Authoring Tool
The central feature of the Raptive Media Metadata Management System (RM3S) is the ability to easily create “tags”, also sometimes known as “bookmarks” that are associated with a video or audio file.
Users create their “actionable” tables of contents using a
simple authoring tool that is designed for non-technical businesspeople with no
knowledge of programming or experience in working with audio and video. Click
here to see comments about ease of use of Raptive Media from an interview with
a non-technical user. Note that the video starts immediately at
the selected location. Also note that
this link was inserted into this document using standard Microsoft Office
(2003) tools.
Ease of use was noted by the Director of Education for the Chamber Music Society. Click here to see those comments.
The authoring tool supports content in all major formats, including Windows Media, QuickTime, Flash, and mp3. The tool can also be customized for clients who want their own logo and look and feel.
Standard Authoring Sequence.
The following is the sequence a registered Raptive Media account owner or authorized user would follow to prepare a video for publication through the Raptive Media system.
·
The
tool asks the author to specify the location of the audio or video file they want
to tag; it can be located on his hard drive or anywhere on the web. When the tool locates the audio or video
file, it appears on the author’s screen and starts playing.
·
To
create a tag at any point in the video, the author clicks the “Add Tag”
button. The video will either pause or
continue playing, depending on author’s preference, and a new tag will be
created with the captured time value. The user then enters the tag text and
other desired information such as description or transcript.
·
The
author may play and pause the video at will while the tag authoring window is
open. This allows the author to review
the video while composing the tag text or filling in the transcript or
description fields.
·
Tools
in the tag authoring window provide the means to change the tag time value and
provide assistance in rapidly locating new tag positions.
·
The
author is also able to attach slides of various kinds to the tag. These documents, such as photos, will appear
alongside the video as it plays in the playback window.
·
The
Raptive Media menu also includes objects called “chapters”, which contain tags,
allowing the author to organize the tags according to some hierarchical
fashion. The tags themselves have no
hierarchical relationship to each other.
Future versions of Raptive Media will allow
assignment of tags to multiple chapters as well as topic/category bins.
·
When
the author is satisfied with the tags, he or she may copy either the program URL
or a specific tag URL and publish that url in an email or place it on their web
site. This URL can be embedded on a page in the user’s
web site as well.
Chapters, Topics, Categories and Virtual Editing
The “chapters” feature deserves individual attention because
of the unique way in which it operates, distinguishing the Raptive Media
product from anything on the market today
In the following example the tags do not necessarily appear chronologically within chapters, but various bits of video can be categorized outside of the timeline of the intended chronological sequence.
Lisa's Kitchen Cooking Show demo.
Watch the video for at least two minutes and see the menu skip between chapters. Future versions of the product will allow you to skip past selected tags (as in the “Out Takes” chapter), or to play the tags within a chapter in succession.
The video publisher will be able to publish certain chapters, and so will create a virtual editing technique that extends the value of the tags in other ways and can be operated by the same non-technical people who can create tags in the first place. .
Search Engine Optimization
The text in the “actionable” table of contents mentioned above can be exposed to Google, Yahoo and a businesses’ internal search engine. When searchers click on a search result, they are taken to that exact moment within the audio or video file.
This allows people to search within the file, not just for it, solving a challenge in audio/video search that can draw new audiences to points within businesses’ content. The following is an example of a Google search result that links to a point within a video file that has been tagged:
(Results of search “Equal and Unequal Rhythm”)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=equal+and+unequal+rhythm&aq=f&oq=&aqi
Import authoring tool
This semi-automated process accepts import or other file formats and
allows an author to map the metadata and time values onto Raptive Media creating tags and chapters where indicated in
the import format. Note: We have already built
three such importers for different systems.
Coordinated Slides and Content
Users may enrich the audience’s viewing and listening experience by using the authoring tool to add slides, notes and links that play alongside the audio or video file on the audience’s screens in a coordinated fashion. The slides may be in any image format such as .gif and .jpg. Users may easily convert PowerPoint slides into .jpg format before using the authoring tool. For example, here is an excerpt from a training video that has a coordinated slide show.
In addition to coordinated slides, users may also add extra text and hyperlinks to external sites that, when followed, open up in separate browser windows.
Therefore, if topic-related information is tagged from the Web, such as a news story or analyst’s report, the viewer can click to go there as well.
The product is the ideal tool for collaborative viewing - allowing viewers to link compelling content to the exact segment of a video or audio and then enabling the viewer to forward that link to the team for discussion and action.
