Review: video.Market7.com

Production
This set of tools consists of a series of production tools:

• Tasks: A list-only set of tasks, not to be confused with a project-planning software tool, which would also include goals and milestones. Tasks can be assigned to various team members, and both current and completed tasks can be set to be displayed.
• Events: Essentially time-based tasks that will be assigned to resources (team members) with free/busy information available within Market7. This means that federated free/busy information for Microsoft Exchange or CalDAV servers is not available, leading to a significant amount of cross-checking between team members’ calendars for information beyond what is shown on the Market7 calendar.
• Resources: The scheduling and time-tracking portion of the overall project. As mentioned earlier, Market7 uses resources to designate the hours and availability of human resources rather than the availability of equipment, conference rooms, etc. Resource options include assigning hourly rates and caps by team member or by role.
• Files: Section in which media for the script and the annotated player are housed. From within the files module, an uploader allows content to be uploaded.

Between our Oct. 7 review and the Oct. 30–31 review, Market7 added a folder-tree structure, allowing multiple folders to be created to store video content, still images, or PDFs. Interestingly, if a folder or subfolder is chosen within the Files module and then the "upload file" button is clicked, the uploader defaults the folder location for storing files to the main folder. In other words, the uploader is not yet context-sensitive to the folder structure.

Market7 has also added a multiple-file uploader, mimicking the lead of Nativ’s Mio and the fast-follower Encoding.com. Files that can be uploaded will be held as the original file and will be downloaded again later. But the annotated player only plays Flash content, so any non-Flash video file will need to be transcoded after uploading, prior to use in the annotated player.

Video files can upload in a variety of formats, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media, QuickTime, AVI, and FLV. During testing, it was discovered that 3GP files weren’t recognized, which is due in part to Market7’s reliance on FFmpeg for transcoding—a limitation that others, including Encoding.com, face. Market7’s Kenvin says the company is moving to a server solution, most likely Flash Media Server, which will recognize and transcode a larger variety of video codec formats.

Each page of the File module also includes a Share button, allowing a user to send a link to a direct page for each file, which can be helpful in accelerating the content approval process.

Postproduction
The annotated player is the only module in the postproduction toolbox, but it’s a powerful one (Figure 4). The interface consists of a large video window, a timeline slider displayed across the bottom of the screen, and a comment box. If you’ve ever seen the Mossad-based technology that was part of the VideoClick collaborative commenting system used in the late 1990s until 2002, you know exactly what Market7’s annotate player can do, as this system acts almost exactly the same way.

In order to work with a variety of files, the Market7 annotated player relies on FFmpeg to transcode a proxy file—a file of the same length and timing as the original file—in a Flash format and of a particular pixel size.

"The frame size is 640x480 for playback," Kenvin says. "If you upload a 1920x1080 video file, we keep track of the relative positioning, so the output for highlight positioning will also be extrapolated backwards to the 1920x1080 sizing."

This resizing but maintaining of the original file turned out to be particularly useful during the Braintrust Digital testing. I uploaded a few 1080i video files (which were automatically transcoded and scaled down to a 640x480 window with appropriate letterboxing) for the collaborative annotation session with Paul Schmutzler, who edits many of Braintrust Digital’s projects.

Once the video begins to play, clicking in the comment window immediately stops the video; a series of commenting tools pop up: a pencil, a box creator, a paperclip to attach reference files, and two clock symbols—one for time in and one for time out.

The first clock (time in) will be populated with the playhead location. Populating the second clock (time out) requires moving the playhead to a selected location and then clicking on the clock icon.

Once the input and optional output clocks are populated, comments can be typed in a comment box. Tags can also be added into a tag box and should be separated by commas if multiple tags are required.

Once the comment is in place, the video continues to play from that point onward. One suggestion here is a temporary pause, about 1–2 seconds, to allow the commenter to shift his or her attention back to the video window. This is especially important if a series of comments about a fast-paced action scene needs to be entered.