Blogs and RSS feeds are two of the latest innovative developments in present day computing and the web life universe. The current availability of fast internet connections, faster processors, high end graphics processing units, better operating systems and computers equipped with 1GB of system memory serves as a convenient platform to raise the performance bar for a totally innovative and different kind of Internet experience.

With the introduction of the MP3 players a few years back, technology is quick to catch on with audio blogging (podcasting) – now, with most people owning the ever-present portable MP3 players not only download MP3 audio on their devices but other audio broadcasts as well. Even the current releases of cellular phones and handheld devices have the technology embedded in their firmware!

From simple text and pictures to audio and now, the newest kid in town – the use of video in blogging is slowly becoming as the new point of reference of personal and corporate product blogs.

Video blogging started out its humble beginnings when bloggers began experimenting by embedding links to their video files on blog entries. This provided subscribers to your blog’s RSS feed to be automatically notified about your new video. All they have to do to view the video is simply to click on the link (if they are online) or logon to the Internet if they are not! Voila! They can watch your video blog post!

Generally, you can use any of the several varieties of video file types such as Windows Media, QuickTime, Real Media, and MPEG; however, if you want to reach more people on both sides of the operating system divide, the most expedient method is to publish your video blog in either the FLV (Flash Video) or SWF (Shockwave Flash) file formats. These two are highly recommended because of their native cross-platform compatibility between the MAC and the PC. Regardless of the operating system, you do not need to convert your video to play them, all you have to do is click and you can watch the video automatically!

Setting up a video blog is neither difficult nor complicated; you can use the free service of Blogger.com and another free service, FeedBurner.com, to create a feed to syndicate your site.

If you plan to put full-motion video on you blog, it is best to use the FLV format. For video podcasting, you have a choice between Apple’s QuickTime Pro and Camtasia Studio 4 software to convert your video files into podcast format.

Equipment requirements are simple as well, all you need are a web cam or digital camcorder, a microphone, simple video production software, a blog and an RSS feed for syndication of your blog’s your content.

You can then start to produce your custom full motion video clips to enhance your personal blog or your product website.

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Choosing either of the above options invariably adds to the company’s overhead costs and expenses in relation to product development, personnel training and providing the necessary support collaterals for a new product or service. This additional cost can either make the profitability threshold of the new product lower or make the product more expensive for consumers.

However, with the arrival of desktop video capability and technology for today’s personal computers, this state of affairs has made a complete turn around. Companies, big or small, can now utilize Flash video to train, manage and support company personnel anywhere they may be. Desktop video technology, Flash, in particular has resulted to a more effective, straightforward, standardized and well-organized instruction methodology.

þ Instead of calling company representatives all the way back to headquarters for a training seminar, you can develop and polish ladderized and interactive training modules. They can then simply load the files on the company server and have employees log on to the site during specified hours to attend the online seminar at their own pace.

All they need is a computer or a laptop and a broadband connection to the Internet and they can already participate in the training! Additionally, training modules that include coursework which can be completed and submitted online can also be developed. Doing it in this manner reduces the incidental costs involved in conducting personnel training and establishing support. You can then have more of the training courses developed for refresher and adjunct training modules.

þ The same holds true when it comes to introducing new products or services to the market. Product demonstrations and service features can be produced and recorded on either VCD or DVD for distribution to partner merchants and retailers that carry your company’s product line. Using Flash video greatly reduces the incremental costs associated with providing support for new products and services although minimal and basic training still have to be provided for, this now entails a much lesser expense. Regional personnel can establish face-to-face product demos with more retailers and allocate more time to follow-ups and closeouts.

þ Video footages of actual product use, new feature sets, maintenance and troubleshooting can also be recorded and provided as a first line of technical support before clients have to call a special technical support number at regional offices or headquarters. Pushing the limits further, one option is to evelop an online video support system, again using Flash technology, providing a step by step instruction on how to rectify a particular situation!

The capabilities of Flash can only be limited only by your imagination. Once you let loose your creativity and ingenuity instead of adopting a can-not-be-done attitude, the possibilities becomes endless.

There are two fundamental factors that directly affect the video encoding procedure, source quality and frame motion of the video clip.

As soon as you press the REC button of your video camera, the video clip source quality is established. To guarantee that you will always have high quality compressed video clips to improve your website, always keep the following in mind:

- Always use a tripod when you shoot video clips to reduce camera shake and movement. Camera movements always cause excessive amounts of pixels to adjust unnecessarily from frame to frame which results to higher data rates.

- Avoid using unnecessary light filters. Make sure that you have adequate lighting. Shooting in low light conditions and the use of light gain filters invariably produce video noise on each video frame making good quality compression more difficult.

All types of cameras have the capability to capture high quality videos if you use good lighting and a tripod as you shoot. Most models in the last three years also have anti-shake technology embedded in their firm ware since it is not always the case that you can take along a tripod. However, this is not always possible. The rule of thumb is a high quality video source produces lower data rates that render a good quality playback.

As much as possible, avoid the following:

- People, vehicles or objects that come between the lens and the subject.

ý Special camera effects like pan, zoom or extreme close-ups.

ý Postproduction effects such as dissolves, fades or complex video effects.

