Verizon’s Top Tech Trends for 2011: Really Bad Video

by Steve O'Keefe on November 23, 2010

Verizon just released its predictions for the top technology trends of 2011, and it appears that really bad video is on the list for the new year.

The Verizon top trends list was reported by the popular tech site, CIOL, which is short for CyberMedia India Online Ltd. CIOL provides thumbnail descriptions for each of the 10 trends Verizon forecasts. Here’s the shortlist:

1. High-IQ Networks Take Center Stage
2. Everything as a Service: a ‘Cloudy’ New Mindset
3. Seeing Security Through
4. Enterprise Apps Go Mobile
5. Video, the New App Darling
6. Machine to Machine Cacophony Triggers Transformation
7. UC&C Becomes More Than a “Buzz Phrase”
8. Farewell to IPv4
9. Hello to Universal Identity
10. Personalization Inspires Innovation

Number five on that list is “Video, the New App Darling.” About this burgeoning trend, Verizon says in a news release announcing the trends:

Video will be among the most engaging business applications to take advantage of higher-capacity wireless networks for face-to face and face-to-machine interaction… [V]ideo will become an essential tool for workers everywhere.

The problem with this prediction is the video used to deliver it. On the Think Forward Blog, Verizon’s business technology blog, Chris Kimm, Verizon’s vice president of intelligent networking, added a post last Wednesday offering a 10-part video series to introduce Verizon’s Top 10 Technology Trends for 2011. The videos, unfortunately, show what we have to look forward to in the coming video onslaught: Very poorly made videos from people who should know better. Click on the graphic at the top of the post to watch Verizon’s video on the video trend, and see if you can spot these Top-10 Amateur Video Mistakes:

1. Uses a low-quality webcam instead of a mini-DV cam or other inexpensive, high-quality digital camera.
2. Uses only one third of the visual real estate. Two thirds of the screen is black.
3. Uses a built-in microphone rather than a lapel mic or boom mic.
4. Terrible audio that makes Kimm sound like he’s at the bottom of a Chilean mineshaft and desperately needs a rescue.
5. Looks like he’s in a mineshaft. The narrow but long depth of field creates a tunnel-like visual impression.
6. Poor quality backdrop. Even a blank wall would have been better. Has about as much charm as a cheap porn video shot in a Motel 6.
7. Horrible backlighting. The backlighting increases the contrast and makes it hard to see Kimm’s facial expressions.
8. Doesn’t use directional lights. Even a small, desktop lamp directed toward his face would have made the videos much more watchable.
9. Doesn’t use a close-up perspective, which is essential for talking-head videos that are most likely being watched on a small screen, such as a Verizon phone.
10. No editing. The videos appear to not have been edited at all. How else to explain the opening and closing moments as a super-close-up Kimm turns on, then off, the camera?

Frankly, these videos make Verizon look like one of the lean solopreneur companies we’ve been talking about on the Minitrends blog — the trend of companies that look big but actually have only one employee and no offices. Isn’t Verizon the company with “The Network” behind it?

My new prediction for top tech trends of 2011: Corporate executives getting some training and equipment for making better impromptu videos.

STEVE O’KEEFE
News Editor, Minitrends Blog

Source: “Top technology trends for 2011: Verizon,” CIOL, 11/18/10
Source: “Cloud Strategies, Economy Continue to Underscore Top Technology Trends for 2011,” Verizon press release, 11/16/10
Source: “Verizon Launches 10-Part Video Series on Technology Trends for 2011,” Verizon Business Think Forward Blog, 11/17/10
Screen capture from Verizon Business video is used under Fair Use: Commentary.

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