of the many online video platform providers in the space. This is part one of the two part interview.

Larry Kless: I was just on your blog and I saw that, It's Official -- Sorenson 360 Now Features Secure Vid Review & Customizable Player Options, was that the announcement, could you explain that product launch?

Peter Csathy: Yes it was so just yesterday we introduced we significantly enhanced Soresnson 360 into the marketplace and it's a good day because the reception to date has been great couldn't ask for more.

Larry Kless: You also mentioned in your blog post that there was some critical differentiating reasons why Sorenson is in this crowded marketplace could you go into that then and then maybe talk about it but even before that what's so important about those new features?

Peter Csathy: So with respect to Sorenson 360, what we introduce yesterday there were really two primary features but from other important enhancements and we've addressed these very quickly from our initial initial launch back in May because our customers and prospective customers were really looking for these features and it surprised us that many of these were much larger groups of SMBs then we originally anticipated so that's a very good thing, and the two features that they wanted most were secure review and approval. So what we implemented is this secure password protected video. So now let's take an ad agency for example they can have their videos, they can then share them with their clients in a secure format and their clients are comfortable sharing this and they can then collaborate directly around that video in a way that makes them feel very comfortable.

So secure video with password protection was an important part of the launch yesterday. The second major enhancement is the fact that we introduced customizable players so now, as an example, video professionals and SMBs can add their own logos, they can choose the buttons and what they want on the players, the look of the players, the feel of the player and this was something that was requested very heavily from the users and prospective users. So those were the two major enhancements yesterday that quite frankly customers asked for so we listened to that and put it on the fast track in terms of development.

Larry Kless: When we've spoken in the past you described that with the launch of Sorenson 360 that you've been really in tune with your customer base and it's clear that you continue to keep in tune with them and to make enhancements based on customer demand and make it easy for them to publish a video online.

Peter Csathy: This gets back to your question about differentiation and how we look at the overall publishing market. There are a number of players and participants and it's a growing list of companies that are addressing this video publishing market and this tremendous opportunity is available to all. You know you go from companies looking to address needs of the consumer and then those who are addressing the needs of the enterprise and then there's this square in the middle where we have the SMBs, what we call the video professionals. That's our bread and butter. We know those customers, those SMBs and video professionals because we have been working with them for years and years and years. So we have an ongoing relationship with them because they've been using Squeeze for years and this is a customer base we know.

With this massive existing customer base of Squeeze users we are able to create products around them based on what they're looking for and they told us what they were looking for and that's what the genesis of Sorenson 360. The major differentiator of ours versus other players in the marketplace is that we are singularly focused on meeting the needs of the video professionals, the SMBs and we have an existing massive customer base of video professionals who are hungry for this kind of service and so we're able to provide this all-in-one one solution to them now. That's significant when you look at us versus other players in the space in that we bring quality front and center as part of Sorenson 360. And what I mean by that is that is we uniquely, I'm not aware of anybody else who does this, we uniquely can bring the power and quality of client side encoding through the equation and we bring that into Sorenson 360.

Larry Kless: Yes, because when you do all that encoding in the cloud you can't control your quality. I haven't seen any online video platform that actually publishes what their encoding specs are and actually gives you access to changing those settings.

Peter Csathy: That's right and for the video professional, the best quality is going to come from the control that they will have on the client side to adjust it precisely the way they want it. So we are able to uniquely say that Squeeze is already known as best-in-class, the gold standard when it comes to video encoding. The full power of Squeeze and client-side encoding is brought into Sorenson 360, it's brought into it in two different ways. You can have Squeeze the separate application that's seamlessly integrated into Sorenson 360, or for those who don't need that much control and power, they just want it be as easy as possible but they want the full benefits of the Squeeze client-side encoding engine. We have browser-based client-side encoding as part of Sorenson 360. So you don't need the separate Squeeze application. And it's simple drag-and-drop but it's all the power of client-side encoding so it is that control area you mentioned but it's also several other significant benefits.

So you've already compressed the file locally so when you're sending that into the cloud it's much quicker and it's done in a fraction of the time it would take it come from in front of the time that it would take using other solutions on the server side. And there are also significant cost benefits that come from that because you're not using bandwidth on the upside, just when you stream the video down so our operating costs are significantly less than other services and we can pass those savings onto our customers.

