McCain Campaign Employs Sorenson Media’s Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network to Launch Major Internet Video Initiative

• Sorenson 360’s Differentiated Online Video Platform Components Utilized to Build an Innovative “Video Supporter Wall” to Aid John McCain’s 2010 Senate Re-Election Bid
• Sorenson Media’s Total Video Solutions Enable McCain Supporters to Directly Submit Videos from within the John McCain Website, While Providing Site Directors with the Workflow Controls to Effectively Manage User-Generated Content

Video Solutions from Sorenson Media Power JohnMcCain.com

SAN DIEGO and PHOENIX (February 4, 2010) – Sorenson Media today announced that the campaign team for Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is utilizing several components of Sorenson Media’s Sorenson 360 video delivery network – its re-imagined online video platform – to drive a major video initiative for his 2010 Senate re-election. Campaign leaders are leveraging the power of video to solidify Senator McCain’s position as the most prominent Republican in Congress and more fully engage visitors to the newly designed Web site.

“Our involvement with Sorenson Media is a testament to the growing power of online video in major political initiatives,” said Corey Vale, Internet Director for the McCain 2010 campaign. “Video is one of the most impactful ways to connect directly with an audience, and we want to be on the leading edge of an accelerating trend toward robust, online experiences.”

The McCain campaign has used Sorenson 360’s solutions to create an extensive “video supporter wall” where visitors to his Web site are able to easily capture and publish a video message directly from their webcam or camcorder. In addition, Sorenson Media technology is being used to deliver high-quality video throughout the site to highlight key campaign strategies and messages.

John McCain Supporter Video Wall Technology Provided by Sorenson Media

“After evaluating several options, we chose Sorenson Media for the company’s long-standing reputation for excellence, its best-in-class quality, exceptional ease of use and unique customizability,” said Vale. “With Sorenson Media’s solutions, we have a fully skinnable interface that allows us to control, manage and leverage video content to more effectively communicate our message, while reinforcing and expanding Senator McCain’s image and influence.”

“We are honored that we have been chosen to work with the former Republican presidential nominee to bring the immediacy and emotional impact of user-generated video to bear in his Senate re-election effort this year,” said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. “The use of Sorenson Media’s differentiated total video solutions for this important, high-profile campaign highlights the growing impact of video in reaching out to prospective voters and other key constituencies.”

For more information about Sorenson Media’s video solutions, visit www.sorensonmedia.com. To view the new McCain campaign Web site and “video wall”, visit www.johnmccain.com

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We recently released a patch for all users of Squeeze 6. In case you haven’t downloaded this new update here are the details.

What’s New…
This Squeeze 6 Patch 2 includes various bug fixes and feature enhancements, and is specifically designed to improve your experience.

Your Preferences and Settings Are Safe
This patch does not affect your application settings, presets, preferences, saved history, or other customized options; these will all be saved during the upgrade process and applied to your upgraded version of Squeeze.

What’s Changed…
Bug fixes in this patch are primarily changes to hidden functionality, such as how data is propagated between Jobs, Presets, and other panels in the application, and how upgrades of the software occur behind-the-scenes. Other fixes resolve minor issues with certain types of encoding (Spark Pro, Flash, QuickTime) or are more cosmetic in nature (such as the display of prompts and other elements in Squeeze windows, dialogs, and messages).

Download the update

Shannon Dunn can attest to the game-changing impact of Sorenson Squeeze 6, the latest incarnation of Sorenson Media’s pioneering video encoding solution. “There is nothing that can touch Sorenson Squeeze 6 for creating, editing and managing Internet video,” said Dunn, senior editor for Sprint’s Creative Media Services group, the video production arm of the telecom giant’s corporate communications division. “We produce hundreds of videos every year, and Sorenson Squeeze saves us untold time and energy.”

Sprint Creative Services Using Sorenson Squeeze & 360

Sorenson Squeeze 6 is an intuitive, total video workflow solution that enables video professionals, small businesses and large enterprise customers alike to quickly and easily deliver exceptional video quality in all of the leading video formats – from Flash and VC-1 to H.264 and HD for MPEG-2.

