Internet Video Exchange

Recently there have been quite a few companies popping up talking about video exchange over the internet. The technology is there to do this relatively inexpensively, but there are a few things to consider. You'll want to know how much internet bandwidth is allocated to the area of your department that you can use and how your digital editing system works to take true advantage of the technology. The biggest pitfall right now is that so many people don't understand what format the video needs to be in to be exchanged, and how much time it will take them to send the video file. I've seen everything from 20 minutes to send a game file of 3GB to over 22 hours! You can mail a tape and have it delivered overnight, so what good does 22 hours do you?

First, you must decide how important video quality is to you and what format/size your video is recorded in. If your video system records in DV, then a typical game of basketball will be about 12-15 Gigabytes. That is a HUGE video file. If you want that type of quality, then most video exchanges will quite frankly not work for you. They will require you to convert your file to another format using a compression program and thus you will lose video quality. While that quality may be ok with you in the end, the time it takes to convert that file may be up to 4 hours! Add to that the 2-3 hours it will take to transfer the video, and it may not be worth you or your staffs time.

The second, and perhaps most important thing to consider is, "What do I do with the video file I receive once you have it downloaded?" Most video editing systems only read a specific format. So, using the example of recording in DV from above, if you get a file in another converted format, you may have to do something to it just to get it into your system. You could convert it back to the format you need, but that could take a few hours. The most common thing and quickest way is to play it out of the computer you downloaded it to, to another computer. In any case, you still won't be able to save the time it takes to get the video to your editing system, which is really the point isn't it?

So if we use the above example, it takes 2 hours for the game to be recorded live. Then let's say 2 hours to convert it to the file needed to send over the web. Now it takes another 2 hours to upload it to the other team. That's now cost you 6 hours of staff time just to send to someone else. If you need a game from another team to scout, the process is even longer. You have to download the video, let's say 2 hours. Now you have to play it out of the computer to your VCR/DVD player to record a copy or convert the video to the format you need - another 2 hours. Then you still have to input it into your editing system, so figure 2 more hours plus the time to break down the film.

In reality, if you want to do internet exchange, you need to have the ability to take the raw video file that you record and exchange it quickly with little staff involvement. you also need to be able to make sure you can import the raw video file into your editing system immediately so you can skip the time consuming steps and start scouting!