It is even possible to include other media in the description field. Click here to go to program, then click description tab and wait for change.
Tag Tracking/Viewer Data
The Raptive Media system tracks viewings and provides two distinct reports to give video publishers useful information about the video in the field.
The first of these reports is the Activity Report, as represented directly below. This report provides general information about the number of accesses to each published video program. The system records the IP numbers of each connected viewer and then provides a count of the unique IP address accesses.
The second form of reporting capability is the Activity Log, which presents the raw viewing data, as illustrated below. This is a screen capture from the Chamber Music Society account.
Click the here to see a simulated activity report for an individual video.
Player
Computer users today have long adopted current standards for viewing and listening to Web content. The product works with all the major audio and video formats, such as QuickTime, Flash, Windows Media, and MP3. The audience is free to use either the PC or Apple platforms.
The player appears on the audience’s screen that displays the audio or video file along with the actionable tables of contents, and coordinated slides, notes and links. The player either can appear in a pop-up window or be embedded within a web page. The player can be customized for businesses that want their own logos and look and feel. The following is an example of a player embedded within a web page.
Click here to see
example of client-embedded web page
Viewing or listening to an audio or video file that has been annotated using Raptive Media’s system is simple:
·
The
viewer or listener clicks on the special URL or sees the embedded player on a
web page; the listener doesn’t need to know the source URL of the original
audio or video on the web.
·
The
player appears on the viewer’s screen, displaying the audio or video
side-by-side with the Raptive Media menu of Tags and Chapters.
·
As
the audio or video file advances through the points of the menu, the menu item
row color changes and any existing chapters expand and collapse to reveal the
tags as the video plays.
·
The
viewer may choose to click on any tag to be brought to that point in the audio
or video file.
·
The
viewer may click to expand or collapse any chapter and reveal or hide the tags
underneath.
The player sources the audio or video from its own location, which can be on Raptive Media Solution’s servers, the client’s own servers, or elsewhere on the web. The tags themselves are coming from Raptive Media Solution’s servers (notwithstanding the potential of on-site installations). They are combined on the viewer’s screen within the Raptive Medias player on the viewer’s screen.
Transcript Import and Dynamic Management
One of the workflow themes that continues to emerge is the
both the problems and opportunities that exist when seeking to merge
transcripts with the tag menu. This is a
high-impact feature.
Library/Information Groups/Knowledge Management
Businesses may organize their tagged audio and video files into a customized and searchable library. Raptive Media Solutions can assist businesses in designing the most attractive and usable format for their libraries.
The functions of the Raptive Media library will extend beyond merely searching existing chapters (groups) and tags. The library will be a knowledge engine for the media tags, based on creating categories and topics and other types of information designations that are specific to a particular industry or branch of knowledge. These “groups” of information can then be combined and nested and can be referenced during the tag authoring process so that authors can place tags along existing knowledge paths, or not, as desired.
This capability would allow a viewer to access portions of other videos in the library that correspond to the information in the current tag. This instant cross-referencing of information has the potential of becoming a killer app if designed correctly allowing users to create their own information model (supplying templates/defaults for beginners).
Technical Background
The Raptive Media Metadata Management System (RM3S) is a web-based application deployed in dotNet 2.0 environment written in C# that uses a Microsoft SQL server as the backend database engine. It utilizes client-side Java script, Ajax technology that communicates with the server without the author having to refresh the whole page. Secure login authentication and encryption allow the authors to create private viewing areas and could be used for pay-per-view.
The display is based completely on DHTML, utilizing the browser’s standard Document Object Model. objects with several years of maturity in all browsers. Despite small differences the system behaves identically in all supported browsers on both Mac and PC.
The system is designed to work with any media format player that has a web object and a basic player control API. Raptive Media maintains a healthy distance from fluctuations and differences in player functionality by utilizing a small set of standard features for controlling the player. These include play, pause, and get/set time.
It is possible to extend functionality within customization projects into the advanced API of a given player to produce more dramatic or specific results. As an example, it is not currently possible to extend a cascading menu of tags over the video in a general way using standard browser technology. However, most players individually offer that capability in one form or another and Raptive Media could communicate with the player at that level and produce a highly effective and attractive cascading menu overlay. Eventually we would have such routines for all player types.
Developing these player-specific functions is highly desirable because of the “splash” it will lend to both Raptive Media’s demos and our prospect’s vision, however such development should be done outside of the main development timeline to avoid confusion with basic product features.