facebookpixel

Common Video Content Management Mistakes

CMMA Blog

Enterprises are adopting video at a rapid pace. Video advertising and shoppable video are more accessible than ever, and internal applications like training and townhalls are also increasing.
At the root of all the flashy features and trendy use cases is an oft-neglected but fundamental component of video marketing: video content management. In fact, this was a recurring theme in The Aragon Research Globe™ for Enterprise Video, 2023:

As demand for both produced video content and user-generated video content grows, video content management, which is how this market got its start, is now more important than ever before.

The best features will fail without a proper foundation. Before settling on a new or even your first streaming platform, take a moment to review some of the most common video management mistakes. Knowing what to avoid will allow you to get the most out of your platform and set up your video marketing strategy for success.
No Taxonomy
One of the most common mistakes in video content management is not having a clear and consistent taxonomy. Imagine throwing cables into a pile in the corner of a closet and wondering why they come out tangled and knotted. Without a taxonomy, video storage can be difficult to manage effectively.
No Taxonomy Symptoms
It’s easy to tell if you have a working taxonomy. You usually won’t hear internal stakeholders say, “Ugh, I would’ve used that video in my campaign if I knew we had it!” Missed opportunities are a telltale sign that marketers aren’t able to find your content and make the most of it.
You also won’t hear someone say, “Wait, we already had an asset about that?” Too often, wasted resources are the result of a mismanaged media library. Especially for marketers working against deadlines, it can foster bad habits like producing duplicate content rather than going to hunt and peck for what they need.
No Taxonomy Solutions
Taxonomy refers to the ways in which content is categorized and organized. For example, AV folks inverse wrap cables (to prevent tangling) and sort them by things like length and connector. In the same way, content managers should structure their media libraries by aboutness and use.
Enterprise video platforms like Brightcove offer a couple of different file storage features.

Folders. Best used to organize video assets by aboutness, folders are the primary navigation for content managers. External content like products and services, as well as internal content like trainings and townhalls, should all have their own folders. However, not every subcategory needs its own folder. Keep the folders high-level and your library will be easier to navigate.
Playlists. Best used to organize video assets by use, playlists are the primary navigation for content activators. Campaigns, channels, and other external and internal initiatives can each have their own playlist. Unlike folders, playlist contents will overlap to accommodate various uses and thus can be more granular. For example, a clip of the CEO from a townhall might fit on both an onboarding playlist and a PR playlist.

In addition to manual playlists, a leading platform like Brightcove also offers Smart Playlists that can be generated automatically based on tags, custom fields, descriptions, and dates.
Of course, Smart Playlists won’t work if any of the necessary data points are missing. Video tagging, in particular, isn’t an intuitive skill and users are prone to over-tag with useless data or freeze up and avoid tagging altogether. That’s why most platforms also offer required fields that prevent an asset’s activation until those fields are filled in.
A rigorously maintained taxonomy is what it will take to stay ahead of the competition in some burgeoning markets. For example, “Aragon feels there will be long-term archival needs for certain types of telehealth use cases (The Aragon Research Globe™ for Enterprise Video, 2023).” In a field prone to legal scrutiny, organizations should strongly consider offering benefits beyond business outcomes.
No Ingest Procedure
Another common mistake is not having a clear and consistent process for ingesting video content. It’s like expecting a football team to win games with no assigned positions or set plays. Without a proper ingest procedure, it will be difficult to ensure that the right video assets are stored the right way.
No Ingest Symptoms
One way to tell that your ingest procedures aren’t standardized is by checking your file names. Do they have an ISO-formatted date ? Is there any irrelevant information like the producer’s name or the duration? Or are some simply called “project” because someone forgot to title them? Inconsistent naming conventions indicate users are following their own instincts rather than a company-wide standard.
Another indicator is duplicate assets. This means users can’t (or won’t) identify which assets are already in the library, so they’re uploading the same file multiple times. Not only is this likely due to the aforementioned naming issue, it also suggests users are trying to fill a vacuum in the ingest process.
No Ingest Solutions
Ingesting refers to the process of transferring video content from the source to the storage location—in this case, an online video platform or OVP. A taxonomy is an important first step, but alone, it won’t help if no one knows to follow it. Once you outline an ingest procedure, there are several features that can help you maintain it.

