• Brightcove 5 Launches

    Brightcove is launching the next version of its online video platform today, dubbed Brightcove 5. It is a free upgrade to existing customers and will be fully rolled out by mid-January 2011. Brightcove 5 expands on the themes of Brightcove 4 (released in Nov. '09): delivering video to more devices/places, enhancing the financial return of online video and improving publishing productivity. Brightcove's president and COO David Mendels walked me through the key highlights last week:

    - YouTube distribution - publish video and metadata simultaneously to YouTube channels so that content on both owned properties and on YouTube remain in synch.

    - Streaming support for Apple iOS devices - integrated multi-bit rate delivery for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

    - Updated mobile app SDKs for iPhone and Android - enhancements to those released in Brightcove 4, plus a new reference app for the iPad.

    - Improved analytics - over a dozen new reports for tracking video playback.

    - Integrated HTML5 and Flash analytics - in partnership with TubeMogul, reports now aggregate HTML5 and Flash video metrics into one view.

    - High-quality live-streaming and DVR functionality - using Akamai's HD network, multi-bit rate HD live-streaming plus DVR rewind in live events and ad insertion.

    - New "Smart Players" - single video player design for HTML5 and Flash video with browser auto-detection feature serving the right format to each user.

    - Accelerated file upload - integration with Aspera for faster video uploads.

    - Mobile video upload from iPhones - app that allows remote users to edit and upload video to their Brightcove accounts.

    Brightcove separately announced that it will hold its first customer conference, Brightcove PLAY, May 23-25 in Boston.