EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF ONLINE VIDEO
FAQ
Q. What is Backlot?
A. Backlot is a comprehensive video delivery, monetization, and syndication platform. It provides a centralized environment with all the features media publishers, content owners, and advertisers need to deploy video content online.
The Backlot platform offers the most cost-effective solution for delivering a high quality, monetizable video experience to your online viewers. It gives you control over how video is monetized, where it is syndicated, and how it drives your branding strategies. The analytics engine within Backlot also provides visibility into user viewing behavior. Instead of spending time and resources on video serving hardware or software development, you can take advantage of the ready-to-use, comprehensive tools within Backlot to power your online videos.
Q. Who should use Backlot?
A. The Backlot platform is an enterprise level solution for media professionals ranging from independent video content producers/owners to large media outlets and advertisers.
Q. Do I need to be a developer or programmer to use Backlot?
A. Absolutely not. Backlot integration can be a simple and effective copy-paste solution for your site, or a deeply integrated architecture for even the largest jobs. Many users with little or no programming knowledge are able to begin using it on their site quickly and easily. Others make use of our APIs to offer a deeper and more customized integration.
Q. Why should I use Backlot?
A. By using Backlot, your viewers can:
- Immediately start enjoying video--no download required
- View videos with minimal buffering
- Browse video with scene navigation tools
- Discover videos through our Video Recommendation Engine
- Use social networking features to share video
- Upload personal videos to your website
As a content owner or publisher, the Backlot platform enables you to:
- Deliver video via the Ooyala Video Player
- Serve ads with Geo, Domain, and Behavioral targeting
- Build revenue with popular ad formats
- Brand viewer experiences with player customization tools
- Analyze viewer engagement with 50+ behavioral reports
- Syndicate single video players and channels
- Whitelist/Blacklist web domains and geographic locations for publishing
- Acquire and distribute videos within the Exchange syndication marketplace
- Bulk upload and manage video content
- Use Ooyala APIs for programmatic access to Backlot and player customization
Q. How do I get started using Backlot?
A. We've made the start up process quick and easy. Create your account at www.ooyala.com/backlot/web. Grab your video files and get started uploading and embedding your video players and channels. If you will be uploading large video files (> 100MB), we recommend that you use the Backlot desktop client, available to you at www.ooyala.com/backlot/download. New Backlot users can try the system out for free.
Q. How extensible is Backlot?
A. Backlot has open APIs for programmatic access to Backlot and customization of the Ooyala Video Player.
Q. Where can I find your APIs?
A.The API documentation can be accessed here:
Q. Does Ooyala offer CDN services?
A. Yes, Ooyala has its own delivery network that sits on top of the most reliable CDNs.
Q. Can Backlot integrate with my existing CDN?
A. Yes, if you would like to use your own CDN, create an account and then contact us at sales@ooyala.com.
Q. What video formats does Backlot support?
A. Backlot accepts most popular video codecs:
- MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
- VP6, VP5
- H.264, H.263
- WMV/WMA, and MJPEG
After uploading files, Backlot automatically transcodes video files into Adobe's supported formats: H.264 /AAC/ Flash Video/MP3.
Q. What are some general guidelines for achieving the best video quality with the Backlot platform?
A. As you pre-process your video, we recommend you keep the following in mind:
- Encode to produce the highest quality video file, regardless of file size. Since there is no file size limitation on uploads to Backlot, a large, high quality video file will result in better results online. The only disadvantage to encoding a large file size is that it the uploading and processing will take longer.
- For the highest quality text and graphics results, build and encode your video with the target video embed size in mind. For instance, if you are adding motion graphics to a 640 x 480 video, you should build your graphics to an embed size of 640 x 480. Any resizing of video will likely diminish the quality of your graphics.
Q. What settings do you recommend to produce the best combination of image and audio quality?
A. For the best results, we recommend the settings below:
- Encode video at 24 ( 23.98), 25, or 30 ( 29.97) fps
- Encode with H.264 codec
- Encode with AAC audio codec or leave audio uncompressed
- Encode to your target video embed size
Q. What are the minimum system requirements for Backlot?
A. Backlot is available as both a desktop client and as a browser application.
To take advantage of Backlot Web, we recommend Windows or Macintosh with Flash 9.0.115 installed on any modern web browser.
