Internet Broadcasting tests video player
Michael Gay November 16th, 2007
A number of IB sites have launched a new video player in beta. The player is flash based, and video is presented in a 16×9 window. The player does have exceptional searching abilities. Clicking search shrinks the video and it continues playing while search results are displayed below. The “related” tab also seems to do a great job of finding similar videos from the station’s online archives. That said, there are problems - biggest being video quality. This is a beta, so I’m going to hold judgment while they work out the bugs. This is the first time I’ve seen IB introduce a new product as a test while they work out the kinks. I’m sure their stations appreciate that. Feel free to make your own observations in our comments. (Disclosure: My office is at Internet Broadcasting, and Hearst-Argyle is a part owner of the company.)
22 Comments Add your own
1. Swift Loris | November 16th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I couldn’t get anything to play except the preloaded gas station feud story.
2. Rex | November 16th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Not sure, but this looks like it was built with Adobe Flex Builder:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/flexbuilder/
-Rex
3. Cory | November 16th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Playing fine for me. I like it, but two points:
1. I’d like to see more clips underneath — I’d rather scan then have to page through them.
2. Where’s the embed feature?
Oh, and the video quality is low, but I imagine it will be increased once the new player supplants the old.
4. DW | November 16th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Can’t wait to see it on some of the Internet B’casting video-poor sites like WNBC.
FYI for Detroit: The word is “feud”.
5. Don Day | November 16th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I was just going to comment on the “embed” feature note - but Cory beat me to it. When will a local station group finally do this? YouTube had this feature… what… 3 years ago?
6. Ed | November 16th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Rex - Yep, Flex.
7. tdc | November 16th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
subtle as it is, it’s coming; instead of “logging-in” or “logging-on” some of these announcers are realizing folks are “tuning into” their web channels. they’re actually saying so.
less than 5 months, folks.
8. Anonymous | November 16th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Michael,
You know that the quality of the video is independent of the presentation and function of the player.
9. Dirk F. | November 16th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
tdc,
What are you talking aboutt?
10. Drew | November 17th, 2007 at 6:32 am
I think TDC means that viewers increasingly go to a website with the expectation that they will see fresh content..just like TV. Here in NYC something happens. A steampipe explosion on 41st Street for example. You’re 6 blocks away (as my friend was) and you have no idea what is going on. At home, I popped on NY1 and found out quickly that it wasn’t another terrorist attack. Until local TV sites can offer that kind of immediacy (that you can tune in to) they will become increasingly irrelevant. I mean who really cares about a trivial gas station war? What advertiser wants the demo that does?
11. Michael Gay | November 17th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Anonymous, sounds like you know something I don’t. Our stations were all given the specs at which they should produce video. E-mail me if you know otherwise.
12. Tonto Weinstein | November 17th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Meh, as usual IB falls on their faces when it comes to making product work on the Mac.
13. tdc | November 17th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
right on, drew.
unlike many others, i have no problem with repurposed content… provided it is repurposed from the up-to-the-minute web to the late-to-the-party 5,6 and 10pm newscast.
14. Ed | November 17th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
What doesn’t work for you on the Mac, Mr. Well Endowed?
Everything works just fine for me in Firefox on my Mac.
This place just sorta loses it when IB is mentioned - the crackpots all materialize and start frothing.
15. Joe | November 17th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Tonto, I had no trouble using it on Safari.
16. JoeMo | November 18th, 2007 at 3:47 am
The player itself looks ok, aesthetically speaking. Seriously though, not much to creating a player like this in flash, could probably be hammered out in a day or two so I don\’t see why this took so long.
You want to see a cool flash live streaming player, check out - http://tv.shopnbc.com/
17. Tonto Weinsten | November 18th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Aw Ed, c’mon, show me the love. Do you know why this place loses its mind when IB is mentioned? Because we’ve worked with these people. In my case, more than I care to.
Their compatibility with anything other than Windows is done begrudgingly, and previously, poorly.
The only thing I’ve seem from them that’s compelling is their content management system, which of course, only a handful of the world sees. What everyone sees is, well, not so compelling.
So yeah, I’m not surprised that it doesn’t work so hot on a Mac. But I’m willing to give them “props” for at least having it into the beta. Worldnow still seems stuck in the “your browser is not supported” world.
18. tbd | November 18th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Tonto - You still didn’t answer Ed’s question: What doesn’t work for you on your Mac? What’s “not so hot” about it?
19. The Watcher | November 18th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Gees all this complaining and no one noticed that the title was misspelled? How do you spell FEUD???? Gees These new J school college grads need to spend less time in front of their x boxes and a little more time in front of their books.
20. tdc | November 18th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
ed,
that “frothing” comment is quite ironic as it was(and quite often is) an ib investor’s employee who wrote the post.
i kinda figure if “you” post it here you WANT feedback.
21. Ed | November 18th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Tonto Weinstein works for an IB customer? Which one?
22. Gorman | November 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Kind of off-tangent, but are there any plans by the nets to allow their prime time programming be displayed in this method on affiliate Web sites? I know ABC allows a co-branded player link off of the affil’s site, but it still feels like you’re going to ABC.com and has very little local feel.
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