These avoidable and sometimes superfluous effects create motions (more pixel changes from frame to frame) in your video clip, resulting to more data that has to be compressed.

Video compression requires that you achieve the perfect balance between several variables such as file size, target bandwidth, frame rate, key frame interval, and pixel dimensions of the video.

The following are general guidelines to follow when compressing raw video to Flash Video for delivery over the Internet:

- A higher target bandwidth allows for more motion in the video, better frame rates and larger pixel dimensions but an equally larger file size.

þ The lesser the motion there is in your video, the smaller the file size and the lower a target bandwidth you can reach.

- As the target bandwidth decreases reduce the key frame rate. Lower key frame rates reduce bandwidth demand.

- As motion increases the key frame rate must be increased.

Action clips (skateboarding, children playing) require more information to be handled by the video player and are not good for low bandwidth delivery because additional uncompressed key frames to be encoded in the file.

Significant increases in client buy rates, conversion rates and subscription rates are becoming the conspicuous trend within a short period of time that multimedia enhancement is effected in most of today’s websites. Not all have reported the same pattern of increases because not all multimedia content elicit visitor responsiveness; a client’s receptiveness to multimedia content is entirely dependent on the type and quality of multimedia experience they get.

The use of multimedia to advertise products or services need to follow the basic rules and principles of quality of approach in order to convert clients from prospects to buyers. Multimedia is admittedly powerful but it is similar to a double-edged sword that if not used correctly can lead to disastrous results.

Adding video and audio content to your website requires insightful planning and judicious implementation to be effective. You have to ensure that the viewer’s experience is going to be beneficial instead of frustrating in order to positively convert them from prospects to buyers or subscribers. Spending some time in research, planning and implementation of multimedia enhancement to your website can result into a higher sales trend.

It is not enough to capture the attention of visitors to your web site, you also have to convince and provide them with a positive experience. Following are some guidelines on how to effectively use multimedia content in your website in order to generate more business:

- Make sure that the multimedia content you will use is of good quality and resolution. No one wants to watch a grainy, dark, and teeny-weeny video in the corner of his screen that can’t be seen nor understood.

- Use fast loading video and audio materials that play almost immediately; do not keep your website visitors waiting just to view your advertisement or listen to your message otherwise they may simply click on thru.

- Integrate multimedia content not only in your website but in e-mails as well. Never require viewers to download video codecs or third party audio/video players (even if they are free) – stick with the basics and those that are readily available to avoid distraction and loss of interest.

- Make sure you have a cost effective solution (do your research) to implement multimedia content on your website. As much as possible, make sure that your content is customized for your websites and emails for your specific requirements.

- Ensure that your website can handle a large volume of simultaneous visitors.

Using multimedia is not simply making an audio-visual presentation clip and embedding the link in your web pages. For multimedia to be effective, it has to be used carefully with foresight and planning so that you can quickly benefit from a well-implemented solution for your business.

From the time the information highway was established, video integration with information and data content of websites is a seemingly unreachable standard because of the technical challenges involved. Not anymore.

Fortunately, with the introduction of Flash Video in 2002, Macromedia Flash Player has become the Internet’s de-facto standard video client. Current estimates report that Flash Player is installed on more than 90% of all personal computers connected to the Internet. Moreover, its most advantageous characteristic is its ability to run on both the Mac and PC and on other operating systems as well.

The wide acceptance and availability of Flash Player guarantees that almost all visitors to a video-enabled website can view FLV without the need to download and install additional plug-ins. This is a win-win situation for website developers and publishers as it gives them the capability to reach more people while at the same time maintain lower development, testing, and support costs.

Flash seamlessly integrates video into your website and allows you to set the size and aspect ratio of your video giving you full creative control and freedom.

Another advantage of Flash is that it starts playing quickly and is handled very simply as just another type of media that you can layer, script, and control just like any other object in a SWF file. It becomes a central part of the page viewing experience.

Flash video is also easily synchronized with a web page’s text and graphics together with video controls. Although an FLV file primarily contains audio and video, it plays inside a SWF file. It gives website publishers the capability to include interactive controls to their website page contents to create rich multimedia experiences for visitors. The advances broadband internet technology and today’s super fast video graphics card and CPUs address the bandwidth limitation problem to the benefit of all – publishers and clients alike. Flash provides web designers the technology to deliver rich multimedia experiences of video, data and text, graphics, sound and interactive capability to almost anybody connected to the Internet regardless of geographic location.

It stands out as yardstick for the development and creation of multimedia content and its delivery. At the same time, Flash Video reduces to the highest imaginable the former difficulties associated with authoring video and/or animation for the web in the previous years.

An upcoming development that is being eagerly awaited by industry observers and video enthusiasts will be forthcoming introduction of Adobe’s newest product, Apollo. Adobe’s Apollo software pushes the performance envelope beyond today’s limits as it is geared to become industry standard as the de facto all-around client that can handle various files types like PDF, SWF and HTML files, regardless of the user’s browser or operating system interface.

The new product sets in motion the seamless integration of multimedia content on the web and at the same time allows users to take advantage of the full potential of their hardware’s capability and computing power with complete disregard to the type of operating system, browser and hardware they use to surf the Internet.

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