Role-based access. Just like not every football player has the skills to be a goalkeeper, not every employee should have access to your media library. For example, Brightcove’s platform is divided into different modules and allows you to select which modules are accessible to different roles. Restricting the Upload module to select users will improve process compliance and make it easier to identify responsible parties when errors need to be corrected.
Replace source file. Version control often becomes an issue when a product is updated or your brand is refreshed. Brightcove makes this easy by offering a button called “Replace Source File.” Whenever you’re done with an old version of a video, just click this button and you can update every instance of the asset. No duplicate files or naming issues. If that sounds like a simple solution that any web CMS already offers, it is. If you’re mad that your current video CMS doesn’t offer it, you should be.

These features will only become more important as microvideo grows. Short (30-second) how-to videos are increasingly popular with customer support use cases. But as media libraries grow, so does the need for businesses to lock down their ingest processes. “Aragon feels that more of them will need a full Enterprise video platform to be able to manage the growing volume of videos over the next five years.”
No Publication Procedure
A final common mistake is not having a clear and consistent process for publishing video content. A grocery store would never order produce before coordinating with packagers and distributors; it might rot before getting to the table. Likewise, without a proper publication procedure, videos may start growing (figurative) mold in your library.
No Publication Symptoms
Whenever deadlines are missed or the wrong video gets published to the wrong place, your publication procedure is suspect. Delays and errors indicate there’s no established workflow for a video asset once it’s ingested.
Another obvious sign that publishing happens haphazardly is when you try to break out a video’s metrics by audience but can’t find where it’s published. This kind of opaque performance can occur because some may not realize that publication is part of content management.
No Publication Solutions
Publishing refers to the process of making video content available to the public. And despite the fact that it addresses where a video lives outside of the media library, this is still the content manager’s job. Fortunately, good streaming platforms offer some helpful features to make this job a little easier.

Portals. Rather than waiting for links, embed codes, or the webpages needed to host them, a video portal can be set to auto-populate based on certain playlists. For example, Brightcove Gallery offers several responsive, no-code templates that can be populated by Smart Playlists. Meaning, you could add “PR” and “onboarding” tags to that CEO townhall clip mentioned earlier, and upon ingest, it would automatically publish to those respective portals.
Players. When Brightcove and other platforms allow you to customize multiple video players, we’re not doing that so you can create wacky designs (okay, maybe a little). Players are an opportunity to organize where your videos are published. For example, landing page audiences behave very differently than homepage audiences. But if you have a video published in both places, how do you break out the performance? If you had a designated player for each location, then you could simply filter performance by player. Anywhere an audience behaves in a distinct way is an opportunity for a designated player.

Players are particularly valuable when working with interactive video. According to Aragon Research , “One of the fast-growing use cases is interactive video, which makes shopping experiences more immersive.” But to keep up with that growth, enterprises will need to know where buyers are watching and interacting with videos. Designated players allow them to break out those audiences and refine their strategies accordingly.
Solving Video Management with the Enterprise Leader
Managing video content can be a challenge, given video’s cascading growth in volume and use cases. Avoiding the common mistakes can keep your content well organized so your streaming platform can propel your marketing strategy to keep up.
Video Content Management graphic
To be clear, the solution to poor video asset management is having a clearly defined and adopted strategy. Tools and features can’t create that strategy, and they only work as well as the people using them understand that strategy. But they can make executing that strategy easier, especially if you’re using an analyst-named leader like Brightcove.
For two years in a row, the Aragon Globe has named Brightcove Leader in enterprise video.
Download The Aragon Research Globe™ for Enterprise Video, 2023, to learn more about why Brightcove is leading the way in enterprise video.
Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them “AS IS,” without warranty of any kind.

To view our Partner blog, click here

The DOL Has Its 👀on YOU: Let’s Talk About Audit Prevention

CMMA Blog

If you employ any number of independent contractors, the Department of Labor (DOL) has an interest in your business. Yes, yours. You should take it as seriously as they do.

Hiring such workers is attractive to companies looking for outside creative resources as well as those that have varying, seasonal, or event-based needs. It can help keep overhead low and is a great way to outsource work that is not central to their main line of business. It can also be a great way to find top talent on a specific, project-oriented basis.

Sounds nice, right? But there’s a big catch.

The legal definition of an independent contractor is constantly being redefined through legal means. While it can vary from state to state, it is trending toward a narrower definition across the board. These guidelines are meant to prevent firms from misclassifying would-be employees, thereby avoiding a bounty of state and federal taxes.

Is your IC really an independent contractor?

It is a deceptively complex question. It’s important to confidently be able to answer “yes”, because the risk of facing an IRS audit has never been greater. Take our 5-minute worker classification self-audit here (pinky promise it’s easier and faster than any government-backed audit).