One of the most significant value-adding features of Sorenson Squeeze 6 is its innovative new review and approval process made available through integration with the Sorenson 360 online video platform. “Seamless integration of our Sorenson 360 video delivery network represents a huge leap forward. There is nothing else like our total video solution in the marketplace,” said David Dudas, vice president of product development for Sorenson Media. “Because we have integrated Sorenson 360 into Squeeze 6, our customers get it all in one easy-to-use solution – our award-winning differentiated client-side encoding, as well as a true hosted solution for the storage and delivery of their video content.”

The review and approval process in Sorenson Squeeze 6 enables real-time collaboration. With Squeeze 6, the creator of the video content can automatically send an email or SMS text with a secure link to the video. The recipient then views the video and provides immediate feedback to the content creator, who can then make changes until all parties have approved the content.

“Sorenson Squeeze has enabled me to protect our brand and effectively manage the process of approvals and posting,” said Dunn, who must get approval from a handful of stakeholders for each project he completes. “We no longer undergo the inconvenient process of posting video files to an FTP site for each iteration of the video creation process – and files don’t get downloaded and posted prematurely.”

Another compelling benefit of Sorenson Squeeze 6 is the publishing presets feature, which enables Dunn and his team to create and distribute multiple files at once. “When I finish developing a video, I can just drag and drop a preset to the video and automatically output it to multiple locations in a variety of different formats,” Dunn added. “For example, using the same video file we can send out an uncompressed QuickTime file for archiving; a 256k WMV file for publishing on lots of portals; a file to an FTP site for clients; and a view-ready QuickTime file in 360 for internal review.”

Big Sky Edititorial Uses Sorenson Squeeze for Xbox 360 Commercials

Along the same vein, Valerie Junge, film editor at Big Sky Editorial, uses Sorenson Squeeze in all of the projects she edits for her high-profile clients, including celebrated Web viral videos such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 campaign “Behind the Fun,” featuring “Glee” star Jane Lynch. The Web virals, which Junge worked on with the T.A.G. unit of McCann Worldgroup, exclusively utilize Sorenson Squeeze 6 encoding.

“Sorenson Squeeze is the only product we use,” said Junge. “The process is so user-friendly and efficient, and the quality is so high that it is uncommon for anyone to ask for tapes or DVDs for approvals. We use Sorenson Squeeze to post high-quality rough cuts for online review and approval; it enables us to show our client a true representation of how the video content will really look. Our clients are always satisfied when they see their work posted on our site.”

Junge added that Sorenson Squeeze 6 is singularly effective performing across multiple formats, including HD. “We like to work in a HD environment here, and Sorenson Squeeze performs much better in HD than competing products do,” said Junge. “We are really big on quality control, and Sorenson Squeeze is reliable and works with any combination of platforms and applications. That is why it is a permanent component of our workflow.”

Valerie Junge, film editor at Big Sky Editorial

Pricing and Availability

Sorenson Squeeze 6 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash are available immediately for electronic download or for shipping in CD form. Sorenson Squeeze 6 is $799 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash is $499. Upgrades from previous versions of Sorenson Squeeze begin at $199. The complimentary one-year Sorenson 360 Review & Approval account includes 5 gigabytes (GB) of storage, 100 streams per month and a maximum video length of 30 minutes.

For additional information about purchasing Sorenson Squeeze 6 or to find a reseller, visit www.sorensonmedia.com.

This week, Sorenson Media released an exciting upgrade to all Sorenson 360 accounts. This no charge upgrade will make it easier to publish HD video to the Web and will automatically submit your videos to major search engines. Features include:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
If you’re using video to market your products or services, you want your videos to be optimized for major search engines like Google*.

Automatic Search Engine Indexing

• Beginning this week, all of your videos* will be automatically optimized and submitted to major search engines.