Larry Kless: Let's talk a minute about quality. I was looking at your blog post, For Video Professionals, It's the Encoding Stupid! Their Quality Content Is King, and I think about that in terms of one of your most recent posts about the video Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo just posted, Amazon's Bezos Uses YouTube to Explain Zappos Deal - But, C'mon, THAT Vid Quality? So you've been talking about how important video quality is in the value that everything we've just talked about brings to your core customer but then also to the consumer side. Could you talk about that and how high concept/low tech and poor encoding isn't always a great equation?

Peter Csathy: Yes absolutely so what your referring to is the video that Jeff Bezos and Amazon just posted yesterday on YouTube to announce a justification for the Zappos deal, and let's talk about a couple of things. It's quite a revolutionary way to do describe a business decision and you'll see much more of this. So what Bezos did of course is publish it on YouTube for the world to see because the intention was to make it as viral as possible. That's great for everybody in the online video game because that shows you the unique power of Internet video and the power ultimately come from getting massive buzz, massive distribution and making it very viral creating that kind of excitement in a way that no other forms of distribution can. That was a smart smart move by Amazon.

Now getting back to the quality issue and where quality matters. Whether you're a business that's huge like Amazon, a small medium business, video professional or consumer you still have the same goals of getting as massive distribution you want your videos to be seen by as large as a group of folks that you can and ultimately that will come down in large part to the quality of that video because without an optimal experience viewing that video you are sub-optimizing the overall distribution.

So while Amazon gets high high marks for uniquely coming up with this way of getting the word out on the Zappos announcement, it's very surprising to me and to others within our organization that the marketing team allowed the quality to be as poor as it was and in that video and because that is not getting the message across in the way that anybody would like to get across which it was the highest quality.

Larry Kless: I agree, and late last night I started a blog post about it and I looked all over the news, I checked Techmeme and the echo chamber was filled with talking about the deal but Dan Rayburn and you were the only people I saw talking about the video quality. So I saw two posts about it that commented on video and it is again, as you said too, is that it's a uniquely powerful way to use video when you've got the head of the company using video for viral marketing but the quality was extremely low, it was shot outside, there's lots of motion who knows what camera they used and it looked like it was done for $1.98.

Peter Csathy: It does look like it was done for $1.98, and the production itself, that's not the problem in fact as I commented on my blog the folksy nature of it is precisely what the marketing team wanted to do because that Amazon's shtick in the first play and it worked for them very effectively. But folksy really doesn't mean and shouldn't mean poor quality, and I'll give you a small real-world example from our own company.

When we announced the ability to view all of the videos from Sorenson 360 on an iPhone, that was a recent announcement about a month ago we shot in the course of thirty minutes of video showing the power of that just using a Flip cam, and I was outside with no special equipment at all, no special microphone just the microphone from the Flip cam. I was walking around the city of Carlsbad explaining it and if you look on our web site you can find that video and although we've done it for no money whatsoever, so for $1.98 if you will, the quality that video is pristine precisely because of the encoding and the power of the Sorenson 360 engine.

So that's the difference, low-tech in terms of production, that's the power of what all the tools that are around us. You don't need to have the heavy machinery in terms of creating great quality video but you do need the right encoding solution because that's where it comes from and that's what was lacking in Bezo's case and that's why it failed to optimize. Because look, they're trying to do what all these businesses who use online video and who understand the promise of it. They want to do is to build their businesses, monetize them better and more effectively than they have been able to date and ultimately the monetization question from online video comes down to that. For 95% of the businesses out there, it's not about ads and pre-rolls and post-rolls because they're not selling their videos themselves, they're looking to build their businesses, monetize their businesses, sell their goods and services market more effectively to the customers showcase their products much more effectively to their customers and prospective customers then they have been able to date. That's what online video does for them and that's the monetization question for them.

Larry Kless: It's a great discussion and we're looking forward to your participation in the Online Video Platform Summit in November.