To take advantage of the Backlot desktop client:
Windows
- Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
- Intel® Pentium® III 1.5GHz or faster processor
- 512MB RAM
Macintosh:
- Mac OS 10.4.8 or higher (Intel and PowerPC)
- Intel Core2 Duo 1.83GHz, PowerPC® G4 1.0GHz or faster processor
- 512MB RAM
* FLV files will be automatically posted. To preserve the quality of the video, we do not re-encode FLV files.
Q. What do I need to get started with Backlot?
A. Backlot is designed to be independently used, but customer support is available for those who need it. With no download required, you can start using Backlot Web, immediately. It comes with 1 hour of free video serving. When that expires, you can use our automatic payment system to fund your account. If you work with a large media organization or have special needs, please contact sales@ooyala.com.
Q. Can others in my organization use the same Backlot account?
A. Yes, an Account Administrator can invite other people to share access to the same Backlot account.
Q. Do I need programming or web development experience to use Backlot?
A. No, it is not necessary to have advanced programming skills to use Backlot. With intuitive controls and functionality, all users can control how their video is published, measured, and monetized online. Professional web developers can take advantage of the Ooyala APIs to customize their video experiences.
Q. How does your video delivery system produce a high quality video experience for the end user?
A. The Backlot platform uses Ooyala's patent pending technology to deliver the best quality viewing experience the end user can support. When the viewer watches video via the Ooyala Video Player, the player detects the available bandwidth and the CPU utilization of the user's personal computer. It quickly adjusts video delivery according to the user's detected viewing environment and continues adjusting throughout the entire viewing experience. Because Ooyala encodes at multiple bit rates and slices the video into multiple segments, the player is able to intelligently deliver the best slice of video for each individual viewer at any given point in time. This feature, known as our Adaptive Bit Rate Technology, is a service offering for Studio level partners. It ensures all viewers get the best quality video available to them.
To provide the most consistent, glitch-free viewing experience, Ooyala works with a global network of CDNs and employ its own automatic failover to reliably serve your video anywhere in the world. In addition to offering video delivery using Adaptive Bit Rate Technology, you can also choose to deliver video in a single bit rate with a progressive video download. For our Director level media publishers, this is often a better, more cost effective fit for their needs. For the single stream delivery, content owners can specify the data rate for their video streams.
Q. Why should I use the Ooyala Video Player on my site?
A. In a sleek, yet subtle presentation, the Ooyala Video Player houses all the features that keep viewers watching video and sharing it with their friends:
- No additional plugin download
- Minimal buffering for video
- Play-to-seek within video
- Visual scene navigation
- Recommendation engine for related videos
- Custom end screen options
- Social networking tools
- Full screen viewing
With the Ooyala Player API and built in-tools, you can also customize the player by color, video controls, and video end screen.
Q. Do I need to re-encode my whole video library to use your system?
A. No, Backlot accepts most widely used video formats. If your video file is in one of the accepted formats, simply upload it to Backlot. As in many cases regarding compressed video, less compression will yield better results. For best practices, we recommend you follow our encoding guidelines.
Q. What video ad formats do you offer?
A. We offer pre-roll, post-roll, and in-stream advertising formats.
Q. Can I use a 3rd party ad server with my Backlot videos?
A. Yes, we currently offer integration with DoubleClick's DART, Lightningcast and AdSense for Video.
Q. I currently use another video platform. How easy is it to migrate to Backlot?
A. Since we accept most popular video formats, migrating your video library can be as simple as bulk uploading your video into our system. We also have single click migrations for most of the popular platforms.
Q. Why should I syndicate my videos with Backlot?
A. Backlot syndication features make video syndication very easy. With simple, built-in tools, you can gain a larger audience for your videos, expose your brand, and maximize the value of your video assets. Instead of publishing your video on just one website, the Syndication Controls enable you to syndicate video on multiple web properties or content networks. The Exchange, Backlot's syndication marketplace, is another way to create more syndication opportunities for your content. You can showcase your video in the Exchange, syndicate it privately, or release it for open syndication across the Web.
