Put together a small but powerful professional British TV and video production company with the country’s leading online video delivery experts and you have a match made in heaven.
That’s the experience of Robbie Hill, Managing Director of Hill Tribe Productions, who is rushed off his feet catering to the ever-growing demand for online video. His company has been hired by organisations like Baco, Plymouth University and Business Link South West to develop a video strategy for marketing and communications.
“They are all using video to communicate with their clients and customers, and showcase their product and services in an engaging way,” says Mr Hill.
He said Hill Tribe are experts at producing top quality video, but the company are not online content delivery experts, so they had to look elsewhere to find a professional video hosting service to showcase the results of their labours.
“I believe that the world of online video and the most efficient ways to deliver that video is fast-changing and ever-evolving – something I just don’t have the time or manpower to keep up to date with,”he says.
This video virtuoso needed help in putting his product “out there”, so he began to investigate the video hosting options available.
The main criteria required by Hill Tribe for the ideal video platform was firstly efficiency – a delivery network that would enable fast download of the films the company produced to the end user.
“We also wanted a platform that allowed us to make the most of our portfolio, through player branding and customisation, to SEO optimisation. We need our portfolio to work online for us, and to sell our services as professional video producers,” said Mr Hill.
It was time to go shopping (online shopping of course!) and Mr Hill compared what the main video platforms were offering in the realms of price, range of features, scalability and reputation.
“Ooyala offered a great range of features and options, but their price point was unrealistic for us. Kaltura offered a good range, but their previous customer service had been poor and we wanted a company that would be there for us. Brightcove have a good reputation and good price point, but when we tested their content delivery network it under-performed.”
Then, along came vzaar with its free 30-day trial, which proved to “offer everything we wanted and at a realistic price.”
Mr Hill said the vzaar customer service during the trial period gave him huge confidence in the company, and he was particularly impressed that vzaar was constantly upgrading and innovating features and options.
This is valuable for us as we need to know we are relying on a video platform that will keep us informed about the latest developments and features for online video, so we can, in turn, be up to date and offer our clients the best service possible.
Mr Hill believes vzaar to be the perfect partner for video production companies who want to focus on their craft – making the content – and not having to worry about delivering it.
“By working with vzaar we know that the films we produce will be shown to the end user online in the highest quality available – the culmination of all our hard work and effort.”
With vzaar handling delivery, Mr Hill is now set to take his relatively small company, based in south-west England, to new heights, with an office already opened in Thailand to handle productions in the Asia-Pacific region.