Peter Csathy: Thank you, I do believe that the question of monetization of Internet video is tremendously misunderstood and proper focus isn't out there in the collective consciousness. And this gets down to what Dan Rayburn pointed out several times in what I'm pleased to say, his glowing review of Sorenson 360 and I appreciated that. As he pointed out as an example, we are not competing with a company like Brightcove. We don't see them as competitors. We’re in the same space but we're just addressing different market segments. So for our market segment, the video professionals this gets back to the point of when 95% of the businesses out there are looking to monetize their businesses not their videos themselves. They'll showcase their videos perhaps but sell their services. SMB that’s what they're trying to do, that's who we're targeting. So for these customers, we know who they are because they're Squeeze users and they told us that pre-rolls, post-rolls, that toolset is much less important to them from a prioritization standpoint the features we're talking about.

Quality, job one but all the things that we've introduced into the market yesterday for example, secure workflow, customization, all of that and so the reason why it's different gets back to the point of they're not looking to monetize the videos themselves but their services, their products her and that's the appropriate question to them in terms of monetizing online video

Larry Kless: Hear hear! (laughs)

Peter Csathy: There's a preview what I'm so passionate about and that's what I'll be discussing on the panel at the Online Video Platform Summit.

End of Part one. Stay tuned for Part Two

You can stay current on Peter's myriad of media and technology musings on his blog, Digital Media Update.

About Sorenson Media, Inc.
Sorenson Media, offers comprehensive, award-winning video solutions that empower customers to easily and affordably deploy the highest-quality video across the Internet. Included among its products and services are the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (VDN); Sorenson Squeeze, the gold standard encoding application; Sorenson Squish and SquishNet, an easy-to-use browser-based video publishing platform for user-generated content; and Sorenson Spark, the industry’s most widely used video codec, which today empowers the largest selection of Internet video on mobile devices and other consumer products. From its inception in 1995, Sorenson Media has been instrumental in mainstreaming Internet video, and is committed to dramatically improving the online video experience for content creators and consumers alike.

Related:

Updated 9/23/09: Corrections to transcribed text.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Coming Soon to Klessblog, CEO Conversations

It's been a busy summer which kept me running and offline frequently and probably the busiest I've been at my corporate day job in years. But I'm happy to report it's been quite an adventure. I've had the opportunity to meet many new people along the way, make new friends and interview CEOs, Co-founders, marketing directors, product managers and thought leaders who help shape the future of online video and social media. As I approach the two year mark of Larry Kless' Weblog, with close to 400 blog posts and counting, I want to acknowledge and thank everyone who took the time to reach out to me, contribute news and information, arrange conference calls, send me emails and press releases and most importantly help educate me on the value they bring to the online video space so that I can share those conversations with the readers of this blog.

I mentioned a few months ago,

"What I love about writing this blog is that I get to meet new people and learn all about their companies, the products and services they offer and their technology innovations that help shape the online video industry."

But with the daily demands of my professional and personal life it's been a challenge to publish many of the interviews I've conducted over the last few months in a timely manner. I find myself echoing the same words from that previous post to say, I have a number of blog posts I'm working on I wanted to take a moment to let you all know what's upcoming on this blog.

Coming in September: CEO Conversations

While this isn't a new feature, I'll be giving it some focus with a title much like Pete Wylie and Tim Street have done on their blogs when they interview online video leaders. Here's some of the people who I've had the pleasure of speaking with whom I will profile in the coming weeks.

Jeremy Allaire, CEO and Chairman, Brightcove
Hooman Radfar, CEO and Co-founder, Clearspring
Abe McCallum, CEO, Clikthrough
Ben Weinberger, CEO and Co-Founder, Digitalsmiths
Ron Yekutiel, CEO and Chairman, Kaltura
Max Haot, CEO and Co-founder, Livestream
Gregory Casale, CEO, Starbak
Peter Csathy, CEO and President, Sorenson Media

Not to mention
Additional interviews and conversations I've had with other online video leaders and companies, that have yet to be published:

Adap.tv - talks about the upgraded OneSource 2.0 ad management platform
Channels.com - CEO Sean Doherty discusses his RSS video site which launched last September '08
The Feedroom - Matt DeLoca, SVP of Sales discusses the rapid adoption they are seeing at the corporate level for online video advertising and communications and updates The Feedroom's web site and business focus
WonderHowTo - a conversation with CEO Stephen Chao about his how-to video site

