Organization of Video Assets, and their Associated Attributes and Items

In BackStage, video assets are categorized as Segments (or, "Series"), Episodes (or, "Chapters"), Clips, Trailers and Promotionals. Any such video asset will belong to a Project, which is typically a specific brand campaign. A Segment is a single video asset, usually five minutes or longer. It is often a specially produced compilation of thematically linked Episodes.

An Episode is an independent video asset, typically between one and two minutes in length. A Clip is a portion of an Episode, usually lasting a matter of seconds, which is made into a discrete asset because of its setting, subject or other specific characteristic.

Finally, Trailers and Promotionals are unique video assets custom created as acquisition tools and exist to, similar to Hollywood, get people to watch the (Segment, Episode or Clip) they represent.

Any video asset can have several non-video "Items" associated with it in BackStage. Such Items include pre-production documentation, transcripts of the video, thumbnail stills representing the video, keywords and other meta-tagging information for search-engine optimization purposes, and internal comments from reviewers.

These Items stay inextricably linked to the individual video asset, regardless of how and where it is used and published.

In addition to Items, BackStage allows the user to assign many "Attributes" to any given video asset. There are dozens of Attributes, and new ones may be added by the user. Some examples of attributes include Asset Name, Producer, Date of Production, Treatment Path, Medical Condition, Physician, Fair Balance Language, Fair Balance Requirements/Special Instruction, M|L|R Lead Contact, Access Rights, and Duration.

BackStage allows a user quickly and flexibly review their library of video assets, and to add, edit and/or delete the dozens of Items and Attributes associated with any such asset.

Management of Video Assets

In addition to organizing existing video assets, BackStage allows users to easily manage how those assets appear, where they are published, the order they appear in user-defined playlists, and several other aspects of how the video assets are leveraged.

A user can also allow members of their group to review a video, post comments, and seek approval. The timeline and other details of such approvals and comments are maintained in BackStage for permanent record-keeping purposes, often important for legal and regulatory requirements.

Another powerful feature of BackStage is the ability to compile playlists of various video assets. Thus, a user can determine which video assets appear, and in which order, when a particular video is accessed by an online user, or a particular search term or treatment condition is entered. As the number of video assets existing within a given library proliferates, this functionality allows a user to ensure that viewers stay engaged, and for longer periods of time.

A user can determine whether to "publish" any particular video asset internally, and determine specific viewing and commenting privileges. The user may determine the site or sites to where the video assets will syndicate.

Results Reporting

Once one or more video assets have been published online, BackStage allows a user to access a wealth of information concerning viewership, registration and subscriptions of both aggregate, and specific videos. A sample report is appended.

• Report on consumption daily, hourly, by content, format, directory, geography, and referral
• Analyze metrics per live event or set of events: number of users, average duration, bandwidth, etc.
• Monitor live active streams
• Report on podcasts by feeds or individual items within those feeds over designated time periods
• Save reports as customized presets and schedule automated email delivery
• Export any report in XML or CSV formats
• Provide raw log data for import into 3rd party applications
• Report on multiple accounts separately to simplify multi-department billing

Encoding

A powerful feature of BackStage is background encoding. This allows the user, offline, to convert any existing video asset into the final format she wishes to publish on line. For example, a user may choose to encode her .mov files into Flash files, a compressed format often used for online video streaming, and then to allow that Flash file to be automatically published on selected sites.

Categorize & Tag

Users assign key characteristics to each video asset. These include the type of video (Clip, Episode, Segment or Promotional), author, date, title, subject matter, medical condition, key words, meta-tags and several other attributes.

Transcripts

Transcripts are a valuable aid to video viewers. They are also extremely useful in most search engine optimization schemes. This is where the user connects one or more transcripts with a given video asset.

Approvals & Comments

A publisher will often want to obtain and record approvals of specific video content before it is released for publication. It will also want to maintain a record of such approvals, and associated comments. BackStage allows a user to do so, with provision for approvals/comments from up to three levels.

Publish

Initially, a user may want to publish some video assets only "in-house"; others on selected "brand.com" sites, and publish yet others on selected third party sites. This is where BackStage allows the user easily to establish all parameters specifying such publication rules.

Permission

Administrators can establish varying levels of access for "seat" holders within an account and tie it to specific functions and security requirements.

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Reports

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BackStage provides rich reporting functionality, on both an aggregate and per video asset level. This includes number of unique views, average and aggregate view time, data voluntarily provided by viewers on their profile pages, subscriptions, etc.