India’s second largest circulated newspaper rolls out video on flagship property: Jagran.com

OFFICIAL WEB WIRE: http://bit.ly/marcellus-jagran

February 02, 2010 – Marcellus Inc. announced today its first major news property sign-up, with the addition of the Jagran Group to its customer base. The announcement follows the launch of video delivery on Jagran.com, powered by the Marcellus platform. Leveraging the Amazon Cloudfront CDN, Marcellus empowers Jagran to serve high quality, buffer-free video experiences to a massive global audience- with a publishing workflow customized to match the enterprise level requirements of a large news organization.

“The history of Jagran speaks for itself,” said Preetam Mukherjee, president and chief executive officer at Marcellus. “With an offline audience of over 50 million daily readers and an online audience of over 1.5 million monthly viewers, Jagran is superbly poised to create exciting new business opportunities with online video. We are privileged to be supporting these video initiatives at an organization that has documented the daily history of the largest democracy in the world since 1942.”

In less than two weeks since the introduction of video, Jagran has served well over 300 hours of programming from its flagship portal, http://www.jagran.com. By adopting the Marcellus Video Platform, Jagran plans to leverage the tremendous scale economics of video delivery from the Amazon Cloudfront CDN, and increase the level of audience engagement across all its online media properties.

“In our search for a video platform, there were a few things we simply could not compromise upon.” said Sukirti Gupta, CEO at MMI Online, which manages Jagran.com. “The first, and foremost, was quality- there is no excuse for delivering inferior quality video experiences to audiences. Second was cost- we needed an economical solution that could help us build a viable business model around our online video initiatives. Third- we needed a platform that could easily integrate with our content management system powered by Yahoo. Finally- we wanted to work with an agile team that is extremely competent with the business and technology of online video”.

“After months of evaluating online video platforms from across the world, we settled on Marcellus as the platform of our choice. They’re an exciting bunch, extremely passionate about this space, with the ability to execute fast. Once we signed off with them, Marcellus took us from zero to launch in three weeks, which was a pleasant surprise in of itself. We are absolutely delighted with our choice and look forward to pioneering the online video revolution in India with the Marcellus team backing us up.”

With the successful launch of Jagran.com, Marcellus continues its pledge to help businesses and web sites across the world deliver high quality video to their audiences, at extremely affordable price points. The company plans to drive deeper into the North American market in 2010, and extend its footprint among small and mid-sized businesses looking to deliver online video- a market where simplicity, quality and cost continue to be an under-served combination.

EDITIONS AND PRICING

The Marcellus service is available in three Editions- BASIC, PLUS and PREMIUM. Each edition offers a set of functionality geared towards organizations with varying needs. In addition, Marcellus offers five Infrastructure plans, from 10 GB to 1.5 TB in monthly bandwidth capacity. Enterprise customers requiring larger bandwidth volumes are set up with custom infrastructure plans tailored to their needs. Using a combination of the BASIC edition and 10 GB bandwidth plan, publishers can get started with Marcellus for as low as 25 Dollars per month.

For a free, 30-day evaluation, please visit http://marcellus.tv/start and start publishing videos in less than five minutes.

ABOUT MARCELLUS

Marcellus is a video platform for small and mid-sized businesses to deliver high quality video experiences from their own web sites. The Marcellus team comprises of former researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, and has over a decade of experience with online video technology and social media.

The company was founded in August, 2007 and has offices in North America and India.

PDF: http://cdn.marcellus.tv/press/2010/january/jagran_marcellus.pdf

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

+1-877-421-0665

buzz@marcellus.tv

http://www.marcellus.tv

Silverlight aficionados will tell you that comparing Silverlight and Flash makes as much sense as a comparison between a Moto Razr and the iPhone. They will tell you that Silverlight was created for a far bigger purpose;  to light up the web (to use Microsoft’s marketing lingo) in the same way as Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly Avalon – I just love Microsoft’s system of nomenclature. Which genius thought of Vista though?) was to light up the Windows Platform. Maybe they are right – Silverlight might have a more audacious goal (which Microsoft product doesn’t?), but with Microsoft trying to eat up some of the ubiquitous Flash market a comparison is valid.

Before we begin to start comparing them as media clients, let us examine them as application platforms from the perspective of the one trying to play ketchup, i.e. Silverlight:

Security

Silverlight stepped out of the browser with Silverlight 3 and brought with it the same sandbox environment as it had within the broswer. Unlike Adobe Air applications (Flash’s flavor for desktop applications), Silverlight apps do not require elevated privileges to run, which makes for a more secure environment. But then, with elevated privileges Air apps can do so much more.

Offline Browser Support

Speaking of more, Adobe Air has better offline browser support with an included webkit; whereas, with Silverlight if the app requires HTML or a script running within the browser, then too bad – you can’t do it. Air also has local database support with embedded SQLite, Silverlight does not.