As self-employed workers, independent contractors (also known as freelancers, consultants, or 1099’s) have a different set of expectations than employees. Businesses engage them to do a specific job for an agreed-upon rate. Unlike a regular employee, they can move regularly from client to client and business to business. They are legally entitled to fewer company benefits. They are also responsible for reporting their own business income and paying self-employment taxes.

Best Practices When Engaging Independent Contractors:

  • Engage contractors with an established business entity, name, and EIN
  • Engage contractors who have multiple clients
  • Have every IC provide a certificate of insurance, including general liability and worker’s comp insurance
  • Have a signed project agreement specifying project length, compensation and liability
  • Avoid training the worker, directing their work responsibilities, providing equipment, or defining their work schedules

Prevent an Audit With Airtight Contractor Payroll Processes

Audits are costly and time-consuming even for businesses that do everything by the book. How much are you willing to pay in time and hassle for employee misclassification? Engaging the right payroll partner mitigates most of the risks associated with engaging independent contractors. At PayReel, we assess each employment situation individually to make sure you are in complete compliance. Do you have questions about independent contractor status? You can trust PayReel to help you make the determination.

The post The DOL Has Its 👀on YOU: Let’s Talk About Audit Prevention appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

SageNet Appoints IV Dickson Chief Innovation Officer (CIVO)

CMMA Blog

TULSA, Okla. – May 4, 2023 – SageNet, a Tulsa-based managed network, digital experience, and security services provider, has appointed industry veteran IV Dickson as its new Chief Innovation Officer (CIVO). Dickson previously served as SageNet’s VP of Digital Experience. In the newly created CIVO position, Dickson will be responsible for driving innovation and fostering a culture of forward…

Source

To view our Partner blog, click here

The Benefits and Challenges of Hiring Contingent Workers

Blog



0Shares

The Contingent Workforce: Insights and Information

Organizations often refer to contingent workers by different titles: independent contractors (ICs), contract workers, consultants, temps, remote employees, freelancers, agency workers, or gig workers. These outsourced, nonpermanent employees are usually engaged to fill short-term openings, address seasonal shifts in staffing needs, tackle special short-term or long-term projects, or offer expertise and consultancy.

Employers offer contingent workers temporary contracts until the project is complete; after that, neither employer nor contingent employee has any obligation to continue their business relationship — although both sides may find the relationship is beneficial enough to make permanent.

Contingent workers can bring highly specialized, niche skills to the workplace, offering management an opportunity to complete more complex work beyond the scope of their other staff members. This nuance can be a turning point for businesses focused on growth, expansion, and development of product lines and services.

Benefits and challenges of hiring contingent workers

Contingent staffing offers an alternative work arrangement and increased flexibility for both workers and companies, along with many other benefits — and, of course, a few challenges.

Advantages of hiring contingent workers include:

  • An external, flexible workforce of contingent workers provides a solid boost to companies needing to ramp up or minimize their employee base quickly. Economic shifts, special projects, and seasonality of work all affect the bottom-line staffing numbers. The ability to hire gig workers or project workers eases the stress on managers and hired staff as well, as regular employees appreciate the added job security of knowing they are less likely to be downsized when production needs are met or projects are completed.
  • Cost savings. The ability to hire talent on an as-needed basis is notably cost-effective. When business fluctuations occur, managers can reduce labor costs by hiring to meet the needs of the moment, without having to invest in the lengthy onboarding, orientation, and administrating associated with hiring regular employees. Contingent workers generally need only short-term, job-specific training and administration.
  • Sourcing, recruiting, and hiring employees are time-consuming tasks, and sometimes your company needs critical talent immediately. The availability of contingent workers means hiring managers can work much more quickly and effectively to fill those openings.
  • Unique skills. Contingent workers may have skill sets unique to their fields or critical to the success of particular projects. Hiring regular employees for specific, unique skills takes time and is often more expensive than finding a short-term consultant or gig worker.

shutterstock 1598189440

Of course, no benefit is without a challenge, and savvy business managers are prepared for the challenges that hiring contingent workers may entail:

  • Management. Because temporary workers don’t go through the same onboarding, orientation, and training regular employees do, they may need extra management as they begin their journey with your company.
  • As contingent work is so flexible in nature, managers may feel uncomfortable with the model at first. Trusting an “outsider” to do a great job requires good communication and follow-up skills from team leaders and managers.
  • The IRS and Department of Labor require employers to use concrete guidelines to classify all workers as employees or nonemployee contractors. Failing to adhere to these guidelines by misclassifying contingent workers may lead to costly legal penalties. It’s crucial that employers mitigate their legal risk by ensuring all workers are correctly classified. A legal consultant or experienced recruiting partner can best assess your company’s risks and offer guidance.
  • Companies may become reliant on the unique skills certain gig workers bring to bear and find themselves reluctant to move workers to other projects. Finding the right balance between in-house and external talent is often a challenge.
  • Integration and teamwork. Employees tend to integrate and develop relationships with coworkers more quickly than contingent workers who may not be involved with the company for long. This may lead to more cohesion and teamwork between regular employees and less with contingent staff.