• To take full advantage of this feature it’s important that you enter your Company Name under the 360 Account tab and also enter meaningful metadata (titles, descriptions, and keywords) for every video you upload. Don’t forget!

Unbranded Review & Approval and Permalink Pages

• We understand that you may not want your customers and clients to see Sorenson Media branding when they view your videos. So we’ve removed our branding from Permalink Pages and Review & Approval Pages for paying 360 subscribers. Clean and compelling!

* The SEO features are not applicable to any password-protected or review & approval videos within Sorenson 360. If a video is password-protected or has been sent for review & approval, we will automatically hide it from search engines.

HD Video Player:
New HD Player sizes and Embed Codes

• Next time you grab a Sorenson 360 embed code you’ll have two new HD options to choose from: 1280×720 and 960×720. Bigger is better.

Custom Player Sizes and Embed Codes

• You can now easily generate customized embed codes that use your own custom player dimensions. And the new instant preview feature shows you how the resized player looks before you publish it to your web site. So easy.

Downloadable Videos

• Think of all the videos you’ve uploaded to Sorenson 360. And all the videos you’ll upload in the future. Now, you can download them all. Simple as that.

Enjoy the new and improved Sorenson 360!

Don’t get left out in the cold this winter. Upgrade to Squeeze 6 now at Special upgrade prices. Pricing ends Midnight Sunday.

Remember, Squeeze 6 gives you:

  » Integrated Review & Approval workflow

Email and SMS text message notifications are sent along with password protected videos when jobs are completed. Includes 1-year complimentary Sorenson 360 Review & Approval account.

  » Industry Winning Quality Output in all Popular Formats

New professional pre-processing filters including timecode, blur, RGB and tint, and the highest quality output formats including VP6 in every Squeeze version.

  » And Much, Much More

It’s end of year — the holidays are upon us — so it’s a great time to step back and take a look at 2009, Sorenson Media-style. Bottom line — 2009 was an exciting year for our company across the board. Here are just some of the highlights:

(1) a highlight for me, I joined the company as President & CEO in February and we significantly expanded our overall executive management team, which includes Eric Quanstrom (VP Marketing & Strategy), David Dudas (VP Product Development), Mike Flathers (CTO), Charles Sismondo (VP Engineering), Kirk Punches (VP Sales), and Mark Ivins (Controller);

(2) we expanded our business operations into the hub of digital media — Southern California — my backyard here in San Diego; we now have half the team here and can tap into the rich talent pools of both Salt Lake City and Southern California; we hired aggressively in both locations throughout the year — and we are hiring aggressively now in both locations and across all departments;

(3) as a natural extension of our award-winning technology and services — and because our customers demanded it — we launched “Sorenson 360“, our differentiated service that re-imagines what an online video platform (OVP) should be, to rave reviews;

(4) later in the year — just recently in fact — we launched our first major “point” release of our flagship Sorenson Squeeze product (v6.0) to more rave reviews and to our biggest sales days in our company’s history; Squeeze 6 — like Sorenson 360 — represent major milestones in our industry, offering the first “total workflow solutions” for the video professional and for businesses of any size — SMBs and enterprises;

(5) we signed a number of partnership deals with blue-chip companies in connection with our “Sorenson Spark” codec, the world’s most ubiquitous video codec — these partners include Qualcomm and Verizon;

(6) we expanded our long-time partnership with Avid and its suite of editing applications, and we seamlessly integrated our solutions in Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Final Cut and iMovie products (we also are now featured as a “staff pick” download by Apple);

(7) we significantly expanded our company profile overall — including a major feature story in USA Today — USA Today expressly recognized the role our company has played throughout the course of Internet video (in its words, “Every time you watch a video online, you probably have Sorenson Media to thank” … couldn’t say it better myself);

(8) we continued to win all major awards in our industry for innovation and developing the “best” products and services, including the prestigious Streaming Media “Readers’ Choice” award (for the third straight year) and “Fierce 15″ by FierceOnlineVideo.