Remote Data Access

Silverlight 3 does address remote data access shortcomings; Ajax apps (and Silverlight apps) will be able to to retrieve remote-data which will come down in the default JSON format.

SEO Friendly

Silverlight 3 is also looking to be more SEO friendly by permitting deep linking URLs to point to places within the application.  To make things even more exciting for search engine crawlers, an ASP add on mirrors dynamic content into HTML for easy indexing.

3 D

Things become easier in the 3rd dimension with Silverlight, where you can apply a 3 D effect to any media object with a 3 D API.

Oh and here’s the closer: multi-touch support is available with Silverlight 3… but only on Windows 7 (did I mention this was a Microsoft product?!)

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To summarize: Microsoft seems to have done a great job with Silverlight 3 and promises much more with Silverlight 4. But how can it convince developers to ignore the ubiquity of Flash (installed on 95% of web browsers) remains the big challenge for Microsoft.

The (impending) arrival of Giraffic, with its Peer-2-Peer content delivery technology, raises some interesting thoughts about online video models.

Obviously, the first question to strike me was: what if YouTube was powered by a P2P delivery network? Imagine a distribution network comprising hundreds of millions of “mini”servers, serving up over a billion video views every day.

It’s a WOW factor on too many levels. I won’t even bother going into the cost-savings that would result from a scenario like this. Bandwidth costs could be halved, at least.

But even more exciting than the cost savings is how this could drive a fundamental change in new media business models. Now, you have millions of “distributors” who are not just pointing people to your content, but actually serving up the content as well. As a content owner, you benefit. As a content consumer, you benefit.

As a CDN, you’re scared stiff, and as a video platform, you’re ensuring QoS and reliability, perhaps giving the CDNs a comforting pat in the back.

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A few harsh realities that stand in the way, nonetheless.

P2P delivery happens in chunks, so for users to help deliver those chunks, data will need to be downloaded/cached on their local machines first. This is obviously antithetic to streaming video, and a big argument in favor of progressive downloading.

Along the same lines, the local P2P client would be  the Flash player. Every time a user refreshes a page/navigates away from a page, the P2P network loses a seed. This is in stark contrast to a traditional BitTorrent client, which is “always on”.

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Nonetheless, P2P delivery of online video is a very interesting conversation to have.  Adobe is definitely thinking hard about it, with RTMFP (Real Time Media Flow Protocol), supported by the Flash 10 Player. Joost gave it a shot, but failed.

I think this is one disruption that will completely depend on timing, more than execution. Now’s not the time for it, but 2010…who knows?

So I was perusing the web, doing my regular year-end survey of the busiest, biggest/slowest/most watched and came across the buggiest software of the year list and it turns out Firefox and Adobe found their way to the top of this dubious list.

Seeing Firefox on top of the list made sense – it is open source, so all bugs are publicly documented; but seeing Adobe up there is not a good thing. Hackers are moving away from attacking the relatively more stable OS to exploiting holes in applications. Application providers unlike OS manufacturers are not used to this kind of security scrutiny… and Adobe finds itself under heavy attack from exploiters:

“During the first three months of 2009, F-Secure discovered 663 targeted attack files, the most popular type being PDFs at nearly 50 percent, followed by Microsoft Word at nearly 40 percent, Excel at 7 percent, and PowerPoint at 4.5 percent.”

Adobe has responded by saying that it will be patching its releases on a regular schedule even though we still wait for Adobe to patch up its latest zero-day hole in Reader and Acrobat.

But in the meantime, please do update your Flash player – it is not only the cool features that you are missing out on – apparently, this is now a critical security requirement.

Excellent write-up by Vivek Wadhwa @ Techcrunch, about stealth mode startups, and if it still makes sense to be doing them.
The general consensus is that aside from a few rare cases, the answer is a big N.O.

Head on over to Techcrunch and check out the article.

We’re excited and blown away: Fierce Online Video just released its Fierce15 list of companies that “provide the skeleton, muscle and flesh of the online video industry”.

Marcellus made it to this list- we’re delighted, humbled, excited and eager to continue our efforts with renewed vigor.

Check out the full list here and read the Marcellus interview here.

Big thanks to Jim O’Neill at FierceOnlineVideo for the nomination!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing a series of posts under the title: “20 Questions with Dr. Dre(y)”.

These are conversations I’ve had with Kris Drey, the founder of VidCompare.com-  an online service that helps folks find the perfect online video platform provider suited to their needs. Kris is also Vice President (Product Marketing and Management) at Fliqz, which is also an excellent online video hosting and delivery service.

Kris happens to be one of the under-mentioned stalwarts of the online video space, IMHO. His perspectives on online video are very clear, grounded in reality, and create a good balance between innovating vs. catering to demand. We are totally delighted to have Kris talk to us and share his thoughts, so after a round of profuse thanks, and without further ado:

#1: Kris, you’re the founder of a terrific site that compares video platforms, VidCompare. It’s surprising that in the 10-odd years of streaming media being around, there hasn’t been a site like VidCompare. Why do you think that is?

