“Gestalten.tv offers video podcasts on all areas of contemporary visual culture, including graphic design and typography, product and furniture design, architecture, photography, art and more.
Gestalten.tv creates a broad range of documentaries, interviews and features that introduce Gestalten related subjects alongside individuals, projects and companies that are vanguards of visual culture.”
New Art TV is specialized on contemporary art video cotent. Their categories include Exhibiton features, Studio visits, Performances and Collections.
D’ont miss the Jonathan Meese Performance and the BANKSY exhibiton.
I think specialized channels with a clear profile and high quality content will become quite succesfull soon. Concerning New Art TV, I’m very curious what’s their business model. As far as I understand they only distributing the cotent from their own website. I’m going to write the makers and email to find out more.
…and once again, all the great photos in this entry are made by the very talented Anne Helmond!
And on yet another rainy morning in Amsterdam (not surprising, you get used to it after a while!), full of curiosity and hopes for the day, I went to the second day of the Video Vortex - Responses to YouTube conference. I was hoping that today would be more fruitful than yesterday, and indeed, what a pleasant surprise! Well, call me selfish, but instead of giving a general overview I will focus on the session that was the most interesting for me personally: Curating Online Video.
On a rainy morning in Amsterdam (that demanded lots of coffee!), the Video Vortex - Responses to YouTube Conference was kicked off at Club 11. I will be blogging on the conference for movingweb, but I was also there because I have been involved with the project through my work at the Netherlands Media Art Institute where we made an exhibition with the same title and related topics. Well, the program of the conference is quite extensive, and I was very disappointed by some of the presentations today (that seemed unprepared, unfocused, had nothing new to say…a total contrast with the first Video Vortex conference in Brussels!). So I will focus on the gems of today’s presentations!
Houyhnhnms.tv is a new community for web video creatives. Very nice design and good performance. I like the idea of the integrated quality control. Every uploaded work stays on the site for one week. If it doesn’t get a public voting of 4 out of 10 points, the work gets deleted.
“At Houyhnhnms we have decided to go for a thrilling opportunity:
Create a community of creators with TV format.
A television which grows directly on inspiration.
A place to experiment new concepts for a new audiovisual market.
An environment to share the most authentic audiovisual dreams, with no need for intermediaries.”
MySpaceTV is hosting a new web show of dating guru Neil Strauss called Rules of the Game.
The first episode shows two guys and their efforts to get some telephone numbers. After every episode there’s a mission for the viewers, which they are supposed to tape and upload it as a video answer.
As Chris from NewTeevee notes, it’s seems like a weird idea, to run a web tv station that only shows commercials. Well, at first there might be some usage for Firebrand for people from the ad industry to stay up to date. For other audiences I’m sceptical. Here in Germany commercials have a rather negative image, but I assume in the U.S. viewers haven’t so much reservations to consume ads as enterainment.
Still, it sounds really strange to me when I read their manifesto:
“We submit, with rare exception, that they’re the best stuff on TV. In under a minute you get the best diirectors, the sickest special effects, the funniest writers - what is not to love?”
Another good usage of online video as a new marketing channel. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has started Boston POPS.tv, where they show recordings of their orchestra.
I think it’s a good idea, it really gives them the chance to reach new (and younger) target groups. Video lively transports the tension of a big classical orchestra. They have a nice video player with chapter functions and additional text commentary.
Berlin based web TV station Hobnox goes online today!
Right now they’re running four channels, all connected to youth culture. What separates them from other web tv stations is the massive amount of self produced content. They’re having a handful of hosts, running different show formats. They recruited some german MTV-faces for that. Reminds a little bit of G4, although they are shifting the focus from game-related-content to music, film and street culture.
To push the whole web2.0-participatory thing they are having a contest where you can win 25.000 Euro to realise your project!
After Vimeo there is another company called Akamai, which is pulling of streaming HD.
Right now they are running a demo portal called HD WEB. According to the company, right now only 10-20% of the users have the needed bandwith to receive the streaming HD files. If you don’t have the bandwith you can still download the clips to test the awesome quality.
Go watch the stunning Sigur Ros Heima Trailer as an example.