There's a whole lot more that I'll be publishing on this blog. With the Online Video Platform Summit and Streaming Media West now just a few months away you can bet that I'll be promoting those events as well. I also want thank Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, Dan Rayburn and Joel Unickow at Streamingmedia.com and my good friend Mark Robertson, Founder of ReelSEO who have been great supporters and have given me the opportunity to extend my reach beyond this blog.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Sorenson Media Rebrands With Video Delivery Network, Video Publishing, Re-Imagined

In part two of my interview with Peter Csathy, CEO and President of Sorenson Media, we further discuss the launch of Sorenson 360 which helped rebrand his company as a video delivery network and encoding platform. Sorenson Media recently introduced an entriely new corporate identity, including a completely redesigned website and new logo -- the Sorenson "bloom" -- which as Peter says "represents the elegant blooming and organic growth of Internet video. It also represents the blooming of innovation and creativity at Sorenson Media." Just yesterday, Sorenson Media announced announced a significant expansion of their Sorenson Spark licensing program, with companies such as Qualcomm, Sony, Verizon, Ittiam and NXP Semiconductors signing on as licensing partners for its Sorenson Spark decoder enabling the full world of Internet video on mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices. Several weeks ago Verizon Wireless also licensed Sorenson Spark video technology for use in the new touch screen home phone system, the Verizon Hub.

According to Peter, "we are still in the very early innings (inning 2 of a 9 inning game) of the Internet video opportunity" and the game changes everyday.

LARRY KLESS: Where there any surprises that came up during the launch, during the announcement within the past day that kind of got you going, "Huh"? Anything in particular?

PETER CSATHY: Well, I'll tell you this; we did a press tour beforehand and so there was a lot of feedback that we had back. And I can tell you that this is not puffery, but uniformly, it was positive. The video publishing space, there are a number of players in that space already. But what everybody -- and this is what -- I shouldn't say it's surprising, but it's pretty unique that nobody that I've seen and you've seen all of the press, there's been a lot of press that came out of this. But there has not been a single reporter or blogger or analyst that I have seen that had said, "It's a crowded space and we don't understand why Sorenson's getting into it." Even when somebody says there's a space with many players in it, they immediately say, "But Sorenson has the advantages of having the reputation it does, having the customer base, et cetera, et cetera."

So the interesting thing is that I have not seen a single review or article that has been negative. It's been all very positive and, in fact, downright enthused by some. So it's been extremely gratifying. And the reason why I say that's kind of surprising is because that virtually never happens no matter how good a product is. And that's a tremendous testament to the team that we have over here because let's face it; I'm not taking credit for it.

I've been with the company for a few months now and I'm very proud of the job we've done since I've gotten here, but this is because these guys are that good. They're that good, and they're that dedicated to what they're doing. And so you can imagine how gratifying it is for all of us that it's been received so incredibly well in the marketplace.

LARRY KLESS: So in terms of all of the talk of the cloud services, open APIs. For instance, say a customer has an ad network through whatever cloud service, is it pretty seamless to plug right in?

PETER CSATHY: Yes. Absolutely. But the interesting thing about it, and you kind of hit the nail head on something that's a topic that's very misunderstood, and that's ad networks and ad serving and the importance of monetizing videos themselves directly rather than using video to monetize your business.

Remember, our target market is the Squeeze user, the prototypical Squeeze user which is the video professional and the SMB. We're not targeting the media companies like a YouTube or a Hulu, although those kinds of companies do use -- we know Hulu uses Squeeze, as an example. But we're not targeting media companies for our new Sorenson 360, although they can use us. We're targeting the video professional, the SMB. So those video professionals, they told us it's not about serving ads and monetizing the videos that way because they're not destination sites. What it is to them, it's about using internet video and their video assets to better monetize their businesses online. And this is really important. And almost nobody focuses on this critical point. For 99 percent of the businesses out there, they're not video destination sites. But businesses like you and me who want to get their video assets up there to better sell their products, market their products, showcase their products, engage with the customer, market to the customer, educate them. And that's how internet video is used. And that's how they sell more, market more effectively, create an ongoing relationship with the customer so they can market more effectively.

