Create a Reliable and High-Res Review Session with Skype and syncVUEpro

Obviously, the trick here is to output a file of reasonable size and quality. I want my clients to see more than just postage stamp-size videos, so I always export my media using H.264 at about 450 Kbps with a screen size of 720 x 486px for video, and AAC at 48k, 110 kbs for audio. This results in files that run about 4 MBps. A 20-minute reel ends up at around 80 MB, which isn’t too bad for this kind of quality.

For those using Apple’s Compressor for this task, we have presets on our Web site that you can use to make this a simple drag-and-drop operation. You can find them here: www.syncvue.com/presets.htm.

Once you’ve encoded the media your client needs to review, open syncVUEpro and drop the files onto syncVUE’s Play List window. At this point, you can even add your own comments and graphics locators to any of the media files for your client to see.

Click the file menu, then Save Play List. Type in a name for the Play List, then click the Upload Media to drop-down box and select one of your pre-configured FTP locations (you set up FTP locations ahead of time in syncVUE’s FTP menu). Click Save Play List and syncVUE will ask if it’s OK to begin uploading the media to the Internet. Click OK to begin the upload. During this time, syncVUEpro will open the transfer window and report the status of each file as it’s being uploaded, as well as an ETA to complete the job.

Depending on your workflow, there are three ways to get the Play List to your client.

a) Invite the client into a syncVUEpro session
If you plan to start your review session in sync with the client right away, click syncVUE’s Invite button and invite the client into a session. Once the client answers the "call," the Play List will immediately load into his syncVUE player.

b) E-mail the client the Play List
Add the Play List as an E-mail file attachment and send it to your client. He can then drag the Play List directly into syncVUE.

c) Send it directly via Skype
If the client is currently online with Skype; just drag the Play List to his name in your Skype buddy list to send it to him directly. When he receives the file on his end, he can drag it into syncVUE.

Once the client has the Play List loaded, syncVUE will search the client’s asset "watch" folders for matching files, then offer to download only those files the client doesn’t already have. Luckily, the client NEVER has to log in to your FTP; syncVUE handles all that transparently in the background. In fact, syncVUE encrypts all your FTP login info- your client never needs to know where it’s coming from!

But if the client needs to begin watching a particular file right now, all he has to do is double-click the desired media file in the Play List and syncVUEpro will begin playing it immediately while it’s being downloaded. Again, any media located in a password-protected area of your FTP or Web site is handled by syncVUEpro automatically without revealing any password info to the client.

Now that you both have the media, you’re ready to begin a review in sync with your client. Simply invite him into a session, click on a movie in your Play List and you’re both watching exactly the same thing. Mark up the media with time-code-based comments, vector graphics and voice notes to complete the review, then export the entire session as a Web page, or export the markers as XML to Final Cut Pro.

Michael Buday
President and Founder
Intelligent Gadgets

Michael Buday is president and founder of Intelligent Gadgets, creator of syncVUE. Prior to founding the company in 2005, Michael was an offline and online editor in London, New York and Los Angeles, as well as a consultant to Sony Broadcast and Sony Japan.

The concept of having clients approve our creative work remotely seems like a new idea, but in fact, we’ve been doing it for years. Mind you, we had to output our projects to VHS tape or DVD, courier it across town, and pray the client had a TV monitor manufactured in this century, but in a snail’s pace sort of way, it worked.

Today, most of us use the Internet as our "courier" service, posting media files online for clients to download and review. But the process is still fairly crude and, for the most part, doesn’t allow us to truly interact with the client during the review process.

We launched syncVUE about one year ago to solve that problem. Our second generation of the software, v2.0, called syncVUEpro, improves on the original syncVUE by making the whole process much easier for you and, more importantly, for your client. Like syncVUE, syncVUEpro uses the Skype VOIP network for synch communications, transfer of metadata and buddy lists; it can also handle voice and video chat if desired.

Intelligent Gadgets
www.syncvue.com
2 Terraza Del Mar
Dana Point, CA 92629
ph. 949.488.7814
e-mail: info@syncvue.com

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syncVUEpro, Skype