Streaming Media East: Content Production for the Web

This is the first of a number of Streaming Media East videos that I'll be featuring on the blog titled, "Content Production for the Web" from Tuesday, May 12th which was moderated by my friend Paul Kontonis co-founder and CEO of New York-based digital media studio For Your Imagination. The panel features Tim Shey, Co-Founder, Head of Entertainment, Next New Networks, Christine Beardsell, VP, Creative Director, Creative Director, Digitas/The Third Act and Austin Chang, VP, Strategy and Development, MTV Digital and focused on the types of online video, audience engagement, production and monetization amongst other topics important to developing and producing web video. 

Paul was also part of the panel discussion I moderated at Streaming Media West last year on Streaming Media West: Updating and Syndicating Your Channels for New Media Distribution which also featured Mark Rotblat of TubeMogul and Saidah Nash of Thomas Reuters.

Content Production for the Web

Track C (C103)   1:45 PM - 2:30 PM

If the sitcom and miniseries were the unique genres of broadcast TV, what will the new online TV look like? What will appeal to audiences and get them to come back again and again? What is the relationship between the audience and the new forms of online video? This session provides a showcase for the talent creating this new medium and showcases the evolution of original online programming and the tools available to help content creators engage their audiences.

Moderator:	Paul Kontonis, CEO, Co-Founder, For Your Imagination
Panel:	Tim Shey, Co-Founder, Head of Entertainment, Next New Networks Christine Beardsell, VP, Creative Director, Digitas/The Third Act Austin Chang, VP, Strategy and Development, MTV Digital

Follow these peeps and their companies on Twitter:

• Paul Kontonis (kontonis) on Twitter
  
• For Your Imagination (fyistudio) on Twitter
  
• Tim Shey (moth) on Twitter
  
• Next New Networks (nextnewnetworks) on Twitter
  
• Christine Beardsell (beardsell) on Twitter
  
• Digitas (Digitas) on Twitter
  
• Austin Chang (angryaustin) on Twitter
  
• MTV (MTV) on Twitter
  

Related:

Web Content Is Like Sushi, and Other Tips - Digits - WSJ

By Andrew LaVallee - May 13, 2009
When it comes to creating original material for the Web, Tim Shey, co-founder of Next New Networks, says it’s like sushi. “The fresher the better,” he said during a Streaming Media East panel session on digital content production, “and don’t leave it sitting around for too long.”

For Mr. Shey’s company, which makes Web shows such as “Barely Political” and “Nite Fite,” videos made in advance or with block shooting don’t do as well, he said. (more...)

McCain's VP Pick Sarah Palin on Flixwagon

Now as the Democratic ticket hits the campaign trail following their successful lovefest in Denver, the political stage is set for the next media event with the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. The big story today of course is John McCain's selection of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Traditional broadcast and new media outlets spread the news through the distributed channels. This Tweet caught my eye from Flixwagon that said,"flixwagon rare early interview with veep candidate Sarah Palin about the elections via MTV and Flixwagon: http://is.gd/236u"

I followed the link to this Flixwagon interview with the Alaskan Governor conducted last February on Super Tuesday by MTV News Street Teamer Dani Carlson.

Here's an excerpt from that post by Ken Zamkow on Flixwagon blog:

"With Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain's surprising announcement of picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, many media outlets are finding there aren't many videos quite yet showing the veep hopeful talking about the national elections. Not MTV: back in Super Tuesday in February 2008, MTV street reporter Dani Carlson made a live video interview with Palin using a mobile phone running the Flixwagon application."

From the MTV Newsroom by Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Dani Carlson, Sarah Palin, Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee, Plugs Romney, Paul — But Not McCain — In MTV Interview Published by MTV News on Friday, August 29, 2008:

"In this interview, Palin calls controversial Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul “cool.” “He’s a good guy,” she added. “He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I." (more)
"She also spoke about Alaska’s natural resources, and urged the next president to look to her state for relief from the country’s reliance on foreign oil. “We have so much oil we are just sitting on,” she said. “We would be less reliant on foreign sources of energy [if we utilized that] — we need to have the ability to tap into it and produce for rest of the United States.”