Kris Drey:

The key reason for the lack of an OVP comparison site until now is that online video has not been in the mainstream for long, we’re still in our infancy. But thanks to massive broadband penetration and the birth of YouTube, online video has become a world-wide phenomenon pushing viewership numbers to astronomical levels with and astounding 21.4 billion views in July ’09, in the US alone. This staggering number proves the fact that online video is no fad, much like email has become a permanent and daily part of our lives.

Consumers and enterprises alike have come to realize the power of online video in the form of entertainment, shrinking television viewing, and as a highly effective marketing tool. OV is no longer just a competitive advantage but is rapidly becoming a table stake for any online marketer.

The OVP space is looking more and more like the CDN space every day as feature sets expand and prices retract. Platforms are beginning to narrow their focus on core competencies such as video SEO, syndication, and analytics for example. The fight for differentiation is fierce as business deals are struck with third parties forming deep partnership programs offering a wide array of solutions, and internal technologies advance bringing about unique offerings such as Kaltura’s open source platform.

Now, more than ever, as marketers look for new ways to drive high quality leads, online video is proving to be at the top of the list of every strategic roadmap. This fervency has sparked a fire that has yet to be contained in the growth of the OVP space. Innovators such as The Feedroom, Brightcove, and thePlatform are joined by a wave of new players like Marcellus, Wistia, and vzaar and we’re still seeing new players come into the fray like the recently launched Quick.tv.

This is where initiatives like the OVPSummit and VidCompare come in play. The mission of VidCompare is to help first-time buyers of video, such as VPs of Marketing and CEOs, understand the options available to them, and to assist them in choosing the right platform provider for their business needs.

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Burning question for OVPSummit/VidCompare audiences:

How do you use Vid Compare? What’s the one feature/service missing on the site currently that would simplify the evaluation process for you?
Fire away in the comments section below.

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Every valid response will a free BASIC account at Marcellus for 30-days, in addition to the 30-day evaluation- a $25 value!
Be sure to leave your e-mail address, and rest assured that we will never ever give it out to anyone else, or use it for any purpose except for this one specific e-mail sending you instructions on redeeming this offer.

Here is something you probably don’t know about Marcellus: we’ve tried our hand at content publishing.

Yesssirreee! The Marcellus team was exactly where you, the content publisher, is today: looking for venues/channels/mediums to distribute/monetize/publicize our content.

And honestly, we were not mighty successful at it… so with the deepest respect for you, and a first-person understanding of your needs, we decided to stick to what we do best: design the tools to help you dig the gold.

What are the 10 things we learned about online video:

1. Online video is online first and video second.

2. Online video is driven by consumption, not adoption.

3. Online video is essentially a niche business.

4. You can compromise on the meaning, but you cannot compromise on quality.

5. Context is king; content is the king-maker.

6. Unless you are in the porn-business, people are willing to pay$0 for video.

7. Youtube is, and will increasingly become, the TV Guide channel.

8. Finding your audience is easy, keeping it is hard.

9. The name of the game is: accessibility.

10. It helps to have an online video platform that places its bets on your success.

Okay, the last one was a plug for Marcellus… so I will give you another one:

10. You only define the price, the users decide the value of your content.

Happy Streaming.

I do this post and then this one emerges.

Defining the problem – content is treated differently under different contexts.
People tend to treat social networks with a certain level of attention deficiency, compared to content/portal sites, which is understandable.
Reading CNN requires more attention (for the most part) than reading your friend’s status message (though I do not know how can you not pay attention to – “John is growing purple blisters. They may burst open any time”).

Hence, the need to create more engaging social media experiences on social networks.
Can you do it with interactive video? Yes.
Can you do it with contextual based advertising within video? Yes.
Can you do it with personalized recommendations? Yes.

But I still do believe and would like to harp on respecting the context of the content.
Content will play significantly differently in social networks when compared to content portals because the core user needs that are being satiated are different. Content owners will have to recognize that.

And OVP providers will need to provide tools that help slice ‘n dice content into meaningful micro content that can be re-purposed and/or redistributed and tracked easily. Sell the car and sell the parts of the same car – bling bling.

It is a brave new world.

Facebook’s dramatic rise as video site further exemplifies the importance of video as a social media object.

Instead of the linear/one-to-one relationship that video plays in traditional media, video has the increasing potential of becoming a major driver in an ecosystem of creators, promoters, re-mixers, consumers and enthusiasts.

Not sure that this signals a new trend “where YouTube is being abandoned in favor for the social networking site”, because YouTube is making its own moves to create new avenues for creation and consumption, for example, with YouTube Direct.

But the bigger point: video is rapidly turning into a highly pervasive social media object, and has the ability to carry tremendous amounts of context + conversations > subsequent earning potential with it. Be it Hulu, Facebook, or YouTube, online video is shaping the next frontier of social media.