Outsourcing contingent workforce management: Is it worthwhile?

Your organization has a lot to focus on — staff management, growth, new products and services, talent acquisition, and more. Hiring contingent workers is one area where businesses can confidently outsource, but only to a trusted recruiting partner . Consider the advantages your company stands to gain from outsourcing contingent workforce management :

  • When you work with an established staffing partner to secure contingent workers, the right partner will provide all the necessary resources, from internal training to helping teams keep abreast of industry trends and current technologies.
  • Recruiting and staffing. Your staffing partner should handle the logistics of hiring contingent workers: recruiting, interviewing, hiring, background checks/drug testing, onboarding, and ongoing development and mentorship.
  • Risk mitigation. Your staffing partner should be experts in the legal requirements for contingent workforces, including labor laws, state employee registrations, Workers’ Compensation Insurance management, and benefits administration.
  • Compensation negotiations. Specialized gig workers are often in high demand. Your contingent workforce management partner should be up to date on compensation expectations and able to negotiate on behalf of your organization to ensure you get the best talent, at the right price, for your specific needs.
  • Performance management. Successful staffing partners handle performance expectations, management, and any concerns related to your outsourced workers.
Is your organization ready to take the next step by hiring contingent workers? Bring contingent workforce management into focus with maslowmedia.com .

The post The Benefits and Challenges of Hiring Contingent Workers appeared first on Maslow Media.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Analog to Ethernet: NAB Highlights the Future of AV & Broadcast Tech

CMMA Blog

Vegas never seems to disappoint me when it comes to NAB . It may not be as flashy as some displays from South-by-Southwest but NAB is the pulse of where the AV, broadcast, and the film industry sits but also where it is going. I overheard a conversation behind me on the plane of a passenger asking their seatmate what NAB actually was

“Is it a technical conference or is it about the creative aspects of film and broadcasting?”

“Both, kind of.”

What is NAB?

To a broadcast muggle that may not be hip to our industry, I would say NAB is very technical in nature but it is the creativity that we have with this gear that makes the masterpieces people binge-watch in their free time or watch casually over a cup of coffee. I was there representing clients who mostly use this technology in corporate and NGO settings but I was standing next to the NBC broadcast team for the Olympics at one booth and the NFL Films team at another.

Discussions on the main stage varied from the post-production team presentation of HBO’s “The Last of Us” to an XR/VR panel on how the technology is used to enhance educational settings and experiences. Our goal as an industry always remains the same: how do we tell better stories? And that doesn’t sound technical to us. Stories of course are as old as language itself. What we use to tell our stories? Very technical. Another feature of NAB is all the side stages and pavilions to offer further breakdowns in our industry’s tech, business practices, and culture, including frank discussions on the progress of Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. A panel discussion hosted by Gals and Gear highlighted the triumphs of how far we’ve come but still how far we need to go to get away from industry practices known as cronyism or shadow hiring. The old “I know a guy” (And it’s usually is a guy) mantra is still alive and it’s up to all of us to continue to work towards these DEI goals.

 

Let’s Talk Tech: Highlights from NAB

There’s lots of tech to get through so we’ll start here.

Last year the bells of the ball were the large remote production video wall sets powered by Unreal Engine or Unity servers. This technological advancement allowed immersive experiences for actors and allowed for any environment to be easily customizable to the whims of a creative team. No need to travel to 6 different locations for a shoot, you could load the digital volumes into the graphics engine, and manipulate lighting and backgrounds in ways that Location managers only could pray for good weather or for that tree in the shot to be merely 3 feet more to the left.

But that was last year. Those sets were still on display of course but no large changes to the tech were show-stopping for this broadcast tech junkie.

From a ten thousand-foot view, I can summarize this year’s NAB display as a representation of two different bodies of vendors: those who transmit signal to a destination and those who have developed products that receive or build upon an IP/cloud workflow.