These are just some of the highlights of the year.

But, time to stop looking back. Now, it’s all about moving forward — and continuing to out-innovate the competition and offer the most compelling video solutions to video professionals and businesses of all size.

Where are we going in 2010? All I can say is this — you ain’t seen nothing yet. Stay closely tuned — we have many significant announcements tee’d up for the first part of the New Year, including several which will show you where we are heading with Sorenson 360. And, 2010 overall will be a pivotal year in the overall online video market opportunity, as businesses of all size begin to recognize — on a massive scale — that nothing is as impactful as the power of video. Not pictures. Not text. Absolutely nothing.

By Peter D. Csathy (Twitter name pcsathy)

Today we received another prestigious honor. We were named, by FierceOnlineVideo.com, one of the Fierce 15 – The 15 companies driving online video and the top online companies for 2009.

Why We are Fierce (excepts from the article):
Video encoding stalwart Sorenson Media has been around since, well, online video’s Dark Ages, and it’s done something few of its competitors have managed to do: it’s made money. Its Sorenson Squeeze has been the industry’s encoding software of choice through a number of upgrades (currently on Squeeze 6), and is in use by editors and other video pros at some of the world’s largest media outlets, including NBC, Gannett and Hulu, as well as a chunk of the Fortune 500 companies.

“We’ve been self sustaining for a number of years and have a very strong balance sheet without the need for VC funding,” says Peter Csathy, Sorenson CEO. “Sorenson Squeeze is the ‘best-in-class’ technology to the point that in a (recent) USA Today story they wrote: ‘Every time you watch a video online, you probably have Sorenson Media to thank.’ We appreciate that we have been the gold standard.” So much so, Csathy said, that the company is determined to maintain its position by improving its product.

Read more:

Recently at Sorenson Media we’ve spent a lot of engineering and development time to make sure that the Sorenson experience on Apple products is seamless and outstanding. We’ve put together, in no particular order, a few of the Sorenson / Apple highlights that you may or may not be aware of.

1.) Seamless Squeeze 6 integration with Final Cut Pro
Sorenson Squeeze 6 can now be used as a QuickTime Exporter. This means that as soon as Squeeze 6 is installed you have the ability to export your timeline directly to Squeeze without having to pre-encode or even create a QuickTime Reference Movie. Once Squeeze is installed you will have all of your Presets available through the QuickTime Export drop down menu. Get more information on FCP integration by clicking the image below or check out the review from a long-time Final Cut Pro user at: StudioDaily.com

2.) Squeeze 6 Demo at Apple.com
If you’ve been to the downloads section of Apple.com recently you may have seen a new Staff Pick – photo below. Since Squeeze 6 is now so integrated into Apple products we’ve made the trial version of Squeeze 6 available on Apple.com. The good news is that it appears the good folks at Apple have noticed, too, as Squeeze appears to have quickly become a staff favorite.

3.) iPhone/iPod encoding – Nothing does it better than Squeeze 6
Squeeze 6 uses the highest quality H.264 codec (see MSU independent encoder comparison) which makes the end result MP4 video the industry’s best. More on encoding to devices:

4.) Sorenson 360 video delivery to the iPhone
Have you ever been surfing the web on your iPhone only to see a broken Flash Player icon where a video should be? If that site had been using Sorenson 360 that wouldn’t be the case. Only the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network will deliver your Flash content natively through the QuickTime player on the iPhone. Don’t believe me? Try viewing this blog on the iPhone. More on 360 iPhone video delivery:

Coby Rich
Marketing Manager

At the Streaming Media West show a few weeks back, Eric Quanstrom, VP of Marketing and Strategy for Sorenson Media had the chance to talk with Grant Crowell of ReelSEO. A lot of the discussion was centered around the monetization of online video. There are multiple ways to think about monetization and ROI when it comes to online video. In many cases, as Eric affirms, the video itself can drive monetization and can be used as a effective marketing and sales tool.

See the whole interview:

ReelSEO