Since the middle of 2013 we are talking about a new concept: the Beams. Sounds like a new music band, wildly throwing images round to the public ?
In fact, the public outcome of this concept is the solution we call « Memobeam« .
So, what is a Memobeam ?
A Memobeam is a smart playlist that can be remixed.
Think of your smart playlist in iTunes, or any other music platform: your can set up a dynamic playlist based on, let’s say, english rock music of the nineties. It’s a smart playlist because when you add new music fitting in that category, those new songs will be automatically added to your playlist.
Technically, a Memobeam is a data feed, like RSS or a twitter feed, which can be viewed through an URL.
This feed is containing video assets and metadata information. The specificity of a Memobeam in regard of a RSS feed is the fact that the Memobeam is structured through a query made in the Memoways database.
Within our Memoways OS X application or the coming web admin console, the project manager can save a specific query (like: find all assets that where created in the 60’s and talk about labor in Paris). This saved query can then become a Memobeam, with an URL that presents the filtered content on a website.
Once the content is beamed it can be seen, played, remixed and embedded.
The video player we designed specifically for this purpose is playing the assets (the non edited footage) one after the other in realtime, like… a movie.
The user is also able to watch a movie that is automatically generated out of a structured output of the database of a content creator / owner.
Memobeam is a movie generator in the hands of « simple » web users (in fact, all of us). That rocks !
How is it possible to generate a movie ?
As the Memoways OS X application is focusing on adding lot of information on the content through metadata, the indexed assets are becoming « intelligent » and potentially « independent » (of an author).
The metadata that describe the content are not only answering questions like « who » did the video, « when« , « how » and « where » was it shot – but it also add’s some subjective information on the content, like tags (simple keywords) and structured taxonomies that describe what the content is about. It’s with the help of all those words that the semantic connexions between the assets will be managed in an automatic and algorithmic way.
The end user sees only the significant metadata (themes, authors, date, location, tags etc); by clicking on the metadata, the user basically filters the actual Memobeam with those keyword(s). The list of filtered assets is immediately updated and it’s possible to watch the resulting movie.
In order to manage a playlist that is more than a filtering of the Memobeam, we will add in the near future the advanced feature of editing through a timeline.
It’s not only the type of content, but also the placement within a playlist that will be in the hand of the final user.
It is then possible to embed the remix of the Memobeam as an independent Beam within any blog or website, Facebook etc…
Who would like to create Beams ?
Our Memobeam solution is targeted towards content creators and content owners who would want to give access to their original footage, in an interactive and playful way.
Today the amount of created content has explosed (and the trend is going on): why not use and leverage the « missing » content ?
From the Memoways website: Realize your content’s true potential
Estimated 95% of produced media is never published. This happens not because of mistakes or lack of effort, but due to the simple fact that editors have to deliver a product of a very specific length and style. Be it video, photo, audio or text, most of what is created for a single project goes to waste.
Memoways seeks to tap into the potential of these unused documents.
Instead of measuring a media project’s value in terms of an end product, our platform puts the emphasis on having a vast database of raw media. Everything is catalogued and tagged with great detail, allowing the Memoways innovative Cloud Services generate an endless amount of full-fledged end products, tailored to the project’s demand in length, style, genre and much more.
The best thing is that, while the raw media has to be catalogued only once, your assets can be used infinitely in other projects – either by its creator/owner or anyone he chooses to allow.
What are the usages of a Beam ?
The first usage is to present a coherent collection of video footage on a website. A structured collection, but still open, expandable, remixable – in short: a living collection.
Today when we shoot a video we create files. Those files are then integrated and structured (edited) within a timeline – a time consuming and intensive work. At the end, the movie is exported and compressed for the web: the result is a file that has lost all the context on the initial content. To be found, to get viral and « live » on the web, context has to be added again, manually. Some keywords are attached sometimes with cue points or interaction markers.
It’s like building a website only with PDF’s: if you want to update a part of the text or add an image, you have to go back to your editor, export, upload and relink.
Anybody is working like this ? Yes, people that deal with video…
Video has to be treated as full time citizen of the web, and not as an alien (known as the black hole on internet, or the web video problem).
What are the benefits of our Beam solution ?
The Memobeam solution we provide out of the Memoways platform is leveraging your initial content for multiple usages, like the one described here. But a Beam can also be integrated within our other solution: Memowalk.
Your assets will live multiple and complementary lives… the more people get in touch with your content in a personalized and original way, the more benefits will come back to the content creator or owner.
And when would it be possible to create and publish Memobeams ?
We are still working on the layout and the features – but we expect that for Q1 2014 the first Memobeams will make some noise on the web !
