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Source:Mashable!

As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve been using a pretty rare platform for our video podcast series Mashable Conversation.  The platform is called Episodic, and it’s amongst the best I’ve tried (and I’ve tried quite a few).  I don’t often fawn over a company, so I hope you’ll indulge me for a moment. They’ve got one of the most responsive customer service teams I’ve ever worked with, with the aim to really make the usage of the system as transparent as possible for the producers.

Given that I preach very often about the features and services that video platforms should be providing for their customers, when I’m auditioning services for my own use (or in this case, the company’s usage), I send the unfortunate company representative through a long list of hoops they must jump through.  Noam Lovinsky was the unfortunate soul assigned to explaining the platform’s capabilities to me.

They Have What I Need

My requirements were that the platform must: generate an iTunes compatible podcast RSS feed, must have an embedded player that has viral elements (remote embedding, and such), have detailed analytics, have dynamic advertisement insertion capabilities, and must be able to generate an iPod compatible MP4 file.

There are a few platforms out there that we’ve tried that get about 90% of this done, but Episodic’s was the first that got 100%, and then some.  Their transcoding options support a variety of standardized formats, and allow you to upload your program in multiple segments so you can change out elements of the show without going back and re-rendering the entire back-catalog (for instance, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve changed out the intro to something a bit more aesthetically pleasing this week).

The ability to dynamically assemble an episode also allows for a whole new level of analytics to get accustomed to. I can run side by side comparisons, for instance, on the two versions of the introduction to the show (interestingly, the one with the higher quality seems to perform about 1% poorer in terms of drop-offs).

The advertising options in the system are particularly advanced, as well. It supports pre-rolls, mid-rolls, post-rolls, and overlays across all of your content.

As an added bonus, the system also integrates with another favorite video service of mine: TubeMogul.  After your files have been transcoded on the service, you’re able to with a click upload them directly to your TubeMogul account (which then of course blasts them out to YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo Video, and the wide assortment of other embedded video hosting websites out there).

Act Now, and You Also Get…

With all that, what else could they pile onto the deal to sweeten the pot?  Well, pulling the service out of invitation only mode would be great (I can’t tell you how many requests I’ve had recently from fellow producers interested in giving Episodic a spin, lately).  They’re doing a little bit of that today - it’s not exactly open registration, but they’re launching a new service that uses some of the transcoding technology they’ve developed.

Do you have an existing video feed?  Would you like it to have an iPhone compatible website generated around that content so that iPhone users can check it out?

Simply fill out the form and set up your transcoding account.  And while you’re there, you can also apply to be a part of the limited beta on the platform we use here at Mashable.

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Source:Mashable!

Every day we hear about how the Web is going to change the movie industry, the music industry and even software usage along with its related data storage. We hear how the web is becoming that ubiquitous utility service that we will all be using at some point whether it be from a desktop, a laptop or our mobile phones. Of course though what isn’t being said that in order to have this ubiquitous access it has to be an access that we can afford as well as access that is capable of handling the heavy load of all this data transfer without any interruptions.

In the majority of the world this is something that is happening with some speed. Whether you are in Europe or any number of forward thinking countries of the Far East broadband speed is growing by leaps and bounds with costs of accessing those pipes well within reach of the average person on the street. In the United States however almost the exact opposite is happening. Whether it is Comcast getting caught traffic shaping or the fact that Time Warner will be putting caps on the broadband usage or in the most recent news that AT&T is looking at instituting tiered based pricing on usage the fact is that Americans are losing out on the same technological advantages the rest of the world is enjoying.

The fact that this is all happening during a time when there is real push to deliver video over the web, offer music downloading as a retail alternative, and the push the use cloud computing services should be of no real surprise I guess. After all, the players in this internet service provider game are companies that are well known for their preference of making as much money as possible while giving as little service as possible to the customer. The problem is though is that with every little increase regardless of whether it is being hidden behind caps and spin terms like “fair access for all” it is getting more and more expensive for people who want; or even in many cases need, the access to true broadband speeds.

Even though the companies involved like to spin as it being the fairest way to make sure that everyone has equal access to the Internet while at the same time they threaten that unfettered access is going to lead to service bottlenecks they have done nothing improve the systems. Already the US is being overshadowed by foreign countries who have invested heavily in all forms of broadband and whose populations enjoy services we only seem to be able to dream about. In the process the US is sliding further down the list of countries with broadband access but these provider companies like Time Warner, Comcast or AT&T continue to roll in the billions of dollars.

It doesn’t matter about all the talk of how fast broadband is in the US; or any country for that matter. If the people can’t afford what really is nothing but the most basic of access, you can have all the video for download that you want or have as many programs running in the cloud as you want - it won’t get used. The fact is that real access will all be out of the reach of the average user and broadband as it is meant to be will just be just another luxury we can’t afford.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Comcast Not Net NeutralIndian ISP Airtel Taps Google To Provide Apps Via New Web PortalBSkyB Creating YouTube Rival Using YouTube’s TechnologyMySpace Emmy AwardsMotorola Splits in TwoAutobahn Accelerator for Faster Connections to MySpace TVNet Neutrality Coming to Congress

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under broadband, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.