Case Study
Skype Live Video Platform
Introduction
When Skype needed a tactical digital presence to amplify and support their presence at a major industry conference, they turned to Voxygen for the complete front and backend solution. In just four weeks, from an open brief, we designed, built and managed a site that combines video streaming, resource centre, dynamic conference information and social media.
What we did:
- Architected a global Content Delivery Network for HD video streaming
- Developed a high speed multi-format video conversion application
- Website IA, UX and visual design
- Front end development incorporating HTML5
- Management control panel
- Hosting and support
- Presence at conference to assist with content generation
Brief
Enterprise Connect is a major annual international conference for the Unified Communications industry. Skype asked Voxygen to produce an online portal to share videos of its own activities from the 2011 event. These would be workshops, whiteboard sessions, interviews with industry leaders and important company announcements. The portal would also need to act as a lead generator, capturing interest from potential enterprise level customers. The portal concept, named 'Skype Live', had to be completed in four weeks to be ready in time for the conference.
Design and Development
Working with Skype, Voxygen expanded the core idea of a video portal to also include a resource centre where documents such as PowerPoint presentations could be shared and an interactive calendar enabling visitors to see the location and timing of Skype's events.
Following rapid wireframing, we created a design that followed Skype's brand guidelines and existing web presence. An interactive timeline was included on the home page to add an extra dimension and detail, drawing attention to Skype's many daily activities at the event. Expanding on the "live" theme, two Twitter feeds were embedded into the home page, one displaying tweets from relevant hash tag searches for the conference.
Software was developed to detect browser capabilities and, where appropriate, serve video streams in the new HTML5 formats, falling back to Flash where HTML5 was not natively supported. Skype had recently acquired Qik, a company specialising in mobile video, so we also included the ability to upload videos captured on Skype staff's mobile phones using the Qik application. Unifying these different systems meant that each video was required in three formats. To make the upload process more efficient, we developed a custom video converter which automatically creates the three different formats during the upload process, dramatically reducing processing time. This software sits within an admin panel that also enables the management of content such as tagging, categorisation and placement within the site.
To ensure smooth video delivery in HD formats, a global Content Distribution Network was developed using Amazon S3 for storage and CloudFrontTM for local caching across three continents. Integrated with our video conversion software and control panel, the entire system can be operated from a laptop with a web-browser, giving the solution the required portability for use at conference events.
Impact
Skype Live proved highly effective gathering over 150 enterprise leads in a four day period and several thousand unique visits, despite little external promotion. The site provided a way for Skype to extend the reach of its conference activities beyond just the time and location of the event. This was particularly useful for promoting the Keynote speech by the VP and General Manager of Skype Enterprise.
← Back to Case Studies