If you have been involved in the tech talk of the industry in the last 6 or so years you’ve heard of SMPTE2110, IP workflows, and the cloud. NAB 2023 has confirmed what has been on the horizon for years: the time of analog first gear is over. It’s time to turn that serial port into an ethernet one.

 

It’s Time to Unite your AV and IT Teams

If your AV or broadcast teams are separate from your IT teams it is time to start the conversation and get them talking. IP transport of audio and video signals over ethernet is a reality that all vendors are in on. If your IT teams are nervous, they do not need to turn far for assistance, the presence of IT gear manufacturers and cloud platforms have been a mainstay at the show: Cisco, Avixa, Netgear, AWS, Microsoft Azure, etc.

Why is this so important? SPMTE2110, that’s why.

To most people, that just looks like a cat walked across my keyboard. In simplest terms, SMTE2110 allows teams to move video feeds from one place to another using only an ethernet (internet) or fiber cable. Why do I say this is important now? Blackmagic Design , an industry underdog or disruptor (Depending on who you are talking to) released its first converter for IP and 2110. The price point? Only $595.

SMPTE was only seen as affordable and thus doable, for larger organizations and industry juggernauts much like how remote production stages are seen as engines of large studios that produce major motion pictures (ie. Disney, HBO, etc.). This announcement spells a foreshadowing of what to be on the lookout for in the coming years. This technology is no longer inaccessible to your budget. Even network switch manufacturers like Netgear are due to release their next hardware models that will be compatible with SPMTE.

Now, fostering conversations between IT and AV is a whole other discussion article that can get complicated depending on your business, but having these teams start talking is essential. Most IT professionals have little knowledge of how audio and video packets transport around a network and most AV professionals have a limited knowledge of IT security and infrastructure. It’s an uneven playing field for both parties but a team that can acknowledge their individual shortcomings and rise above them will be able to make some incredible productions.

I think I might know what you’re thinking: I’m not doing a SMPTE system upgrade, but I still need a scalable solution that is a bit more affordable and does not include more hardware. Well, my friend, that is what the cloud is for.

 

Scalable Solutions in the Cloud

There were many vendors offering compatibility with their hardware to be run in the Cloud, typically skewed to AWS but many say they are cloud agnostic to a degree: Ross Video, Evertz, Vizrt, Panasonic to name a few. But also browser-native applications that are hosted in the cloud like Ross Video’s cloud production suite or the Switch’s Mimic product.

The cloud, whether you are using AWS, Azure, or GCP, has been around for a while but the “lift and shift” away from hardware purchases is what makes these workflows and products very attractive. Only use what you need when you need it.

Within this cloud production work graphics have been a pain point for many but this year’s NAB demonstrated what is front of mind to solve this: HTML5 graphic integration into products.

Another cat on my keyboard? No. In a nutshell, HTML5 graphics enable the production of graphics from any browser with no coding or broadcast graphics knowledge. With HTML5 graphics, everything happens seamlessly in the cloud and can be controlled by one person. When you are working in the cloud, it is easier to create multiple versions of the same broadcast. For example, a broadcaster with a global base can send multiple broadcast signals, re-versioned for local consumption in other countries complete with graphics in the local language. What once would take multiple teams or workflows can now be streamlined cleanly.

 

What’s next in AV Broadcast Technology?

Wow, with all this human efficiency what could possibly next? AI of course! Web3 was replaced as the reigning hot topic in most spheres now and that is certainly true here. At a stop at the ATSC 3.0 booth, they had an avatar of an ASL interpreter translating an emergency broadcast signal. A combination of the two spheres of the aforementioned tech. It was exciting to see how much AI has pushed accessibility more front of mind for people. This little ASL avatar is only the beginning of building upon closed caption technology before it. Captions are getting faster, smarter, and being translated into more languages for the global audiences remote and virtual audiences have drawn. For our Virtual Services team at TeamPeople this is exciting news as we can continue to integrate greater accessibility options into our livestreaming products

All of these innovations don’t photograph as well as a fancy LED wall or camera but they are transforming the industry. With how much has advanced this year from last year I only have this to say: I can’t wait to see what stories we can tell next.

 

If you need help starting the conversation between your AV, broadcast, and IT teams, we can help. Sarah Doyle and our team of technical experts are well-versed in providing custom solutions for complex workflows. We’d love to hear about the challenges your team is facing and the pain points we can solve with these technical advances in audiovisual technology. Get in touch with us!

ptq.gif?a=5111419&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.teampeople.tv%2Fworkforce solutions blog%2Ffrom analog to ethernet the future of av broadcast technology&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.teampeople

To view our Partner blog, click here