Editor's Note: Big Time
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, about 5 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube. Even in an era when we've all become accustomed to reports about the ongoing growth of online video, YouTube's January announcement that it was receiving 60 hours of video every minute, and that viewers are watching a billion videos a day, was enough to give us pause.
More video means more garbage, of course, but with the growth of YouTube as a distribution outlet for professional video, it's clear that an increasing amount of that video is professionally produced, with an eye toward monetization. And that's just YouTube; the amount of video uploaded and viewed across the web and on myriad devices today is simply too large to even guesstimate. More than ever, online video publishers and producers need guidance to help make sure their content cuts through the noise.
With these developments in mind, we're expanding the scope of not just the Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook but the entire Streaming Media brand. The first thing you've probably noticed is the size of this year's issue. That's due not only to the support of online video product and service vendors trying to cut through the marketing noise with their advertising, but also to our newly expanded Buyer's Guide section, which clocked in at a whopping 74 pages.
In past Sourcebooks, we've used the Buyer's Guide to offer deep-dives into a select few products and to present comparison results based on extensive testing and market research. This year—thanks to contributing editor Jan Ozer for the suggestion—we've decided instead to cover the entire gamut of the online video ecosystem. Though that necessarily means we've had to shorten up each Buyer's Guide, we've made sure that each one includes a features table, checklist, or flow chart that you can use to guide you through the purchasing process. And while some of the Buyer's Guides mention specific vendors and products as exemplars of particular features and services, we've stayed away from even trying to present a comprehensive list of all the vendors in a particular space. Instead, we want to give you the tools you need to make your own comparisons and decisions based on your particular needs, whether you're shopping for cameras or CDNs.
Yes, I said cameras. The second, and most notable, expansion is the addition of Streaming Media Producer, a new website that focuses on the needs of professional video producers and A/V crews producing live webcasts and on-demand online video. While there are several longstanding resources for video producers already in the market, none focus explicitly and exclusively on the needs of online video professionals. Streaming Media Producer will be helmed by Steve Nathans-Kelly, who led EventDV magazine to tremendous success as the only magazine for event videographers. I worked alongside Steve at EMedia, the trade publication for the optical media industry, and am thrilled to have him join the Streaming Media team.
While there will be some overlap in coverage with StreamingMedia.com, particularly in the realm of encoding and delivery, Streaming Media Producer will focus mostly on what happens before the online video producer clicks "encode." Streaming Media Producer will also feature more video content, by way of tutorials and interviews with industry experts and online video professionals, and plenty of that content is sure to be indispensable to the readers of StreamingMedia.com as well.
Finally, the 2012 Sourcebook is the first issue of Streaming Media that will be available in our new iOS and Android app (available soon), making it easier than ever to get all of this information and insight whenever and wherever you need it, as well as the daily news and features from our website.
We hope you enjoy our new endeavors as much as we've enjoyed creating them. And, as always, if there's anything you think we can be doing better, don't hesitate to contact me at erics (at) streamingmedia.com.
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