Beam.tv

"We are an online preview and archiving tool built for the advertising industry," says Ben Smith, head of encoding and technology at Beam.tv, "Our aim is to make it easy to view work in progress and speed up creative decision-making, which saves people time and money."

The idea is that companies can upload and download image files stored on beam.tv's servers; the system can be accessed from any computer anywhere in the world as long as you have a password. An agency that once would have sent tapes of the cut of a commercial to the client via the post production house will now transfer the images via the Internet. Footage can also be sent to a number of post companies who work in partnership with the service. Ninety-eight per cent of London ad agencies use this system.

Of course, net users all over the world are sending images using Internet technology, but the difference here is in the quality of the image and the software that beam.tv has written to make tasks such as archiving, online approval and creating showreels easy. For any high quality film or video format to be transferred quickly via broadband it has to be compressed, which is where codecs such as Windows Media® Audio and Video 9 come into play.

Another part of the system to use this advance is the beambox, a set top box which allows beam.tv users to view the contents of the archive, or any other content sent to them via the beam system, on a television or larger screen (rather than a PC). There are around 200 beamboxes world-wide and each can store up to seven hours of DVD-quality film or HD in Windows Media 9 Series. The beambox is built on a Windows® XP Embedded platform, with the .NET system developed by Root6 Technology for beam.tv.

"Beam.tv has worked because it has been designed by the people that use it. The user interface is very relevant to the way people work and the business model is also perfectly suited to the market," says Debra Peake, global marketing director for ad agency Publicis Worldwide. "There are three parameters in production jobs: speed, quality and cost - and these are interconnected. Beam.tv allows you to improve the quality and speed and potentially reduce cost too. It's a win-win situation. The ability to access work instantly and address concerns has made a difference."

--excerpted in parts from microsoft.com