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vzaar is an online video company looking to service the needs to businesses. Think YouTube/Vimeo for business.

We’re looking to increase the features and functionality of our FLASH based video player. HTML5 might be all the rage right now with the cool kids, but for most of our market a simple easy to embed video player is rather important.

So I’m looking for someone who has some killer AS3 skills. Someone who can handle complex development and help really make some key improvements to the player. Both performance wise as well as feature & functionality wise.

Flash wise I’m definitely looking for a kickass flash AS3 coder and not a designer. Your coding skills are more important than design, animation or other flash skills. Of course other skills are a bonus.

Over the next three months or more we have quite a bit of flash work on the player, but as the work proceeds and we complete functionality and changes to the player, this will tail off. So I’m looking for someone with more than just AS3 skills.

Any of these others areas of skill will be of interest to us

• Ruby on Rails
• JavaScript
• HTML/CSS
• Sysops / UnixAdmisintration
• Graphic Design

The job is based in London (Clapham Junction)

About vzaar You will be working alongside a small team who are building a really cool video solution that allows online businesses, the world over, to stream video. At vzaar HQ, we are relaxed but professional. We make things happen individually and collectively. We have a diverse culture in the office and often debate what to put on Spotify and LastFM.

To apply

Email us at jobs at vzaar, subject line: AS3 Developer

Please also include - CV - List of 3 of your favourite blogs and why you regularly visit them - Cover letter of why you want to work for vzaar

Please note - we’ll bin all applications that do not adhere to the above instructions

We’ve added a new list of webinars for February. This means you or your colleagues can join us online and learn more about how to best utilise video for your website and how vzaar can support you in achieving that.

Simply pick the time and the type of session that suits you best.

Adding Video To Your Website

Thu, Feb 11, 2010 14:00 PM GMT / 09:00 AM EST / 06:00 AM PST

Thu, Feb 11, 2010 19:00 PM GMT / 14:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

Thu, Feb 25, 2010 14:00 PM GMT / 09:00 AM EST / 06:00 AM PST

Thu, Feb 25, 2010 19:00 PM GMT / 14:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

We’ll be covering: - Logging into your vzaar account
- Video Best Practice Tips
- Review of the vzaar Features & Settings
- Uploading & Encoding your Video
- Adding Video to your website
- Managing your vzaar Account
- General Q&A

We look forward to seeing you soon!

What is TechHub?

TechHub is a new and exciting project to create a physical space for tech startups in London which reaches out and embraces entrepreneurs across the UK, and the USA. It aims to be affordable, accessible, but at the same time create the right atmosphere and bring together the right people - the people who really do want to “change the world”.

When Does It Launch?

Soon they say, and so to give the project our support vzaar joined in with the current “One Minute Why-I-Want-TechHub competition”. Watch our entry below.

Oh by the way!

Given that this is a video competition and…well…we like video, we are happy to extend our service to any business out there that is looking for a easy to use, professional video solution for their website. Drop us a line and we’ll give you a free trial of the service. Happy to chat.

We are kicking the year off in style and as they say starting as we mean to go on.

Flowplayer have some really awesome players with plugins that enable you to do just about anything from creating playlist, to serving in stream ads and analytics tools to monitor your videos performance. These are all available to Flowplayer users and with this integration this is also available to all vzaar users too. To access the Flowplayer plugins you will have to use their player. For a full list of the Flowplayer plugins go here:

Here is an example of the Flowplayer being powered by vzaar.

The partnership with Flowplayer solves two potential problems:

1. If you are a vzaar user and require a feature that we don’t currently offer but Flowplayer does then problem solved.
2. If you are a Flowplayer user and require a video platform to provide the encoding, content delivery then again problem solved.

For help on how to integrate vzaar video with Flowplayer go to the Knowledge Base Flowplayer Integration page here

We would also like to say that it has been an absolute pleasure working with Annsi and Tero at Flowplayer and we are really happy with this partnership. Thanks for making this possible.

