What is Video News Agency?
VNA is a powerful new business-to-business platform for media and communications professionals.
It is a web tool which provides a quick and easy means of distributing digital news, and particularly video, from all kinds of organisations to the media for TV and online broadcast.
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Why has VNA been created?
A has been created to meet the needs of organisations seeking to send video files of all sizes to media organisations quickly and effortlessly, and meet the step change in faster global broadband and ethernet speeds. This step change means that expensive satellite transfer of digital video content will become increasingly redundant as fibre optic connectivity becomes ubiquitous.
VNA can also distribute broadcast quality B-Roll or EPK footage to TV broadcasters anywhere in the world.
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Why is there a demand for this service?
VNA brings digital news content providers together online with a global media which is content-hungry, yet increasingly selective about what it broadcasts.
Video sites are springing up for more specialized subjects and sectors, and the number of such 'narrowcasting' sites can only grow exponentially. People will seek out which subjects and sectors they are interested in, a phenomenon which is already well established in consumer online activity, where specialist advice for information is being sought for everything from health to personal finance to weather and travel; all sites of this type will start to add more video to their web presence.
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Who is VNA for?
VNA includes a global searchable database of digital news in all formats, and is set up to be of greatest use to those media searching for video content.
Journalists, broadcasters and web editors can search VNA for relevant one-off content, and or register to receive updates on news published on the site relevant to their area of interest, business sector, country or region.
Customers can upload press releases, vodcasts, podcasts, stills and video which can be accessed by journalists and broadcasters anywhere.
VNA has been developed to make the process of distributing video news releases (VNRs) in particular, quick and hassle-free, and is designed to service the increasing demand for video content by web media globally.
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How much does it cost?
A VNA account for businesses and organisations to upload and store video and other digital content is competitively priced and easy to use.
A VNA account for any media organisation or online business to download copyright-free digital news, including video, is equally easy to use - and free.
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How does it work?
VNA is backed up by a powerful Content Management System and database incorporating every country in the world, and a huge range of sectors, from forestry to farming, architecture to advertising. Media wishing to receive content just, for example, on discrete areas of interest such as shipping, or personal finance, and in national or regional breakdowns of that area, will be able to do so. For example, a journalist wishing to receive information with content on the oil industry in Texas, can register to receive the information relevant to them only. They will also of course be able to access VNA to view any other video or other content uploaded by registered organisations which have paid for a VNA account.
A customer's only obstacle to using the site to transfer B-Roll will be their own upload speeds.
- Video News Agency is a website which distributes digital news content globally directly to journalists and broadcasters who subscribe for free.
- Customers purchase an upload package prior to uploading content onto VNA. (See upload packages click)
- Customers upload internet-ready films, B-Rolls, VNRs, press releases, stills, vodcasts and podcasts and then notify the media that they can obtain the content from VNA.
- VNA automatically encodes the vast majority of video files (Mpeg 2, Mpeg 4, Flash, Quicktime etc) into Flash (viewable by the majority of desktops and mobile devices worldwide), and automatically creates iPhone and iPad versions too.
- The website automatically notifies registered journalists that a video or other digital news content relevant to their subject area has been posted (customers can opt out of this service if they choose).
- Email notifications to journalists are triggered every 24 hours at 9.00am GMT, so customers are encouraged to contact their target media, too, informing them that the package is available on VNA.
- VNA advise customers to send a link to their VNA news directly to journalists to ensure that non-registered target journalists are alerted.
- Journalists, broadcasters and web editors can choose to embed the video on their own website, or download broadcast quality B-Roll or stills for their own use, copyright-free.
- Customers can choose to issue their digital news content exclusively to a single journalist or news organisation, or to a small group of journalists before wider distribution.
- Customers are given the option to password their B-Roll footage so that media have to obtain authority from customers before they commence downloading high-resolution broadcast footage. This allows customers control over who has access to their B-Roll footage.
- The website provides customers with a dashboard of video analytics on the films embedded by online news portals, indicating which media have downloaded the videos, and the numbers of views on videos which have been embedded on media websites.
- Every VNA customer can manage its own video news channel, with pages which can link directly to their website. They can upload, delete, replace and publish their files as long as they are within their upload limits.
- News from anywhere in the world and on any subject appears on the home page until it has been replaced by fresh news, eventually leaving the home page altogether. But the film is also available to view on the customers' own VNA channel pages.
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Why use VNA when you can just put a film on a consumer site and send media the link?
Customers may choose to put a film on a consumer video hosting site. There are lots of them. But the sheer quantity of video material online is giving rise to a requirement for quality over quantity, and request-led searching. VNA is essentially a B2B site (or B2M - Business to Media), making the work of both journalists and PRs/Marcomms easier. Videos on some popular consumer video sites are hard to find without exact search terms, and are off-putting and time-consuming because of the excess of low quality content.
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Will VNA brand the content on its site with a watermark?
No. Unlike consumer video sites, VNA video content will not be water-marked, encouraging media organisations to embed VNA films on their site, and allowing B-Roll content to be edited and re-presented without branding.
Another advantage over consumer video sites is that VNA also has a media exclusivity function which means that, for example, a national newspaper can download and embed video files exclusively, before other media are sent the link.
VNA is another means of increasing the audience size of online news providers by delivering digital news directly to editors/journalists relevant to their audience.
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What kind of video tracking and analytics are offered?
VNA offers a simple video tracking facility so customers can see which media have downloaded files, which media have embedded their films and how many views they have generated. They can also see which organisations have downloaded B-Roll and other content.
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How can VNA offer free bandwidth?
