I now have my video workflow set up, so here’s the first video: a short introduction to Story Complete for the About page.

Update: I am now showing the YouTube versions of the videos to ensure the widest coverage. I have therefore removed the links to the downloadable self-hosted versions of the videos for the time being.

By default the embedded video player starts with the SD video. To view the HD version click on the HD link in the top right corner of the player. Swapping from SD to HD restarts the video from the beginning.

Downloads

To make it easier to watch videos offline you’ll see download links for the video at various sizes and bitrates on the right of this page:

• 720p HD – 1280×720 HD encoded at 2600 kbps.
• 360p – 640×360 SD encoded at 1300 kbps.
• iPod – 640×360 encoded at 1200 kbps with a simpler H.264 profile ideal for Apple iPod, iPhone, iPad and many other smartphones.

Workflow

I record at Full HD on a Canon LEGRIA HF S10 camcorder and edit in Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Sorenson Squeeze compresses and encodes the edited video into MP4 H.264 format.

To lessen the load on my web server I host videos on the Amazon S3 cloud storage service. I am considering the Amazon CloudFront content delivery network to enable real-time video streaming with adaptive bitrates.

Syndication

I syndicate videos to Story Complete channels at YouTube, blip.tv, Yahoo Video and Facebook with the TubeMogul video distribution service. This avoids uploading to each site individually; a real time-saver!

RSS and iTunes

The RSS feed includes the video for each post as an enclosure for your RSS reader. In future, you’ll have extra RSS feeds to choose between HD, SD and iPod versions. I also plan a Story Complete podcast feed for the iTunes store.

Tags

Announcement, Blip.tv, CloudFront, Facebook, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Myspace, Podcasts, S3, Smartphone, Sony Vegas, Sorenson Squeeze, Stories, TubeMogul, Video, Yahoo Video, YouTube

My new blog for technical presenters

Our success as technical presenters depends on our ability to get audiences to take action. After all, without action it’s just entertainment!

I’ve given hundreds of technical presentations at all levels in the software industry and have learned that although creating action’s hard, it’s not impossible. I share my experience by curating the best tips and tricks, examples and resources from the web at Tech Presenting. Please join me.