Castfire

Late Thursday night, May 17th, the first episode of Ask a Ninja launched on the Castfire platform. It was soon followed by 17 additional episodes from the archives and we will have the entire catalog published by the end of this week. Now…the episodes have been posted on various platforms since Ask a Ninja started publishing. Why is this different?

• The episodes themselves are dynamically created using a template. There are actually 6 segments to the show that are assembled into either a single flv or mp4 file. Prior to publishing, we changed the template, updated both the ad segments, and updated the DVD segment — none of which required editing on the desktop!
• This is not pre or post roll advertising! The advertisement exists in the musical credits and as the third segment (interstitial). The placement can be changed at any time and on the fly.
• Each segment can maintain it’s own click through links on the flash player. This provides the Ask a Ninja team to have click through directly to their site as well as the advertisement have trackable click through from the player.
• The Ask a Ninja brand is most important! Download links all point to the askaninja.com domain for them to remain in control of their content.
• Castfire is a white label solution that provides the management, distribution, monetization and analysis tools for both FM and Ask a Ninja.

More coverage here:

• NewTeeVee
• ChasNote
• Searchblog
• Ad Rants
• Additional: James Gross
• Andre Torrez

About 2 months ago, Saxotech contacted us to explore the Castfire solution. They were in the 11th hour with a competitor and termed one of my favorite new sayings (though it is not really new, just context), “consider this speed dating so we can make a decision.” Today, we are announcing a partnership between Saxotech and Castfire in which we will be integrated into their CMS to allow newspapers to seamlessly publish, distribute and monetize their audio and video.

Saxotech is a very impressive organization that you have probably never heard of! They provide the infrastructure, online and in print, for 400 newspapers worldwide. There website gives small, but impressive, metrics that reflects the power of their platform (as of 4/20/2007):

• 456 Customers
• 10,712 Users
• 13,755,545,896 page views

Castfire will provide the multimedia CMS to allow their customers to reach audiences across multiple platforms and devices: web, iPod, Zune, Apple TV, syndication, etc. In addition, the platform will allow their sales forces to monetize all of the content and provide additional revenue streams to their organizations. We will be working Saxotech to innovate and provide additional outlets for the content. Audiences expect content to be delivered in a variety of formats: print (*real* paper and the web), audio, enhanced audio, and video. This partnership will provide those features, and more, out of the box.

I can say, personally, that our interactions with Saxotech have been outstanding and the possibilities this provides are phenomenal. Their knowledge of the news publishing and our knowledge of multimedia publishing are a fantastic match! We will highlight customers as they become live, which will be shortly.

SAXOTECH and Castfire Partner to Provide an Integrated Video Solution for the Media Publishing Industry

Agreement Allows Media Companies to Reach New Audiences, Drive and Manage Viewership and Realize New Ad Revenue Opportunities

TAMPA, Fla., April 20, 2007 – SAXOTECH today announced it has partnered with Castfire to enable its media company Web sites to launch ad-supported Internet video channels, syndication initiatives and user-generated media campaigns.

SAXOTECH will integrate the Castfire solution with SAXOTECH Online™, an enterprise-class Web publishing platform developed exclusively to enable the rapid flow of content from news sources to dynamic, multimedia Web sites. With the technology integration, the two applications will work together to seamlessly publish video content.

SAXOTECH will offer a one-stop video solution empowering its customers to distribute content in a controlled video player on their Web sites, while at the same time providing additional revenue streams through pre- and post-roll ad spots. The toolset also allows for upload and management of user-generated content.

The Castfire solution is not limited to online video, but allows for the management and distribution of audio and enhanced audio. Castfire was designed as a platform to distribute multimedia content in all formats keeping media publishing companies ahead of the technology curve.

“SAXOTECH recognizes that video is a powerful medium; crucial to online news and information consumption,” said Peter Ibsen, executive vice president of strategy and products of SAXOTECH. “After a thorough evaluation, we are excited to partner with Castfire and believe the integrated video solution will provide our customers with a customizable architecture, robust features, and a templated system that will ensure a cohesive branded experience even with user-generated content.”

“This partnership blends two top media technologies integrated to provide a single environment for distributing news and information,” said Brian Walsh, CEO of Castfire. “Flexibility is key in reaching audiences and Castfire provides the ability to view not only on the Web but through RSS and with devices such as iPods, Apple TV or Tivo. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with SAXOTECH to bring next-generation technologies to media companies and their audiences.”

This technology relationship is a key element of SAXOTECH’s continued strategy for successful media businesses, outlining how next-generation media companies will benefit from a single, focused technology infrastructure and removing the need to manage multiple vendor integration.

The integrated video solution will be generally available in May, 2007.

About SAXOTECH
SAXOTECH is the leading provider of integrated Web and editorial content management software, and online advertising solutions designed exclusively for the media publishing industry. Our scalable, easy-to-implement solutions are used to plan, create, edit, design and publish for multiple channels and are backed by world-class customer support. Today, SAXOTECH’s solutions are in use by more than 450 publishers around the world. For more information on SAXOTECH, please visit our Web site at www.saxotech.com.

