Capturing and encoding streaming video in either Real Video, QuickTime, Windows Media, or Flash video format and obtaining professional results is a time consuming, expensive and complex process. Because of the steep learning curve and significant investment in hardware and software, most companies who have a need to add streaming video to their web pages or corporate Intranet outsource their production needs to professionals like ourselves to get their jobs done quickly and inexpensively. Outsourcing projects saves time, money and manpower, and results in a far superior finished product. And because we provide nationwide video encoding services, we can meet the most demanding project schedules.

The Quick and Easy Answer

If you're tempted to convert your own video tapes into streaming video and would like to know if it makes the most sense for your company, please take a look at our list of customers and examine the number of high-tech companies both nationally and internationally, video producers and web developers who use our services and ask yourself this simple question:

Why would so many companies who have the obvious talent, equipment, and money choose to outsource their video conversion projects to us if it was that simple or inexpensive to do themselves?

The answer is that the more a customer understands about streaming video conversions, the more likely they are to understand why they should outsource their projects to professionals in this field.

An ROI Perspective

If you're an IT manager or have P&L responsibility within your workgroup, you're already aware that the days of doing everything in-house without concern for ROI are changing rapidly. Unlimited budgets for software, hardware and training without regards to cost justification no longer make sense. Additionally, keeping your personnel up to date on all of the latest video technologies is too costly and time consuming to sustain as an internal mandate. Your total cost of producing streaming video in-house will generally range from 5 to 10 times the cost of using a professional firm like our own. Because of these economics, companies are increasingly favoring the outsourcing of portions of their Internet and Intranet initiatives in place of internal development and deployment efforts.

If you do decide on capturing and encoding your own streaming video, this is what you can expect. Your investment in hardware and software is just the tip of the iceberg and will usually be several thousand dollars for low to mid-priced equipment alone. You'll need a video capture card, audio and video editing software, a video deck, an AV rated hard drive with a significant amount of storage capacity, and a back-up preferably in the form of a DVD drive you can archive to. Assuming you make the right choices on all of your hardware and software purchases your first time out, and you don't need to purchase different equipment which is better suited to the task, it's now time to learn not only how to capture and convert your movies, but also how to enhance both picture and sound quality prior to conversion. If you skip this step, your finished product will be of inferior quality.

After several weeks of failed attempts, you may stumble upon some settings that produce acceptable results for the particular movie clip you're working on and you'll feel great. Unfortunately, when it comes time to capture another video clip later on, you'll either have forgotten the sequence of techniques which you used the first time, or they won't work with your next movie because the picture or sound quality is somewhat different than your earlier production. As a rule of thumb, you can generally expect an approximate soft and hard dollar cost of a few thousand dollars to produce your first streaming video clip if you're doing it on your own. This represents not only your investment in hardware and software which will become obsolete in 6 to 18 months, but also your salary costs as well. That is an extremely steep investment to be making in a technology which is constantly evolving and one which you won't be using on a daily basis. The regrettable fact of the matter is that for many companies who attempt to produce streaming video on their own, they end up coming to us after they've learned the hard way.

A Better Alternative

If you're truly looking for the highest quality streaming video and most cost efficient way of achieving this, outsourcing is your single best choice. If you choose us as your producer, we'll make the process simple and inexpensive. Our streaming video encoding prices start at under $100 per clip you have us digitize. Regardless of the size of your video conversion project, we can deliver a superior product at less cost and in less time than attempting to do it on your own.  If you're already committed to encoding on your own, but need tech support for encoding or deploying streaming video, please give us a call.

When we handle your streaming video conversion, you will receive:

• Choice of rich media formats - Real Video, Windows Media, Flash Video, or QuickTime format
• Choice of server preference - Your video will be encoded to stream either with or without video server software. This means you can use your existing web server and avoid paying additional hosting costs.
• Choice of delivery speeds - Your movie can be encoded to be delivered at 28.8, 56k, ISDN, broadband or over a LAN.
• Choice of movie size - You pick the how large you want your movie to look.
• Complete HTML code & full tech support - We totally eliminate your learning curve by providing you with the complete html code to paste right into your pages for instant streaming video.  We also provide complete technical support so that your video deployment will go smoothly.
• Fast service - On most projects, we can furnish you with your completed digitized video within 24 to 48 hours regardless of your geographic location.
• Affordable pricing & price match guarantee - Our full-service video streaming rates start at under $100 - the most competitive in the industry. There are no other ongoing fees or charges of any kind.  Our pricing matching policy is to meet any competitor who is offering the same quality of encoding along with full technical support.
• Satisfaction guarantee - All encoding that we do is backed by a complete money-back satisfaction guarantee. To the best of our knowledge, we are the only company in the industry who stands behind the quality of our work with this type of guarantee.
• Subcontracting source - If you're a web site developer yourself looking for a way to add rich media to one of your customer's web sites, we'll extend you our same low rates and prompt service.

To add streaming video to your web site or corporate Intranet, simply send us your DVD, Mini-DV, Hi-8, Beta SP, Umatic, VHS or S-VHS video clips using our mail-in video submission form. Please call us toll free at 630-690-2141, or e-mail us at media@cybertechmedia.com if you have any questions.

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