With HBO in the news, NY Video meetup holds one of its best demo nights
By Dennis Clemente
The NY Video meetup had one of its best demo nights last October 16 with Steve Rosenbaum keeping things interesting with his usual side commentary on the latest in the video world. If you missed the news this week, HBO plans to bring its programming to Internet users via a Netflix-style streaming service.
“HBO versus Netflix? Is this good for us?” he asked. He thinks if you have no cable and you subscribe to both plus Hulu, you may end up paying the same amount you paid on cable. That’s certainly something to chew on as he announced the presenters of the night at AOL—SundaySky with SmartVideo, OCHO, Joey and Mediabreaker.
Max Stossel, along with Jerilyn Stone, dared the audience to imagine what YouTube would look if it were made today. It’s a social network that makes videos better in 8 seconds thus the name Ocho. Now available in the App Store and coming soon to Android, it has an interesting story.
The founders got funding from Mark Cuban when they emailed him on Cyber Dust. If you know how the app works (hint: the name says it all), that was a small window of opportunity for Ocho. Good thing Cuban got to it before their message disappeared.
Next presenter was Rachel Eisenhauer who talked about SmartVideo and how to help brands tell compelling stories that matter to the consumer.
The videos are personalized to the individual viewer. “It’s created for you, not by you,” she stressed. “Everything we create is from scratch.”
“We work with insurance companies and health companies using inputs from data analysts and the creative team,” she added.
DC Vito presented Mediabreaker next, showing how its product remixes YouTube videos—as a commentary and critiquing tool. He stressed how important it was to read the terms of service in this matter, because of the risks it is taking. It would own all the videos submitted, because it was willing to take the hit if the videos were challenged under Fair Use, a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders.
Last presenter was Jess Glasse. He talked about Joey (to be renamed to avoid similar name owned by a cable TV company) his professional grade panoramic 360-degree camera that allows capture, broadcast and live two-way conferencing at up to 4K resolution. It was on Kickstarter until Thursday night, surpassing its funding goal. It could just be the next camera sensation.
