It took us a little bit more time than expected to get it out the door the "right" way however we are now very pleased to announce the availability of a vid.ly analytics package delivering detailed browser and mobile device statistics via the new API call GetStatistics   We built the vid.ly analytics platform on Cassandra and join a growing number of companies (e.g  Facebook, Digg) who have deployed Cassandra to manage enormous amounts of data.  The vid.ly analytics package provides a deep analysis of your mobile device audience by providing viewership data on over 6000 mobile devices and tablets.    Vid.ly analytics is available as a webservice via our API allowing you to customize this data to meet your organization's individual needs and easily integrate the realtime data into your existing systems and media workflow.  Vid.ly analytics data can be pulled for a single vid.ly url, group of urls, or account wide on any date interval. Below is the data we are returning for a mobile device as well as web view:

                <col>Vendor</col>  (Desktop or Mobile)
                <col>Model</col>  (Mobile Device Manufacturer, Apple) 
                <col>Platform</col>  (Mobile Brand, iPhone )
                <col>OS</col> (Operating System, Windows)
                <col>Browser</col> (Browser, Firefox)
                <col>Browser Ver</col> (Browse,  9.0.1)
                <col>Hits</col> (Number of video plays)

And just one more thing...we have just also released a new API call UpdateMedia  This function allows users to update the source media for a vid.ly that has already been created.  This scenario occurs when a vid.ly is published or hardcoded and the preference is to reuse the same url as opposed to creating a new one.  This function also supports our new vanity URL feature which allows customers to reserve a vanity vid.ly, for example vid.ly/obama and continue to update it with new and relevant video content.
 

We are so pleased to see Vid.ly penetrating the the action sports community, we spotted this guy on Saturday afternoon in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

The vid.ly universal video service is now available within the Encoding.com UI, Watch Folder, and API.   All prepay or monthly Encoding.com customers can now chose the new video preset "vid.ly" to give this new innovative and powerful new service a test spin.

What is vid.ly?

Vid.ly is a universal video service delivered within a single short url and embed code.The vid.ly service seamlessly integrates a HTML5 video player, Flash video player, transcoding, storage, delivery, and device detection.  When you chose the vid.ly preset within the Encoding.com UI, Watch Folder, or API we automatically transcode your source video into 24 different video formats and create 5 thumbnails.  When processing is complete, we deliver a short url and embed code via email or a XML http post.  When the embed code is rendered within a HTML page we use browser or device detection to deliver the appropriate video format (H.264, Ogg, WEBM, or a Flash fallback)   If a mobile device visits the  short url directly we will use a powerful device detection to deliver the best quality viewing for experience for thousands of feature phones, popular tablets, and all major smart phones.

4 great reasons to use Vid.ly:

1. Implement an advanced mobile video strategy:  

Today's commercial online video platforms typically transcode your source video into only 3-4 formats to cover popular smart phones.  This least common denominator approach saves your video provider a lot of money in storage and transcoding costs but alienates a huge percentage of your mobile audience.  Vid.ly transcodes your video into 24 different formats and uses powerful device detection to deliver the correct video to 6000 smart phones, feature phones, and tablets.

2.  HTML 5 video strategy simplified

The simplicity and elegance of a  HTML 5 video strategy is attractive at first glance however upon deeper review requires a significant amount of preparation.  Each of the HTML5 video compatible browsers  support a different video codec (Safari/H.264, Chrome/WEBM/, Firefox/Ogg) and those that don't support HTML5 video (Internet Explorer) need a Flash fallback.  Vid.ly simplifies all of this by automatically transcoding your video into the necessary HTML5 video formats and handles all necessary browser detection.

3. QR Code direct to mobile video
QR Codes are an innovative way to seamlessly integrate online media with offline print campaigns.  If your QR codes link directly to static web pages your are losing yours audiences attention by forcing them to read text on a mobile device.  If your QR code links to a standard video player you are delivering a less than optimal video experience for all of the tablets, feature phones and smart phones.  If you send your QR codes to vid.ly short links you can rest assured that the majority of your audience has a high quality full screen viewing experience of your content.

4. Because vid.ly includes advanced features you didn't even know you needed:
Vid.ly includes Apple's iOS Advanced HLS Streaming:  When a compatible iOS devices visit your vid.ly powered video we do not simply serve up a single bitrate iOS compatible video file.  Vid.ly prepares your video for both an iPad and iPhone adaptive bitrate stream.  Apple's HLS Streaming prepares your video into 4 bitrates each in 10 second segments and will dynamically serve the bitrate most appropriate to the bandwidth of the individual client.  This means that if a user has a high bandwidth environment they can enjoy beautiful high bitrate video content on their iPad and if another user is trying to watch the same video on a 3G connection they will have a smooth video experience watching a lower bitrate version instead of the dreaded stuttering and stopping.
 