We are looking for a highly motivated junior web designer to join our small but vibrant and cutting edge online video service team. We are growing and our lead designer needs support as the business gather pace. You will be passionate about all things Internet, design and technology.

You will be working alongside the lead designer in order to take the business forward. Work on interface design, front end development (HTML and CSS), banners, HTML email campaigns and some flash are all part of it.

The ideal candidate will have previous commercial experience in web design (preferably commercial), the ability to translate a brief into design solutions with an eye to later build it to web standards. We also expect to see current / past work examples and URLs of such.

We are relaxed but professional. We make things happen individually and collectively. We have a diverse culture in the office and often debate what to put on Spotify and LastFM.

Core Development skills
- HTML
- CSS
- Testing
- Ability to write standards compliant code by hand (i.e. not using dreamweaver)

Core Design Skills
- Visual communication design
- Interface design (Websites)
- An eye for good information architecture and usability
- Banners
- Email HTML templates

Beneficial skills but not essential
- Javascript
- JS frameworks (prototype, Scriptaculous, jQuery)
- Flash

Remuneration and package
- 20k to 25k, depending on experience
- 25 days vacation per year

Please also include
- CV
- 2 to 3 examples of your work (preferable links to live sites, but attached examples or portfolios acceptable too)
- List of 3 of your favourite design or development blogs
- Cover letter of why you want to work for vzaar

All applications to jobs at vzaar.com, subject line: Web Designer Role

Happy New Year readers!

Keen to start the new year with a bang then why not sign up for one of our regular free 30 minute webinar slots? Designed to give you greater understanding of the many features available on vzaar, it is also a great opportunity to pose any questions to the team or to learn more about utilizing the power of video in 2010.

Simply pick the time and the type of session that suits you best.

Adding Video To Your Website

Thu, Jan 21, 2010 14:00 PM GMT / 09:00 AM EST / 06:00 AM PST

Thu, Jan 28, 2010 14:00 PM GMT / 09:00 AM EST / 06:00 AM PST

Thu, Jan 28, 2010 18:00 PM GMT / 13:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Adding Video To Your eBay Listings

Thu, Jan 21, 2010 18:00 PM GMT / 13:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

We’ll be covering: - Logging into your vzaar account
- Video Best Practice Tips
- Review of the vzaar Features & Settings
- Uploading & Encoding your Video
- Adding Video to your website OR Adding a Video to your eBay listing
- Managing your vzaar Account

We look forward to seeing you soon!

The ElliptiGO is the world’s first outdoor elliptical road bike. The bicycle combines the best of running, cycling and the indoor elliptical trainer to deliver a high-performance, low-impact exercise experience.

Bryan Pate, Co-Founder of ElliptiGO Inc., and a vzaar customer for some nine months now, told us that for such a must-see product, video is essential and that the “bottom line is that for our product the video is the absolute best way to communicate what we’ve created because the instant someone sees it in action they understand it. It’s almost impossible to convey our product through text or even pictures.”

We let Bryan take up the story.

So how have you embraced video?

We primarily use video on the site. It purposefully dominates the homepage and screams play me! In addition we send out newsletters each month and many of the recipients come to the website to specifically watch the video. Whilst video-in-email remains an uncharted and unreliable marketing tactic, we do use the video on our iPhones and Blackberrys to facilitate explaining the bike in personal interactions. It’s like have a product demo in your pocket!

Tell us about the numbers

Attributing success to one video is always hard when you first bring your website to market, but at ElliptiGO we’re not only delighted with the 133% increase in visits (doubling previous traffic) but significantly the 30% increase in average time spent on the site. We attribute much of these improvements to an initial redesign of our site and prominent placement of our homepage video.

A further website redesign in November of this year resulted in an additional 18% increase in visits and a 50% increase in average time on site which underlines the work we have put into optimizing the positioning of the video and its call to action messaging. We added a call to action “Watch the 8S in action” and customers are doing just that we’re pleased to say.

We signed up to the vzaar Platinum package that gives us an unbranded video player and permission to stream 125GB per month. That means we can comfortably stream over 1,000 views a month and leave room for those nice unexpected bumps in traffic you get as a result of direct marketing!