Related and Interesting:

• MTV Newsroom » Sarah Palin, Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee, Plugs Romney, Paul — But Not McCain — In MTV Interview
• MTV and Flixwagon first on the scene with Sarah Palin interview! - The Flixwagon Blog
• Shameless Blogger Already Claiming Credit For McCain Palin VP Pick
• 7 More Facts about Sarah Palin - Mashable
• Anti-Abortion Activists Cheer McCain's V.P. Pick - WSJ.com
• McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School | Wired Science from Wired.com
• McCain's VP Choice Evident On Wikipedia Weeks Ago | WebProNews
• Shameless Blogger Already Claiming Credit For McCain Palin VP Pick - Silicon Alley Insider
• Sarah Palin: The hottest photo of Alaska's governor on the Internet - Valleywag

Qik and Flixwagon Mix it up at the DNC 08

The two popular live mobile broadcasting services, Qik and Flixwagon, are covering the events at 2008 Democratic National Convention. These mobile reporters and citizen journalists use their cell phones (which replaces the large camera crews, bulky video equipment and satellite uplink trucks) to provide an unfiltered view that you won't see on the network television broadcasts.

Qik has an event page here with 16 Qikkers attending and while the convention is only televised for a few days the Qik event one week long. I've included a few videos below.

This video which already has over 33,000 views from TPMTV is a Qik report following Hillary Clinton's speech this evening. (UPDATE: The reporter is David Kurtz and his delivery is very much in the traditional news reporting style. His other videos of interviews and on the floor coverage are already some of the "Most Viewed" videos on Qik with A look from behind the podium as Michelle Obama finishes with close to 87,000 views)


This is one is from C-SPAN of protesters, vendors, delegates outside the Denver Convention Center. About a minute into the video you can some protesters getting arrested.


Another one from the Uptake is titled "Who's Wolf Blitzer?" and features a colorful protest through the streets of Denver.


I'm always interested in behind the scenes video and this one is "Inside C-SPAN's Production Truck."

Flixwagon is also on the scene partnering again with MTV and arming a number of street reporters with Flixwagon-equipped mobile phones to cover the action in Denver. They're also streaming live videos directly to their pages on the MTV Think website as part of MTV's Choose or Lose campaign .

The official release is here.
























Some of the videos and street reporters can be found here:

• http://think.mtv.com/profile/trevorFmartin
• http://think.mtv.com/profile/cgeraci25
• http://think.mtv.com/profile/MiGoNev
• http://think.mtv.com/profile/janeflemingkleeb
• http://think.mtv.com/Issues/politics

Not be Outdone, Flixwagon Now Also Available on iPhone 2.0.1 and 3G

Flixwagon announced yesterday that their live mobile broadcasting application is now available for iPhone 3G and for original iPhones running firmware 2.0.1. On their blog Ken Zamkow says,

"After being first to broadcast from iPhones back in June, and first to launch our public iPhone app for 1.1.4 in July, we're now releasing our app for iPhone 3G and original iPhone 2.0.x. This means we now support all iPhone models and firmware!"

As with Qik, your iPhone will need to be jailbroken with either Cydia or Installer. They have detailed instructions on how to install Flixwagon on their blog and more information on iSpazio. This is an Alpha release and they say that once the iPhone SDK supports native video they'll release an official application on the iPhone app store. They also note that, "We don't encourage 'opening' or 'jailbreaking' iPhones, nor switching back to older firmware, and users do so at their own risk."



Flixwagon also made big news partnering with MTV this past weekend on "Jonas Brothers: Live & Mobile" in a "First-Of-Its-Kind Nonstop Blogging Event" to deliver 6 million video streams to Jonas Brothers fans exceeding previous their records totaling 60,000 hours of content viewed and 281,000 page views.

On the Flixwagon blog Ken Zamkow says,

"Throughout the 36-hour event, a number of MTV bloggers and reporters made live videos directly to the MTV site and TV studio using mobile phones running the Flixwagon application... Even the brothers themselves carried one of the phones and made several live videos throughout the event... Apart from the successful event itself, what we’re also extremely happy about is that we were able to show again how the Flixwagon platform can scale and be customized to fit different types of live broadcasts, in terms of number of concurrent broadcasters, web video streams, and streaming from mobile phones to internet and/or television."

The Viacom press release also noted that,"This combination of mobile broadcasting technology and as-it-happens coverage is reminiscent of News and Docs' series "Diary," but with a live and direct twist."