A future proof your mobile device strategy:  New smartphones and tablets are hitting the market at a rapid pace. When the vid.ly universal video service is deployed you can sit back and rest assured that we will automatically update your vid.ly library to support popular new devices.  Anyone spend the holiday season transcoding your video library into the Kindle Fire's optimal format?  Don't worry vid.ly has you covered.

Your CDN Choice: Vid.ly supports both the Amazon CloudFront CDN service as well as the Akamai CDN, you can chose which CDN you want to use on a per video basis.

Additional charges apply when using vid.ly see our pricing table for more details.  Vid.ly usage charges will appear on your Encoding.com usage invoice on the first day of each month for usage during the previous month.  Vid.ly is also available as a standalone API based service

Encoding.com is very proud to announce its partnership with Creative Asylum, an Emmy Award winning interactive agency in Hollywood, to support the GLEE "Give a Note" campaign to recognize at-risk music programs in the US and provide $1M in donations from Fox and Glee.  

http://www.gleegiveanote.com/

Glee star Jane Lynch promoted the campaign in a public service announcement video... see beelow. The campaign will support music education by awarding $1 million dollars in prize money to music programs in jeopardy throughout the United States.   To qualify, kids submitted videos showing why their school deserves a piece of the prize.  The voting is complete -- 1.7 million web votes, 262,000 Facebook “likes” with an expected 33,000,000 Facebook impressions -- and the prizes will be awarded on December 15, 2011.  Stay tuned.

Encoding.com and Vid.ly Support Operations will be closed for Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 24th, 2011 - Sunday, November 27, 2011. We'll be actively monitoring the queue for any outstanding issues. We will be back on Monday, November 28th. If you have any questions, please send us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Happy Turkey Day!

Game on rockers!  We're excited to be teaming up with Jack Wishna, Stacy Haitsuka and the crew at ROCKRENA to power video for their recently launched RockCityClub.com 'social music network.'  RockCityClub is all about helping music artists get discovered and exposed to a worldwide audience... and we support that mission!

"Rockcityclub.com is changing the music industry in terms of how artists and bands are discovered and how their music is promoted and distributed," said Jack Wishna, CEO, of ROCKRENA.  "With Encoding.com managing video conversions, we are assured of high-quality video of Rockcityclub.com live performances and artist downloads to Rockcityclub.com being available quickly and reliably for our audiences around the world.  Encoding.com streamlines the video conversion process at a fraction of the in-house expense."

Wow.  Thanks very much to Streaming Media for including us in their inaugural list of Top 100 Companies that Matter in Online Video.  We accept this honor very humbly and appreciatively.  It means a lot to us to be recognized along with such video industry luminaries as Apple, Netflix, the BBC, etc... 

Our mission is just beginning.  As long as the complexity of preparing and delivering video that works across the ever-expanding ecosystem of devices and browsers exists, we will continue to innovate.  And when we need inspiration, we turn to Bluto.

We're excited and humbled to have been nominated for 5 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Awards... and we need your help to win.  If you believe that Encoding.com and Vid.ly are worthy, please take 2 minutes to vote for us by following the link below.  I've also included the categories for which we were nominated.  Your support is greatly appreciated.  

http://www.streamingmedia.com/ReadersChoice/2011/Vote.aspx

We are nominated for the following categories:

• Best Streaming Innovation 2011  (Vid.ly)
• Best Online Video Technology Company (Encoding.com)
• Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Service  (Encoding.com)
• Encoding Software (Under $1000)  (Encoding.com)
• Mobile Video Platform (Vid.ly)

Come meet us at the Amazon Web Services Media & Entertainment Summit

Join a couple hundred Digital Media and IT Execs from leading Media and Entertainment (M&E) companies to share and learn best practices for leveraging Amazon's cloud infrastructure to solve challenges in the new on-demand digital media world. 

Reasons to attend (from AWS)

- Learn how Media and Entertainment companies have benefited by building and migrating a variety of applications to the cloud.
- Learn how AWS's cloud platform can help solve your storage, transcoding and encoding, and content delivery problems.
- Discover how AWS's services can help you meet increasing customer demands while reducing overall IT expenditures.

Who should attend

- IT Executives, Senior IT Managers, Senior Architects, and other technical IT leaders.

Where / When

October 6, 2011
Sofitel Los Angeles
8555 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048