Why vzaar?

We did a lot of research on different media players. We found that vzaar provided the best suite of options for the cost. We were particularly interested in having an unbranded player that we could size to the exact dimensions we were looking for. vzaar provided that for us and we’re happy so far.

Lights, Camera, Action!

We worked with a videographer who is also a professional tri-athlete to shoot our videos. Nothing like having an expert in the field to help shape how we show the product’s benefits. You only have to watch the video to see it has been money well spent. In addition, she’s very reasonable - about $1,500 for a full day of shooting plus video production for two videos. Furthermore, this is just the start as the business has done two shoots with her now so we’re getting better at accomplishing what we want and getting the right shots and shooting at the right time of day.

What next for video?

We strongly believe that web-based video is far and away the best method of demonstrating our product. So much so that we are planning to expand the use of video on our website including in the customer service and support sections that we’re developing.

Video plays track well with our overall traffic, so when there’s a spike in traffic, there’s a spike in plays. Furthermore we believe that everyone who has put down a deposit or invested in the company has watched the video, and that without the video we’d have no investors or customers from outside our headquarters region of San Diego, California. Video has allowed us to expand our geographies significantly. 2010 therefore promises to be an even more interesting year ahead as online video becomes more and more familiar and accessible.

Well it really has been one hell of a year. 2009 had already been feted as the year that businesses started to embrace online video, as a digital means of marketing and became so as Internet users lapped up video in greater volume than ever.

The year started for vzaar with the unveiling of our new player and a pricing model built around consumption. We hold the philosophy that making our features available to all paying customers is the best way to drive adoption and also loyalty so in early January we brought to market our Search Enhancer feature, built to help publishers improve the visibility of their videos in search. February and we learn that vzaar had been approved for the eBay Selling Manager Applications program. Great news indeed - now we just needed to put in those extra hard yards!

March, and at ChannelAdvisor’s UK Catalyst event we announce the first our API partnerships as the template providers Frooition, make adding video to their templates easier than ever via vzaar. At the same event vzaar are invited to speak on Turning Buyers Into Browsers. It is clear from those attending the event that video remains an ambition for many, but realising the time and budget in a tough economical climate remains a hurdle.

April, and we continue to release new features based around the continual development of our video player. First come multi size players, swiftly followed by an MP3 version of our player which allows audio to now be streamed.

June comes and there is a new face at vzaar HQ as Balint joins the team as Search Engine Marketing Manager. His task is to help more people find vzaar online and July sees a record number of new users flocking to the site and signing up. At the same time, our ace developers Applicake are working away on vzaar 2.0 which means we are able to not only release a new version of the site, but also a host of new features including HD players, customisable players and our ever popular Brand Text

Late August, and a year in the making, eBay launch their SM App Program. vzaar are hand picked as one of the launch partners and overnight our video service is making it easier than ever for eBay sellers to add video to their listings.

September comes and we’re busy tidying up aspects of the site that will improve the overall customer experience. As well as moving to a new office, we migrate our customer support over to the impressive and versatile Tender App, we switch our content delivery network of choice to the best-in-class Edgecast and launch a series of new libraries on our Developer API. Our first major API client the car dealership GetAuto sign up and by the end of the month have already uploaded over a thousand videos. Video is fast becoming a volume game.

October and reasons to be cheerful. vzaar come third in the European Streaming Awards for Best Online Video, we pass 500 paying customers for the year and our newly launched Affiliate Program is helping more and more publishers spread the vzaar word!

As 2009 closes out, November sees guest blogger Kris Drey comment on the Small Business Edge that sees more and more businesses moving over to online video. Fallon, a UK based digital agency, are living proof of this as they bring their creative campaigns for Trebor and Cadburys to life with vzaar video and our customisable players.

Finally we roll into December and the demand for features goes on. Our new Thumbnail Picker goes down a treat with existing customers as does our new Showcase page which illustrates the amazing variety of videos are customers are uploading on a daily basis.

