Streaming Media for Motorheads

CarTV video files range from about 4MB for the smaller clips to 10MB or more for longer videos. Autobytel gets storage through Akamai. "Akamai has been outstanding for us," says Fabin. "No downtime, near-instant starts." That's important, he says, because, "users don't want to wait." Autobytel also has facilities and equipment of its own at its main facility in Irvine, CA, including a "massive data center," a network of servers, and systems for editing and managing video content, according to Fabin.
Autobytel gets its videos from many sources, including freelance video producers and, of course, the car companies themselves. "We get B-roll from manufacturers," says Fabin, "but what we do with that is, typically, we use the video but do our own voiceovers." In this way Autobytel can make the videos less sales-oriented and more informational. Fabin says they've also "made deals with companies that produce extreme motorsports videos." While extreme sports videos are unrelated to selling specific cars, they pull in viewers to the site. It's important to keep surfers entertained and engaged, Rosenberg emphasizes. "We really have a mix of sources to maximize both our efficiency and our choices of videos we can provide to consumers," he says.

CarTV has large studio at Autobytel headquarters in Irvine, which includes a news set, and a podcasting room with microphones (similar to a radio studio). One feature of the TV studio is a large cove, which is sort of a curved wall used as a background, that measures 32 feet long by 18 feet high). They use this when they are doing vehicle "360 fly-bys of the cars," says Fabin. "We use a small jib to fly the camera right into the driver’s seat and pan around." The crew is also building a large set that will simulate a service garage. This will provide the setting for how-to videos and maintenance tips. "We're really ramping up and will be using the studio more and more in 2006," says Fabin.

In addition to the video produced in house in the studio, Autobytel shoots plenty of footage on location. Fabin has crews that he sends to many events such as the Los Angeles Auto Show and the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. (The SEMA show is apparently very popular and must-see-TV for gearheads.)

The company also produces a weekly automotive news program called "CarTV News." Structured like a traditional TV newscast and featuring three different rotating talents, the program informs viewers about what's going on in the automotive industry—things like where the latest car show is being held, the latest new model announcements, and which manufacturers have announced recalls, rebates, or safety warnings. The program also frequently covers celebrity events like when Jay Leno took delivery of his Ford GT, the second one delivered in the world, and the GM unveiling the new Escalade, which featured Paris Hilton. "We try to have an eclectic mixture of interesting videos," says Rosenberg. CarTV News is a five-minute program, produced in Irvine and posted to the Web site every Monday.

One particularly interesting (and eclectic) event that CarTV recently captured on video was the DARPA Grand Challenge, a Pentagon-sponsored robotic vehicle race through the Nevada desert. A prize of $2 million was offered to the engineering team whose driverless vehicle completed a grueling 132-mile course in the fastest time. Fabin and his crew had to camp out overnight in the unforgiving desert in order to cover the event. Fabin says they had a hunch as to who the winner would be (the Stanford team) and so focused on that vehicle. The hunch paid off when the Stanford team squeaked out a win. The CarTV crew shot 11 hours of video, which got edited down to a 30-minute show. The video was posted to the site as a "video spotlight" special feature. "Unique special features like this are popular for our audiences," says Fabin. "We try to shoot new breaking video like this and feature it on our home pages to draw attention."

Wanting to be on the cutting edge, Autobytel was among the first providers of free video iPod content. "We launched the video podcast in September as soon as the video iPod became available," says Fabin. "We pretty much followed all the rumors on the Net, and we took a guess that it would be in the MP4 format, so we had a library all ready to go. And so the day that the video iPod was announced, we uploaded our library into iTunes through the CarTV account." By December of 2005, the company had 560,000 audio and video podcasts available for download, says Fabin. These are all free, with no associated advertising. But there's often a tag that invites the user to link to one of the Autobytel Web sites, "to learn more."