Smart Choices
Video has become a mission-critical communications tool within Accenture, as evidenced by the internal webcast Levar produced for International Women’s Day in 2005. The webcast, which included workshops and other activities hosted in eight U.S. cities, plus cities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, ran uninterrupted for 30 hours across 11 time zones. The overriding theme was women’s issues in the workplace, and the webcast was watched by an estimated 5,000 associates in more than 75 locations.
Levar depends upon third-party contractors for many shoots and makes sure to inform them that the results will be used for streaming. He advises his shooters to avoid pans and zooms, and to use cuts rather than fades in the video. When setting up a shoot, Levar makes sure to select a solid, non-moving background, and he tells presenters to wear solid-colored suits and avoid white or light blue shirts. He prefers flat lighting, finding that shadows tend to obscure detail.
Interestingly, Levar promotes the use of high-definition cameras for streaming shoots, even when the results are produced at 240x180. This stems from a recent experience in Europe where contractors shot and edited in HD. Levar reports that the quality of the streams was noticeably higher than those shot with SD camcorders, and notes that an AOL official with whom he spoke on a recent panel reported the same findings.
State of Montana
If your web browsing ever takes you to the state of Montana’s website (www.mt.gov), chances are that any streaming video files you play will have been produced by Steve Meredith, Montana’s bureau chief for internet services. And, to paraphrase the old Visa commercials, don’t bring your Real, Windows Media, or Flash players to the website, because the state of Montana only streams QuickTime videos, live or on-demand.
Ever practical with state funds, Meredith originally chose QuickTime because the state already had the necessary server hardware and software. He also feels that QuickTime offers the best streaming quality of the big four, and he likes working with standards-based video—though he admits that the standardization efforts have been slow so far. Live encoding was also a requirement (so that the state could broadcast legislative sessions from their site), as was the ability to convert screens captured via TechSmith’s Camtasia to QuickTime format for streaming.
Meredith dismissed Real out of hand as too expensive. The state considered Windows Media, he reports, but felt it came with two significant negatives: a server that was more easily hacked into than its Mac equivalent; and poor playback on Macintosh computers, which are used by many of the educators in his constituency. Flash video wasn’t available when Meredith made his original technology decision, but he is experimenting with Flash now.
Typical projects include shooting original video to publicize state government activities (like the opening of a new road or school) and converting public service announcements originally produced for television. Meredith also converts and posts lots of videos produced by Montana school children.
Meredith shoots most original video with a Canon XL1S. He shoots in progressive mode, which he says produces a better starting point than the interlaced videos that he gets from other state agencies. When working at his facility, Meredith shoots all streaming video against a royal blue background (he even carries a portable blue background with him when shooting in the field).
Meredith advocates three-point lighting, using umbrellas to create soft, even lighting to eliminate shadows. He advises all on-screen talent to avoid herringbones, plaids, or other finely detailed clothing.
Meredith encodes with Sorenson Squeeze, which he reports produces better quality than QuickTime Pro. Meredith started using the Sorenson Video 3 codec, but switched to MPEG-4 once it was included as an option in Squeeze. The state produces on-demand video files at three data rates: 1Mbps (640x480 at 30 fps), 256Kbps (320x240 at 30 fps), and 56Kbps (160x120 at 10 fps). Live video is streamed at 100Kbps at 320x240 resolution.