Showcasing Video Content
by ejk
A number of our locations include large screens near the entrance which run a screensaver we have dubbed the Greetsaver. It displays information about the library, upcoming events, new and popular books and more. I am currently enhancing the Greetsaver we use for the purpose of a new launch in time for our new Traverwood Branch opening, but hopefully much sooner.
In the current version of the Greetsaver, the welcome screen has a static movie displayed along the bottom. It's nice to show video, but it's the same one every single day. As I was wondering about how to pick one video to use in each location, I thought of our new Video-on-Demand page, and if I could use it in the Screen Saver. Thanks to our video podcast functionality, I was able to do just that. Now we have dynamic, automatically updated video content on display at every location where we have a screen.
Here's the current process of how the content flows from the original events to the Greetsaver:
Record:
Our outstanding production team not only does a great job with audio and video setups for our events, they also record them. Hand-held cameras as well as fixed wall cameras are fed into a real time editing deck for multi shot coverage.
Edit:
After the recording is completed, the production team edits the video, makes any corrections necessary, adds graphics and produces multiple video formats for publication.
Publish:
Some edited videos are burned to DVD as well as transcoded into video formats for web distribution: flash video for in-browser viewing on the video page, as well as MP4 video which can be viewed with iTunes or iPods.
iTunes:
The real magic; iTunes runs on the Mac Minis we use to drive the Greetsaver screens. We point iTunes to our video podcast link, and it will automatically download new content for us to the mac mini whenever we publish it on our website.
Greetsaver:
The Greetsaver composition will scan the proper folder on the mac mini's hard drive for the videos when it starts up. It picks one randomly and inserts it into the welcome screen, where it can be viewed by all who visit the library. We also display a title advertising aadl.tv, our custom domain that redirects to our video collection.
Once the new Greetsaver is rolled out, we will have a new way to showcase the events happening at the library as well as our video collection. I can't wait to see it up on the big screens myself.
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