And I'll give you an example, like the travel industry. Travel websites now it's absolutely critical to have video on their sites to sell the services. But they're not selling the videos themselves. They don't care what's on the videos themselves. What they're selling is their resort, what it looks like, the experience so people will book. And so it's very interesting. And I think that all of the focus in the media is about the challenge of monetizing online video. But, again, that impacts one percent or less of the businesses out there. That's the Hulus, the video destinations like in the content sites like newspapers and et cetera. For everybody else, for all businesses out there, it's about making your business more effective, building your business. And internet video can do things that nothing else can. But it's not about serving ads; it's about building your business and engaging your customers more effectively.

LARRY KLESS: Absolutely. Using video, to a certain extent, like direct response.

PETER CSATHY: Absolutely right. And the thing is video -- the medium of video can do things that nothing else can. You can solve better and engage with your customers much more effectively with video than you can with text and with pictures.

LARRY KLESS: And as a note, too, the conversation we just had about monetizing video, you said so well in a previous blog post on May 6th, about it ain't about ads. I think it's so great that you have this blog.

PETER CSATHY: I just think, for me, first of all, I like doing it. Secondly, it gives me just a place where I can -- and for anybody who's interested, they can better understand where I'm coming from on some things because I would say five percent of my posts are about the business that I'm running. The last three days they have been or the last three posts have been just because we had this massive announcement and I wanted to explain it better. But absolutely, like the ad post to me is a very important one because I really do believe that the reporters are missing the point when it comes to monetization.

LARRY KLESS: I agree with you. There's been so much focus on that and it seems, too, that a lot of the coverage of the space is almost looking for like that TMZ moment.

PETER CSATHY: Yeah. That's right.

LARRY KLESS: And then correcting themselves when they got it wrong.

PETER CSATHY: Oh, and don't get me wrong. I think ads are something that's important given the context, depending on the kind of business you are. But it's certainly for the small percentage, a very small fraction of those who are using internet video.

LARRY KLESS: And then how about the corporate rebranding? And I have to say, too, I like new the logo. It's really updated. How was that process?

PETER CSATHY: I'm glad you mentioned that because you know how there's so much thought put into every little detail that you see. And this gets back to the mantra, easy is hard. So you look at the website and it's very gratifying to hear the kind of what you just said because I've got to tell you people love what they've seen in terms of our redesign. And when it gets to the logo itself, it's a long process. But immediately when it was developed, everybody liked it. Everybody liked it internally at our company. And so when it was first shown to me, I said, "I like that." It spoke to us.

And the genesis of it was our creative design had those thoughts -- he developed it based on those thoughts that I discussed in that blog post. That it means this. It means the blooming of internet video. But it's a bloom. It's ground deep in the tradition. It's rooted in the tradition of Sorenson. All of these things bubbled up in his mind and led to the creation of this logo. And so we call it the bloom. And it's interesting because when you think of -- for Sorenson Media -- for something like a 360 product, let's say you call it 360, sure you could have something that's very literal like a sphere, right?

LARRY KLESS: Yes.

PETER CSATHY: But it's an interesting non-literal logo that we've chosen for this company because it represents something much broader than that. It's those main themes that I identified.

LARRY KLESS: Yeah. I look at it and I was thinking, I mean it looks like a flower. It looks like it's opening up. So it's your designers and they really interpreted where you wanted to go with this. It's great. And then the actual site has just more of a kind of -- the colors -- wasn't the other -- it was like lots of black and lots of orange? It's a much lighter look. And I see they have a link to your blog, too. That's so cool.

PETER CSATHY: Now listen; I'm very pleased and very proud of the creative team and the entire team. They did a great job. So thanks for noticing. And I'll definitely share that with them.

LARRY KLESS: Well, Peter thanks.

PETER CSATHY: Well, I'll tell you one thing that we do here is that -- and I think you know me well enough now because we've spoken a few times -- we're a passionate bunch over here. We really believe what we say. We don't think of this as a job. We really do think that we're very fortunate to be doing what we're doing and have the opportunity to create the things that we do and the experiences that we do. So there's a true passion behind all of this. So when I'm talking to you, I really mean -- it's that kind of enthusiasm.

LARRY KLESS: Yeah, I get it.

PETER CSATHY: And it's across the board with the people here. And that's fun.

This concludes my interview with Peter Csathy. Look for more news on Sorenson Media in their press room, on Peter's blog, check out the related posts below and stay tuned for more coverage on this blog.