DVPA: What motivated you to come up with the idea for Adobe TV?
Donlon:
The motivation came during a really long stretch of being on the road as an Evangelist for Adobe. I had been globetrotting pretty extensively for a few years, speaking to folks about Adobe's video technologies at events and conferences, when I started to realize that the model for how we evangelize hadn't really changed at all. There I was, flying around the planet, telling people how they could use Adobe technology to get their message out using online video, and we didn't seem to be taking our own advice and doing it ourselves.
There seemed to be a great opportunity for us to use our own technology to get our message out more efficiently, to more people, and at a lower cost. Our software, and even though Adobe was already producing a considerable amount of video, there was no central place to find it all. So I figured we could kill 2 birds with one stone - move evangelists online so people could have 24/7 access to our presentations, tutorials, etc., and provide a "1-stop" location for our users to find instructional and inspirational videos from Adobe and our partners.
DVPA: What steps did it take to create Adobe TV?
Donlon:
As in any endeavor, if you have a clear vision of what you want the end result to be, it makes it much easier to figure out the steps to get there. Since I have a broad range of experience in the TV and video field, ranging from producing content to having a solid understanding on online delivery, I was able to consider the project from every angle and figure out the best approach to make each component work. I sat down one evening and wrote out a business plan for Adobe TV, spelling out in general terms what it would look like, what resources I would need to make it happen, and what kind of return on investment the company could expect.
In any large organization (Adobe has over 7,000 employees) it's never easy to get a new idea off the ground. So my next steps were to figure out which of my colleagues in the company could benefit from having Adobe TV exist and to meet with them, present my plan, and get their input. In this process I cllected an incredible variety of great ideas which only served to make the plan more robust and relevant to all of Adobe, not just the Evangelists. The more people I spoke with, the more business problems I uncovered that we could solve with Adobe TV. This also served to rally people around the idea, which is essential in pulling anything big off at a large corporation. By the time I had the opportunity to present the plan to the senior execs, to ask for the necessary funding, it had been molded into a really solid business case, with excellent ROI potential.
We all know that compelling content is the most important thing in any TV network, whether it's in the broadcast/cable area or online. Since the most well-knkown Adobe evangelists - people like Russell Brown, Julieanne Kost, Greg Rewis, Jason Levine, and Tim Cole - were all behind Adobe TV from the start, it was no problem to get them to agree to host their own series. I hired a production company called Splash Media, who really impressed me with the caliber of the online video-based training offered by their xTrain division, to handle the production end of things. I also reashed out to many of our presenters in the field and invited them to create their own content for Adobe TV, providing them with the training and equipment to do so. It also seemed natural to include content from our many training and association partners, so I reached out to companies like Total Training and Lynda.com, as well as the NAPP who produces the excellent PhotoshopUser TV and Layers TV series.
I didn't have my own staff at the time, so I needed to look to groups outside the company (such as Splash) to do the work I needed to get done. On the hosting and delivery end, I wanted to have the most robust solution on the market, which is why I chose Akamai to be our CDN partner. They also have a publishing system called StreamOS which provided an easy way for us to publish our content both to our website and to the Adobe Media Player (Adobe TV is published in both places simultaneously). Since I also needed a group to develop our user interface, Akamai seemed a good fit since they had a professional services team with deep experience in that area. I was able to steal some time from one of Adobe's UI designers, Horacio Perez, to create the visual look/feel, and Akamai brought in a team called Adveno to develop it.
By the time we were approaching our April launch, so many people at Adobe had rallied behind Adobe TV that I was able to get a tremendous amount of help from our Campaign Marketing team to get the word out. I didn't have an advertising budget, so I had to rely on things like PR and blogger outreach, exposure on Adobe.com, and similar no-cost promotion.
DVPA: What's your role in adding content to Adobe TV?
Donlon:
I create the programming calendar which defines what gets posted when. We add between 2 and 5 new videos every day, and I try to keep it balanced so that all Adobe users will find something new that interests them each week. Our audience is currently made up of creative professionals, developers, and advanced hobbyists, and part of my job is to make sure that we have enough new content in the pipeline, both Adobe-produced from partners, to keep those people coming back for more. My right-hand-man, Jake Weins, does the actual publishing of new content to Adobe TV, using akamai's StreamOS publishing system.
DVPA: What has the response been so far?
Donlon:
It's really been incredible. My favorite user quote so far is, "Finally, TV you can watch at work without getting fired." We've had over 4 million views already, and we're just over 2 months old! We've already got a very loyal user base, and now the main challenge is to build on that foundation.
DVPA: What does the future hold for Adobe TV?
Donlon:
As I mentioned earlier, content is the most important thing, so you'll be seeing many more shows roll out in the coming months. We're also in the process of making improvements to the user interface on our website - mainly geared toward helping people find what they're looking for much easier. We're also doing several things to improve the playback experience for our views who have slower internet connections, and will be adding closed-captioning for our hearing-impaired viewers. You can look forward to seeing these things, and much more, when the "2.0" of Adobe TV launches later this year!
Bob describes Adobe TV as "the online video source for anyone who wants to see how Adobe tools are being used to create stunning work." If you're still not convinced of the validity of this new distribution medium, check out Bob's demo.
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About DVPA
Bob Donlon
