Microsoft recently unveiled a new video sharing system that will be hosted on Office 365 accounts called “Office 365 Video.” Think of it as a business’s private YouTube for their videos. And there are some references to PowerPoint and Office App integration (which is the part that really got my attention!).

 

Office 365 Video

 

 Technical:

Office 365 Video is cloud based (ie. videos are not stored on your computer) and the streaming technology optimizes playback for each end users connection speed and viewing device. Microsoft is bringing its cloud based power with Azure’s Media Services, which was used by NBC for its Winter Olympics online video. By being a part of the Office 365 ecosystem, video content will encrypted and secure by following the established Office 365 Trust Center guidelines, something YouTube and Vimeo can’t provide such strict assurances of. The video format support covers all of the industry standard codecs; H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 v2, VC-1, Windows Media Video, DV and Grass Valley HQ. And more video formats than Office apps support; .3pg, .3g2, .3gp2, .asf, .mts, .m2ts, .avi, .mod, .ts, .vob, .xesc, .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, .m2v, .ismv and .wmv. It is easy to use with drag-and-drop video uploads.

One big limitation is that Office 365 Video currently uses Adobe Flash Player. The Adobe Flash Player needs to be installed to view a video, so no Apple IOS devices are going to be able to use it at this time.

Who and When:

This new corporate video portal started its roll out in November 2014 and extends into early 2015. Currently it is only available a select Office 365 user (First Release customers) and expanding to Enterprise and Academic plans. Business plan users (which TLC Creative operates on) do not have an option yet… This is an add-on service to plans at $8 user/month with an annual commitment.

Summary:

This is just my personal opinion, based on a very limited look at Office 365 Video, and I am excited about it. The option to seamlessly integrate web-based video content into PowerPoint presentations is an exciting concept. Corporate clients are going to embrace Office 365 Video because it gives them an secure platform to roll out video content within their enterprise. Having a corporate library of video content for presentations, that is searchable and easy to add to slides is going to be a great presentation tool.

The Microsoft info page (ignore the ‘compare plans and pricing’ link, it does not include Office 365 video options as of now) is here.

– Troy @ TLC