Quite a year and yet still the pace quickens. The online video space is often criticized for being an overly crowded one with little to differentiate services. To that point, we welcome the launch of VidCompare who aim to simplify the selection process, but maintain strongly as a company that there is ample room for a platform like vzaar that focuses on making the streaming of video as simple as possible. It needn’t be a complicated process and that will remain core to our thinking and philosophy as we step into 2010.

We look forward to seeing you there!

John Gruber, wrote an interesting piece on HTML5 Video embedding on his Daring Fireball blog yesterday title “Why the HTML5 ‘Video’ Element Is Effectively Unusable, Even in Browsers Which Support It”

The first thing I noted of interest is that even for a leading edge person like John HTML5 video is still not ready for general usage. I’ll probably do a follow up post on my thoughts on why this is not ready (multi-encoding, fallback code, etc etc)

What I want to talk about is John’s footnote on Flash Video

As for why I refuse to embed Flash, let me put it this way. I use and highly recommend ClickToFlash, which blocks all Flash content by default. Why would I publish content using a technology that I personally block by default? I truly hope to see Flash fade as the de facto standard for embedded web video, and I’m willing to put my markup where my mouth is.

I think HTML5 video is going to be good and provide some significant inroads into what we do with video on the web. However I think that John misses one key reasons as to why flash video is going to stick around for a bit …

It enables video sharing sites and video services such as ourselves to provide a single player packed with functionality. With our vzaar video player (and equally with our competitors video players, video player developers like Flowplayer and the video sharing sites) this allows us to put together a whole package of functions for example our border colours or brand text.

Additionally as a business, this allows us to restrict some of those features to paying users only. All in one simple prepacked flash file. This makes the embed code simpler (although not perfectly simple, thanks Firefox, thanks embed tag).

This is possible in HTML5, as Mark Pilgrim said in reply to my comment on reddit. However possible, and ready for prime time, ready for normal users isn’t the same thing.

Top player design in HTML5 with Javascript and styles is all possible, but mostly if you have complete control of the environment, and you run your own site. e.g. It would work for John himself and as it does for Apple (e.g.) However for many of our users this wouldn’t work. We have a broad base of users with technical skills from being able to cut and paste HTML (and for many of our eBay users not even that) to leading design agencies who value the easy of use of not having to worry about this.

When it comes to embedding video all over other sites, I still firmly believe that flash for all it’s flaws, is the the only viable way to make sure the video will work cross site, cross browser. For flash to be truly replaced by pure HTML, I believe that we not only need HTML5 to gain greater adoption, but a better way of embedding widgets (such as video players) with one block of code. I’d be very surprised if as HTML5 gains adoption, a new packaged “widget” format doesn’t develop to take on flash.

However without a viable way of embedding blocks of rich functionality on other webpages, that you know will work across all bowser types, flash is here to stay.

We are pleased to announce today the launch of our new video thumbnail feature - available to all vzaar customers.

Called Thumbnail Picker, the feature allows you to pick, video by video, a thumbnail from the video to act as the opening video image (displayed before play is hit). Up until today, vzaar had generated a thumbnail from the 25th frame which is approximately one second into the video. This new feature means you can now pick any image from any part of the video. Cool eh?

How do I update my thumbnails?

1. Log into vzaar and pick your video from your My Videos page by clicking the Manage button.
2. Scroll through the video to the frame you want as your thumbnail and make a note of the number of seconds into the video that frame appears at.
3. Enter those seconds into the thumbnail generator feature to the right hand side and hit the generate button.

Can I pick a default thumbnail?

Yes you can. In your settings page, you can select a default time (in seconds) and vzaar will automatically generate the thumbnail for all future videos uploaded based on that time. Needless to say you can still amend any video thumbnail uploaded individually.

vzaar will automatically set that to be the thumbnail. If you select 0 seconds then the system will pick the 1st frame.

Please note that it may take several minutes for the previous thumbnail to be cleared from the cache. The thumbnail will update automatically when it occurs.