Introduction

In Part 1 we reported on the market situation and video processing for the home user. Part 2 is aimed at companies. We will introduce you to professional editing systems and processing software. This article also covers topics such as video via the Internet, video conferencing systems and the various standards. The report is followed by a summary of parts 1 and 2.

Applications For Companies

Professional editing systems are normally sold as turnkey systems. These PC's are equipped with the corresponding video hardware and software. Leading vendors include Future Tel , Minerva and Optibase , whose systems cost $20,000 U.S. and upwards. A professional system can be used to edit, process, output or store videos in different digital formats in real-time. The commercial market borders with the consumer market and is primarily populated by service companies which process videos, edit them and store them on different media. Multimedia studios for example, create image videos for companies and then distribute these in small volumes on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. Some companies have specialized in the digitizing of various video material: digital copies can be made of films in the good old Super-8 format or from VHS tapes. While American service companies offer practically every thinkable video service via the Internet, the number of companies in Europe is limited to just a few. The problem in Europe can be summarized in the following way: a wide range of reputable video studios exist, but these are mostly equipped with analog video editing systems. Many studios have extensive experience with videos generally but are reluctant to change to PC-based digital technology. When talking to analog system supporters, we often find that there's a good portion of skepticism concerning Windows-based PC systems.

Large companies on the other hand, are experiencing a growing use of digital video. For example, employees are trained using video material supplied by a video server and a part of company-internal messages are distributed via these means in the form of video clips.