VNA has its own servers and bandwidth resource. VNA has a scalable business model which enables the service to sustain many thousands of simultaneous users, and is no different in that respect from You Tube or Vimeo. As the business grows, it will scale up the bandwidth resource to accommodate increased requirements.
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Who pays for the bandwidth?
There is no charge for bandwidth provision, which is free for customers of VNA.
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What if VNA offers a video which is embedded by numerous media, and then receives a million hits online - how will VNA resource the bandwidth demand?
Firstly, the most popular videos which get millions of hits are consumer-facing and the likelihood is that they will be loaded on to consumer video sites; this will of course be in addition to their presence on VNA.
There will be a qualitative difference between the vast majority of consumer-friendly videos on consumer video sites, and the majority of professionally-produced videos uploaded on to VNA, and distributed to journalists.
The value of a VNA video is that it will be produced for a precise target audience - for example, an interview with a chief executive of a shipping company in Hong Kong. There is no marketing logic to it being uploaded on to a consumer video site as it unlikely to be either shared virally, or even found quickly and easily by those who need to see it. However, it can be distributed via the VNA platform to regional and international media covering the shipping industry at the touch of a button. VNA distributes media files to journalists, not to a mass consumer audience.
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How does VNA differ from what's currently available?
VNA gives PRs/Marcomms greater flexibility and control of their digital news distribution. Most existing video news distribution agencies have a business model which relies on securing a video production fee to make your video, levying a further charge to distribute (and 'sell in') the video, effectively undertaking the PR function.
VNA does not charge a production cost and allows customers to find the cheapest/best video production company and price for their requirements.
VNA puts the customers, PR and marcomms professionals, in control of distributing their own digital news, who it goes to, and when.
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Is the B-Roll footage really broadcast quality?
Yes. B-Roll Footage must be uploaded to VNA in a Quicktime/DVPal Format in the UK, and Quicktime/NTSC format for the USA, and so on. It is most likely that this will be done by the video production company which encode the films into the correct video codecs (file types for digital video) for each country or region.
Can it be uploaded in High Definition (HD)?
Yes. VNA customers can choose to upload their B-Rolls in any format they like, but our strong advice is that they stick to country-specific Quicktime codecs because even with HD there are many variations, compression formats, TV screen sizes and options to choose from. These decisions are usually best left to the video production suppliers rather than made by PRs/Marcomms personnel.
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Can VNA customers upload B-Roll films of any length?
Yes, in theory. But VNA sets the upload limit of B-Roll footage at 1Gb. Customers can upload several 1Gb files. However, customers are limited by the upload packages which have been purchased. They are also limited by their own broadband capacity and connectivity. For example, uploading a 10 minute, 1Gb Quicktime file on to VNA could take a frustratingly long time if fast upload speeds are not supported by their broadband provider. Again, this activity is better undertaken by the video production house supplying the content, which is likely to enjoy faster upload speeds.
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Can VNA customers upload VNRs of any length?
Yes, in theory, as long as an individual file does not exceed 1Gb. But we recommend that they do not upload a VNR or B-Roll longer than 10 minutes as media organisations generally require briefer packages.
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What formats are VNRs encoded into?
On VNA, VNRs are encoded automatically into Flash files, which are recognizable by 90% of all computers worldwide. The VNA platform also automatically encodes all viewable videos into iPhone-friendly formats.
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What about Apple Macs and iPhones which don't read Flash files?
This is an industry-wide issue. The VNA platform automatically encodes all viewable videos into an iPhone friendly format as well as a format viewable by 95% of all smartphones.
iPhone users searching the site can still view the website and view all VNRs.
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What if a customer makes a mistake by uploading a B-Roll, podcast, still image, etc in the wrong format and uses up their upload allocation?
Customers will have to buy greater upload limits. They can also contact VNA and we will try and give them advice, but VNA's competitive pricing business model is not configured to service a myriad user queries.
VNA is able to offer its service at competitive pricing as we expect customers to be able to navigate the site, manage their account and upload their digital news easily and efficiently.
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How will a customer know how much of its upload limit it has used?
Each time a customer enters their account they will see their dashboard controls which gives a petrol gauge visual of their upload limit, clearly showing how much has been used and how much remains free.
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Are VNRs are automatically encoded into Flash files?
Yes. And also automatically encoded into iPhone friendly format, too.
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What is the file size and type which VNA can encode into Flash/IPhone friendly formats?
Customers uploading video files onto the site for encoding must ensure that their film is less than 150Mb in size. Your production house will be able to export your video files easily below 150Mb.
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What if I don't have the bandwidth to upload B-Roll and VNRs?
It is likely that B-Rolls will be uploaded to VNA by the film's production supplier. They will have bigger broadband, and an understanding of the correct codecs and format for their film and their TV region, for example, PAL for the UK, NTSC for the USA, and so on.
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Are the videos and pages searchable by Google and other engines?
The site is designed to be search-friendly. When video results are paged, the links are not post-backs to the server, but proper hyperlinks so that search engines can follow them, and the same applies to the link to view the video. Each video does have a unique URL that customers can refer to in their own media information or press release or link to it from within their own website. Each customer also has a unique URL which isn't linked to an individual film directly, but shows all their live videos on a dedicated VNA channel - and customers can link to this from their own site.
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Can I optimise my page for search?
The title page of each individual video (or other digital news content page) can be optimised for search using keywords which customers choose themselves, and enter in meta description and keyword tags.
Customers cannot include hyperlinks within the body copy of a press release or media information uploaded on to the site as a PDF or Word files accompanying the video/stills/vodcast etc.
However, customers can optimise their news for search entering tags, keywords, hyperlinks in the summary and description boxes which they have to fill in when uploading new material.
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