Are you still wondering if you should try out Meerkat?

Oops! Too late!

It’s still around… but probably not for long.

Innovations in Video Production Happening Fast

This happen fast in the land of tech. But over the last year or 2 it seems that technologies supporting video are moving faster and faster. As an avid early adopter of tech in general, and a long time producer of video media, this has been a fun ride for me.  It felt like almost overnight all of the major social networks added video. At first is was just that, adding a video. You recorded the video and then uploaded it to your favorite social network. Or you recorded it directly into the social media system via their app. That made the process much easier for the average user, but it was still the upload of a pre-recorded video.

Only about 18 months later, if that… and we are now experiencing the massive growth of streaming video. But not only are the distribution platforms changing, but the tools to produce streaming video content are changing as well. Most of the innovation is happening with live streaming production via mobile devices. But it’s happening to all categories production hardware.

Mobile Video Streaming is Not New…But it IS Much Better!

And Yes, Ustream and other video streaming platforms have been around for years. They were fantastic when they launched. But, at the time mobile, devices and bandwidth still had low quality cameras, and data streaming was intense. Those that had the means were able to take advantage of the sudden shift from recorded video to LIVE streaming video. I can remember @iJustine and @leolaporte using Ustream and other services to launch their personal broadcasting brands. It was an exciting time. But I still don’t think the average internet user understood what was happening.

Fast forward to earlier this year (or a few months before that… you get the idea). Mobile devices have great cameras. Bandwidth is cheaper. And new internet technologies, like WebRTC, have been developed to support the trend. Today, instead of tapping a button to take a quick selfie, you can tap a button and be live streaming to a global audience via your mobile phone.

Stop for a minute and think about how truly amazing that is…

For a year or 2 now we’ve been picking up our phones and steaming live video. Now that we’re all used to doing it, we’re starting to see a lot of the same thing showing up on the internet. That got me wondering how long it would be before our mobile devices would become complete production studios. Honestly, I thought it was going to take a little longer…but nope. It’s here. Right now.

YouTube Director App Makes Creating Learning Videos Easy

A couple years ago I started using a mobile production app with builtin templates. Then Google bought the company and it shut down. But thankfully Google revived the app and recently release it as an iOS app titled Director. The best part about it are the templates. I always hear how hard it is to create video. And I just don’t believe it. It’s scary to create video…not complicated. Tools like Director make it insanely simple to create very interesting video with fairly sophisticated editing capabilities.

Many will find apps like YouTube Director to be enough to keep them busy for a while. But wait! There’s more!

Live Streaming Video Innovations Changing How We Produce Learning Videos

LIVE video streaming production is also growing. And that’s exactly what prompted me to write this article. There are new mobile apps that function like live production studios. These apps can combine different video sources and allow you, the producer, to switch between content sources or other streams live while you’re recording and streaming. This is a pretty big deal. System that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars…even millions… are now available for a few thousand (considering costs of devices, and supporting gear like tripods, mics, lights, etc.).

I spent a couple hours testing a new app called Switcher Studio. It is truly a game changer in live video streaming production. I will have a review posted soon so you can see what I’m talking about.

How does this impact training, and L&D?

Pretend that you had access to your local TV station’s resources 24/7. What type of training solutions can you imagine producing? Tell me. @litmos @bschlenker