Q. How can Backlot help me syndicate video?
A. Backlot Syndication Controls enable you to:
- Allow/ Restrict website domains and that can show your content
- Geo-target your video syndication
- Create and dynamically update Syndication Groups and Channel Lineups
- Encourage viral video syndication through the Ooyala Video Player
- Build your audience with Media RSS
- Create/participate in syndication networks to increase your audience reach and monetization opportunities.
- Syndicate videos and video channels to content affiliates, while maintaining syndication authority over your content (via the Exchange)
- Privately showcase and distribute video to content affiliates (via the Exchange)
- Use the Exchange as a contract management system
Q. What kind of analytics does Backlot offer?
A. Backlot Analytics helps you learn about:
- Video displays
- Video plays
- Video replays
- Video abandonment
- Unique viewership
By:
- Geo-location
- Video
- Channel
- Hours played
- Percent of video played
- Timeline view
- Behavioral view
- Comparative view
- Custom time range
Q. How can using Backlot Analytics help me?
A. Backlot Analytics gives you insight on viewer engagement, the value of your video assets, and the effectiveness of programming strategies. Beyond your own content library, you can measure the performance of videos across your syndication networks and across your collection of Subscribed Content from the Exchange. By understanding viewing engagement and abandonment, you'll have the business intelligence needed to make important programming decisions.
Q. What makes Backlot Analytics better than other analytics solutions?
A. Backlot Analytics offers you more detailed viewing metrics in an intuitive interface. Built from the outset for powerful integration with major Backlot features, our analytics engine offers users 50+ real time, customizable viewing reports.
Q. What is the Darkroom?
A. The Darkroom is a workstation within Backlot where you can:
- Edit advertising content
- Create video channels
- Add meta data to your video
- Assign Syndication Controls
- Customize video players
- Set Preview Images
In the near future, we'll be offering you tools for defining clickable objects within your video content. To use the Darkroom, select the EDIT VIDEO button at the bottom of the Content tab.
* The Darkroom currently contains simple insert editing for advertising content. If your editing needs are more complex, you'll need a professional video editing application.
Q. What is the Exchange?
A. The Exchange is a syndication marketplace for professional video content. Content owners can use it to showcase and distribute their video. For media publishers, the Exchange is a venue for acquiring new video content for websites. With so much content now available and easily discoverable, advertising professionals may also benefit from new audiences created by video content syndicated from the Exchange.
Q. I own high quality video content, why should I contribute video to the Exchange?
A. For content owners, participating in the Exchange offers you:
- An unlimited distribution channel for your video.
- A delivery system to quickly showcase and distribute video to content partners and other content owners.
- A new way to expand/develop professional video content partnerships.
- The ability to privately share video with your own selective network of video partners
- Monetization options to help you generate revenue from your video syndication
Q. What does the Platform Fee include
A. The Platform Fee covers use and access to all the components of Backlot including management, storage, syndication, analytics and advertising. It also includes usage of the Player, APIs and support. All accounts created begin as an Independent package with 5GB of free storage. After 5GB, The amount of $50 will be charged for each additional GB of content. For accounts exceeding 25GB of Managed Content, additional pricing information can be obtained by contacting Ooyala's Sales team.
Q. What does Delivery Pricing include?
A. Each account gains access to Ooyala's vast network of CDNs and the efficiencies of Ooyala's advanced delivery system. Director and Studio level accounts also have access to deliver the highest quality video utilizing Ooyala's dynamic bitrate technology.
Q. How does hourly pricing work?
A. Backlot is able to intelligently track the overall amount of time your content has been viewed. To better understand hourly pricing you can multiply the video length by the number of plays. A two-minute video played 60 times would equal two hours of viewing. You may also consider if the average viewer only watched half of the video it would only be one hour.
Q. What is the pricing for the Director and Studio packages?
A. This can depend on the overall amount of content you expect to manage and deliver each month. If you are a current Backlot user and have exceeded your 25GB we're probably already working with you closely. If you're a new partner, please contact sales@ooyala.com with an accurate description of your video needs along with any estimates for your monthly managed content and hours of delivery.
Q. Where can I find our more information about the different packages and pricing?
A. For detailed information about our pricing please click here.