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Instead of dealing with the costs and complexity associated with these products, why not consider using a hosted model? We were aware of - but couldn't test as part of this review -- niche and general-purpose hosted applications for video indexing, searching and asset management.
Virage, an indexing and asset-management software developer that was invited to participate but declined, has a video-indexing service bureau to which customers send original analog videotape. Virage employees capture, index and create streaming media editions of the video, on an hourly-fee basis. Through a relationship with Akamai, Virage can also post the streaming media on the Akamai content delivery network on behalf of a customer. Another partnership that joined indexing technologies with service hosting capabilities - Excalibur and Intel's Enhanced Video Services group merged to form Convera in 2000 - has also ventured into this domain but is not currently offering a commercial service to corporations.
The full-service media service providers we contacted (Akamai and Yahoo Broadcast), which have invested in integrating asset indexing, searching and asset-management systems, also declined to participate. We were told the primary reason these two providers declined is that their offerings concentrate on hosting and delivery of data, including streaming media, not on video indexing or management, and that inclusion in the study would potentially mislead customers.
Despite these providers' positions, we believe the complexity and high cost of the video indexing, searching and management systems we reviewed make it ideal for hosted configurations. We anticipate that within the next 12 months, an company's foray into video indexing and searching will involve one or more service providers to ensure professional management and maintenance of the systems.
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Perey is president of Perey Research & Consulting, of Placerville, Calif. She provides market research and business development consulting to companies offering networked multimedia applications, technologies and services to enterprises. She can be reached at cperey@perey.com.
A card catalog for your multimedia
Repurpose your video assets to save money or make new revenue.
Why IT should care
Putting a small or comprehensive video-asset logging, searching and management system in place is definitely a project that IT should be involved in.
Considering multisite collaboration
In addition to our usability tests, we reviewed each product in light of how they could support such multisite collaboration.
NetResults
See how the products we tested measured up.
How we did it
Our testing methods explained.
Intel, Excalibur name new company Convera
Intel and Excalibur Technologies Monday announced that they have chosen the name Convera Corp. for their joint venture interactive media services company.
IDG News Service, 09/11/00.
