Encoding.com Announces Commercial Availability of Vid.ly Pro
After a beta period for testing, Encoding.com is announcing the release of Vid.ly Pro, its cloud encoding and hosting service for companies and developers. The consumer version of Vid.ly launched in February of this year, offering users free encoding and hosting for their videos, as well an a universal embed code. The service makes it easy to upload and share videos, since users don't need to worry about formats or hosting. According to Jeff Malkin, Encoding.com's president, Vid.ly has created more than 10,000 encodes since it was launched, leading to over 5 million video views.
The commercial version of Vid.ly offers an API that's designed to offer the same simplicity to developers. Vid.ly can be added to a content management system or other video workflow, as well as to mobile apps. Malkin notes that there hasn't been in explosion in mobile video apps yet, due to the infrastructure requirements in encoding and hosting video. Vid.ly Pro solves that problem, he says.
"Really, it's all about the API," says Malkin.
The Pro version lets users customize the output formats. While the free service automatically encodes videos into 25 formats to support all browsers and devices, Vid.ly Pro lets companies increase the bit rates on some formats or remove unneeded formats altogether.
Vid.ly Pro also offers adaptive bit rate streaming, as it now supports HLS, and there's no limit on video file sizes. Additionally, Vid.ly Pro works with multiple CDNs and will add others in the next few months. Pro customers can choose which CDN they would like Vid.ly to use. Currently, Vid.ly Pro uses Vid.ly's accounts, although Pro customers will have the option of using their own accounts in the near future.
Vid.ly Pro doesn't offer analytics yet, although Malkin notes that it's coming in the near future. Also still in development is the ability to customize an HTML5 video player.
Pricing for the new service will be based on usage, with variables including the number of Vid.ly videos live, stored, and streaming.
Agencies have been some of the biggest supporters of the Vid.ly service, notes Malkin, as they appreciate the ability to get their clients' videos on any social network easily.
"Agencies have been an amazing vertical and are jumping all over this," says Malkin.
Prior to this, agencies had to rely on YouTube to disseminate videos, something Malkin sees as a poor option. "YouTube should be the spoke, not the hub," he says. Mobile developers using QR codes have also been strong users.
"We're filling a huge gap in the online video ecosystem that sits between YouTube and Vimeo on one end and huge bloated OVPs on the other end," says Malkin.
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