Increased bandwidth will not only make Webcasting more attractive, it will also open up the possibility for video production techniques that are not possible over narrowband. Interactive video is an example. Built with clickable hotspots on objects in video frames or surrounding HTML, interactive video is a nonlinear presentation that would overwhelm a low-bandwidth connection.

Interactive Procter and Gamble ad in a Veon Player window. A click on the striped shirt displays a stain removing tip.

Veon, a 2-year-old company founded in Israel, has introduced technology for building and deploying interactive video over broadband. VeonStudio, a content authoring program, and Veon Player, a browser plug-in, are the keys to building and playing interactive video-based programming in a browser window. Full versions of both programs are available as free downloads. As components of a larger technology platform for creating, delivering, managing, and tracking broadband programming, VeonStudio and the Veon Player are both easy-to-use software programs that developers may run on any Pentium II machine (with sufficient memory). From a developer perspective, moving software into the market for free is a philosophy that has led to the rapid proliferation of other programs and applications. Developers will either accept or reject a technology, and waiting for developers to buy product can be an obstacle at an early stage in the development of a new medium. To ensure widespread distribution of the Player, Veon has also made aggressive moves to partner with broadband networks that will pre-install the player into their proprietary browsers.

 

Larry Rosenthal's Starbase C3 e-commerce site contains an interactive video ad (top left) created with VeonStudio. To see the Veon movie, you will need the Veon Player and at least a 120K connection.

Strategically, advertising, e-commerce, news and entertainment are on Veon's radar in the initial stages of their launch. The server, the only Veon software component with a fee attached, provides an arsenal of marketing measurements that are particularly attractive to advertisers. Examples include the amount of time spent with an ad, information requested and entry/exit points from video enhanced pages, autoplay vs. user initiated loops, HTML views vs. video-enhanced page views and cross tabulation with time of day and day of week. Although Veon is not the only technology company offering tools to create interactive video or Web tracking, Veon's integration of these components is unique and represents the latest trend in ad tracking over broadband.

Next: Veon Shows the Way