Video E-Mail Goes Corporate

Computerworld - If Joe Bianco has his way, movie star Russell Crowe will soon be firing off video e-mails to his fans thanking them for their support. Perhaps the actor/singer will embed clips of his latest recording session along with a personal note of appreciation. It's possible.
Bianco, CEO of New York-based Sheridan Square Entertainment, is so convinced that video e-mail technology is the wave of the future, he has inked a contract with provider First Stream in Irvine, Calif., to outfit his 100 employees with the service. And Sheridan Square, which owns Crowe's label, Artemis Records, will be offering its musicians the opportunity to send video e-mails to admirers.
"There are two reasons why we are very excited about video e-mail," says Bianco. "First, we will be using this for corporate interoffice communications." With offices in four U.S. cities, using video e-mail will cut down flying time substantially, he says. "Second, our artists can maintain connections with their fans. I anticipate that a heavy metal artist will send a message that will look very different than a folk singer's."
Once dismissed as a gimmick, video e-mail is beginning to make inroads into business communication. As the technology has been refined and costs have been reduced, name-brand corporations have begun to give video e-mail a try.
Early Days
In the mid-1990s - the early days of video e-mail - the technology was interesting but rough around the edges. PCs had to be beefed up with high-end graphics cards, megabytes of memory and special camera gear. High-speed transmission lines were scarce. Not only was it expensive, but it also was kludgy.
"Back then, video over Internet looked more like a series of fast photographs," says Paul Braun, president of New York-based VIDISolutions. "Compression was not so good. Big, bulky files came very, very slowly."
Faces looked pasty; voices failed to sync with moving lips. Full-motion video via the Web reminded users of a bad Japanese movie with poor dubbing. But video streaming arrived in the late 1990s, permitting users to view footage without hogging disk space. In video streaming, full-motion images flow through the recipient's computer, but the video data resides on the provider's server, not the user's.
Finding a home
Video e-mail is no longer an orphan technology. Organizations such as the Miami Dolphins football team, DaimlerChrysler AG and Eli Lilly Corp. are relying on video e-mails for ad campaigns, internal announcements and market surveys. These businesses are also using the technology for sales training, public relations, customer updates and product releases.