About Castfire
Founded in 2005, Castfire provides content management, distribution and monetization tools for audio and video online. Designed for high volume sites with large libraries of content, the system features easy to use interfaces and advanced APIs to allow publishers the ability to reach audiences across multiple platforms and in multiple formats. For more information on Castfire, please visit our Web site at www.castfire.com.

Sometimes it is shockingly evident to me that Castfire is able to move forward only because of the highly skilled members of the team. I have to publicly thank Christoph, Leo and David for each owning their part and getting this release into production. This week alone has seen 5 AM mornings — that’s finish, not start — three times!

To Christoph: yet again you amaze me, my friend. Castfire would not be here without the super human efforts you continually extend. As always, let’s keep moving on to the next release.

Congratulations to the San Diego Chargers on launching their Bold New Tradition. We are excited to be a part of the launch — the new look is great. You can download the video here.

I will be at SXSW this year — Saturday through Tuesday. I have a couple of meetings, but also have a bunch of additional time. Leave a comment here or message me: brian@castfire.com if you want to schedule something ahead of time. SXSW has been on my list of conferences/events to attend and I am excited to be going!

Eddie Codel, Irina Slutsky and I sat down for lunch this week to talk about Castfire and demo the system. The sandwiches were great — though in full disclosure, I didn’t really get to eat it until I got back to my office! I think it came out great and gives a pretty good overview of what we do. Thanks to Eddie and Irina for taking the time! More of these to come…

Update: We use Wordpress MU and it is not handling the embed from Podtech very well. I am on it! In the mean time, follow this link.

Dave Winer and Doc Searls spoke today at the Public Media Conference. I listened to the live stream and appreciate Dave for posting the mp3. At around 1:01:49, there was an excellent comment regarding the audience relationship within podcasting:

“The main differnce [between podcasting and broadcasting] … Probably it’s that the relationship you have with the audience is very, very different from the relationship you have with the broadcast audience. Maybe because the internet that brings the programing to you is the same tool you can use to get back to somebody. You hear from your audience immediatly. They are engaged in something that is much more like a conversation.”

While we have been involved with podcasting for over 2 years and agree with this statement, it was fantastic to hear it summarized so eloquently. The same tool that brings the program to the listener allows the listener to communicate back. What innovations can take place to enhance and encourage this?

I have been on the road presenting and have always love getting face to face time with media companies. It is interesting to hear their needs, see their plans, and speak about the future of their media empires! Normally, we speak of today’s environment, how we can solve problems, new opportunities, etc. However, we had an excellent exchange with one company that has me smiling and thinking.

One of the attendees of the meeting said they were looking for a partner that would continually innovate, bringing new value to their existing business. What did we see in the future? What is our dream? What a great question! As a team, we got to speak about technology innovations that we see in the coming 6-12 months. In my mind, that portion of the meeting was building a foundation for our relationship in the future: trust that Castfire will continue to innovate on their behalf. I have been thinking about that all night and day since the meeting.

What a great way to start each day: how can I innovate for our customers today? I love it.

Latest.mp3 is a feature that we developed to ease integration of podcasts through the use of a simple url. Instead of using a specific url for an episode, each account has a unique url that ends in latest.mp3. This url will automatically play the newest episode, allowing for the newest episode to always be played without having to build any rss reader functionality. Killington Ski Resort and the Vail Ski Resorts are using them to re-purpose podcast content to different players and for advertising campaigns.

Killington

The Killington Ski Resort is utilizing this feature in two implementations. First, as seen in the image above, they have integrated a flash player into their homepage that is hardcoded to always play http://serve.castfire.com/audio/snowcast/latest.mp3. This removed the need for their external design team to spend additional hours building in RSS functionality into the site to ensure that the newest weather report is played. It also ensures that the newest episode is played a soon as it has been published.

Killington has also launched an ad campaign, buying rich media space for their flash banner ads. To get the most mileage out of their podcasts, a play button has been added that will play the latest episode featuring weather, ski conditions and mountain specials. The banner ads not only funnel users back to their website, but skiers and boarders can listen to the newest weather conditions and subscribe directly from the banner ad.

Vail

The Vail Ski Resorts have a desktop application, developed by otoLabs, that provides customers with constant picture, video, and text updates from the mountain. Utilizing latest.mp3, the application allows users to listen to the latest weather, trail and lift reports from the same application. And all of this was done without the development team having to build any additional RSS functionality.

In both cases, we automatically change the filename to a default filename that is set on the system. This ensures that the user experience will be great even when they are searching for the file on their computer! The user experience continues off of the first contact with their sites to every interaction.

I will try and get a screen shot of the banner ad that was produced that re-purposes the podcasts. Even better, I will try to get the actual banner for you to experience!

As we head into our second birthday, we decided it was finally time to update the website and let the world know what we actually do! It had become painful to discuss our website publicly…Robert, Christoph and I really hated even mentioning it. However, we were so busy with customers and the product that it continued to slip. Now, the time is over and we are launching our new look.

We have rolled out tractor trailer worth of new features, added in enhanced audio and are finishing up the video product. From one console, you are able to manage all of your audio, enhanced audio and video! Over the coming weeks, I will be posting screen shows to demonstrate every that you are able to publish through Castfire and the ease of use. We are focused on making fairly difficult processes easy to do!