I’ve been recording media for Internet distribution since… ever since I could with one of Sony’s first Mavicas (the FD7, which recorded images on a floppy disk). In fact, one of my Gnomies found and published my first webcam recording (which I’ll never live down). I’ve been streaming live video for well over a year now, and I’ll get to those statistics later in this post.

I first mentioned TubeMogul in this blog when it was nothing more than a project it was interesting, but not really what I needed at the time. As I started to produce a regular array of videos, their “sneezing” service evolved enabling me to distribute a single video to several networks without having to encode / upload / tag / describe / name it more than once. Today, TubeMogul released their first Top 40 list – and with 30,000 other publishers, I’m in good company:

1. Next New Networks
2. Chris Pirillo
3. Howcast
4. For Your Imagination
5. Tornante
6. WatchMojo
7. iJustine
8. Nalts
9. MyDamnChannel
10. Ford Models
11. CBS Interactive
12. HBO
13. Rocketboom
14. FUNimation Productions
15. National Lampoon
16. Big Pictures
17. Sub Pop Records
18. Rhett and Link
19. PopCrunch Media
20. PBS
21. Independent Comedy TV
22. Billboard.com
23. The Movie Preview Critic
24. IPC Media
25. Hayden Black / Evil Global Corp
26. Century Media Records
27. Tango Media
28. DailyIdea
29. Effinfunny
30. Newsbusters
31. Katr Pictures
32. Young Hollywood
33. Warner Bros
34. Fox
35. Vlaze Media Networks
36. Gagfilms
37. Click for Lessons
38. EMI
39. Nike
40. Sony Pictures

You read that right: I’m #2 this month, though I don’t know how long I’ll remain in the top 10 (with competition like HBO, PBS, CBS, iJustine, Warner Bros, and Sony Pictures). Understand, too, that these numbers only reflect the videos that were being tracked through TubeMogul – not my independent uploads to either YouTube or my iTunes podcast feed.

In my humble opinion, our live video stats are even more impressive: over 5 million unique live video viewers watched me do my “thing” in 2007 – a total of 2+ million LIVE viewer hours with an average viewing time of 25 minutes per visitor. Imagine what could happen if I worked with a larger media brand for both live and produced videos?

I guess, for me, the idea of being back “on television” is kinda… over.

Who are the Internet’s Top Video Producers?

Just been checking out your ustream feed youve got up, and poked around your site a bit. Im curious of a couple things, if you dont mind answering, or maybe even doing a show out of it, if you havent already.

I usually don’t mind answering questions – it’s largely a matter of timing. This email came to me a few minutes ago from Dayton Turner. It’s a perfect storm of the most frequently asked questions we get in relation to our videos.

First, what are you using to overlay an ad and IRC onto your stream? Is this something custom you’ve had made? If so, is it available for other people to use?

Google for live video production – one of our YouTube videos ranks in the top 5 results, specifically the one that shows you what and how I assemble the live stream feed / recorded segments. This answer is currently not a bot response.

Also – What camera are you using to stream this? – Generally, I think it would be interesting to have a show about how you produce the show, and all the components that go into it, which i think would be extremely interesting for your viewers, especially those who are interested in doing something similar.

Ask “what is cam” and Pixie (bot) will respond with: For the most part, Chris usually relies on a Canon GL2 DV camera connected via FireWire for video and a Samson C01U USB Studio Condenser mic for audio. However, there are times when he relies on a Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision and/or Apple’s iSight for A/V. If I’m at home, it’s the Canon. If I’m on the road, it’s likely the MacBook’s iSight.

Second, I am a fan of keyboard with ‘laptop style keys’ – from the sounds of yours, you have one. What kind is it? Do you like it?

Ask “what is keyboard” and Pixie will tell you: If Chris is at his desktop, he’s likely typing on his newly acquired aluminum keyboard (as recommended by fellow community member, Moonglaive). More info.

Lastly, where the heck did you get that multicolored light bar above your monitors, and what does it represent? It looks like some sort of binary clock or something?

The most popular Pirillo Live question of all time. Ask “what is tix’ and the bot will say: What are those strange lights flashing at the top of the video window? Chris purchased six “TIX Binary Style LED Color Changing Random Pattern” clocks for his home office computer desk hutch. You can pick up one or two of your own at http://urltea.com/dwt (Amazon). You can download an emulator for Windows.

Anyways, miss you from the old Tech TV days but im glad you keep this up on the web, I think its making a real statement for how things are moving forward.

Honestly? I’m answering more questions and generating more revenue from them with a far more interesting (and interactive) audience now than I ever did (or could) at TechTV. In that sense, I don’t miss it at all. ;) Indeed, things are moving forward…

Frequently Asked Questions for Video

Here’s the workflow, rough though it may be:

• Segment gets recorded live-to-tape
• Segment gets encoded by the live video service
• Download link is provided (immediately, as in the case of ustream)
• If the recording is in FLV, it must be converted before redistribution (iPod and PSP compatible MP4)
• Video is uploaded, tagged on YouTube and Blip.tv – possible MP3 audio created
• Show notes, if any, are recorded – either in paragraph or bulletpoint form
• Full text is posted to my Media page, with a likely cross-tease in my personal blog

Mind you, that’s about as “simple” as it gets right now – I haven’t even begun talking about how I want to format high definition video recordings yet. That’s what I’m hoping to do sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, I’d want my live video service to automatically reencode and upload the video to my YouTube and Blip.TV accounts. From Blip.TV, a post is automatically made to my Media blog and MySpace account (with text added manually in short time). If the service provider would play ball, it would eliminate a lot of our current headaches – as we’re already a few videos behind. :( Worse yet, ustream doesn’t offer a feed for video subscription – nor does it host MP4 archives so that I could likely bypass Blip.TV altogether.

I must reopen the dialogue with Podtrac this week – they’re another cog in the machine.

Live Video Production Workflow