To all at Apple,
Thank you. I invited a client to the recent free live webcast
presentation on MPEG-4 and streaming media that was held on March 27,
2003 The person I invited, in turn invited two other people, ( one of
them being the Director of Media Development). The presentation
streamed beautifully with perfect audio and video in sync. and the
quality of both the audio and video was impressive.There were several
nods (and a few chuckles) throughout the presentation, with the
Director of Media Dev also taking copious notes. Much discussion
followed the webcast and we had an informal meeting for the next hour.
Shortly thereafter the person I originally invited took out his own
credit card and promptly called the Apple Store and ordered an eMac.
They plan to use this as a proof of concept for a live webcasting
station in concert with QuickTime Broadcaster. If all goes well we will
ship these out to more than ten different locations with a potential
for over a hundred.
The presentation was so well done and filled with facts and
information; there is just no other way I could have educated the
client as completely in the 1 1/2 hours the presentation spanned.
Besides very often the old adage is true "the medium is the message".
Frank Casanova also made some very compelling arguments for MPEG-4 with
regards to standards including, using an analogy between only being
able to run one type of gasoline in your car and if you took a road
trip, you would have to make sure you plotted out where each gas
station of that particular type was located. So memorable in fact was
the visual that was placed in the clients mind that, later on the Dir.
of Media Dev. actually quoted verbatim the entire line to someone else.
It also made a huge impact on my clients when Frank Casanova
illustrated why it is important to adopt standards. He used Microsoft's
Windows Media 9 as an example of a closed proprietary technology and
stated that those who choose to adopt these proprietary technologies
must follow the creators ( Microsoft) of those proprietary technologies
wherever they go. My clients faces certainly shown in agreement with
that statement, with each also nodding a big yes.
I was almost caught off guard when I was asked if I thought they should
move their entire video editing / encoding workflow
to OS X. A previous IT manager had a vehement hatred for all things
Apple, so I answered with a bit of caution, that they should utilize
the live webcast and Xserve environment of Apple, but should probably
stay with the PC for the rest, as this is what they are familiar with.
The Dir. of Media Dev. said, "I don't care about that, I'm willing to
learn it". It was a perfect segue for me to make the point that the
reason she felt that way was because of the interface of OS X. I
further explained while she was still looking at a shot of the Media
Cleaner interface, that if she were to see the PC version she would not
feel the same sense of empowerment that one does with the OS X version,
because Windows is not intuitive and not known for ease of use.
Later in the evening I received a call at home from the Dir. of Media
Dev. asking me to also submit a bid the following morning for a major
VOD project.
Recently I had planned on doing a side by side comparison between
Windows Media Series 9 and MPEG-4, but my client took one look at the
encoding application and literally froze. He realized at once that his
end users, who barely know how to turn their computers on, would need
too much training and support to make it feasible.
With the exception of their small graphics department, this is an
almost entirely Wintel organization. So why not just use a Wintel PC
instead of a Mac, to put on an MPEG-4 live webcast? It's really very
simple: Apple's legendary ease of use and QuickTime Broadcaster are a
combo that just cannot be beat. I looked into a few other MPEG-4
solutions on the PC. Some cost as much as $6,000.00 and none of them
could match the feature rich and ease of use that QuickTime Broadcaster
affords.
Thanks again for putting on such a great show. I hope to see more of
these live webcasts and other seminars on the progress of MPEG-4 in the
future. Apple might seriously consider making these kinds of seminars
into training DVD's and available for sale at a nominal fee. Very
effective indeed!
Sincerely,
Daniel K. O'Connell
VP, Paradise Pictures
email@hidden
406.333.9511
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