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Online video has come a long way in the last few years, and it’s only going further. With the release of new devices and formats, online video content production is going to do nothing but grow. WebProNews recently spoke with Chris Brogan, popular social media guy, President of New Marketing Labs and part of the Pulse Network, about where it’s all heading and where it already is. 

"To me, the whole future of what device is going to be shooting the signal across is changing a lot," says Brogan. "I think that just as we started thinking we were going to get used to a three-inch screen, you know, first the HTC EVO and then the Droid X and all these kind of big ol’ phones showed up, then the nine-inch and the six-inch or whatever tablets are all there, and I think that 1. it’s going to be back to ‘holy cow, there’s a lot of formats I gotta get it out to’ mode, and then there’s the whole Flash or not…"

"I think that one of the things is, you know, after you address the whole IP addresses wearing out problem, and then you’re gonna have the whole addressable bandwidth moving around with you stuff, and I think that’s coming up," Brogan continues. "I think that there’s, you know, the backbone Internet, and then there’s the  wireless Internet, and that’s another whole story, but I think that we’re getting closer and closer to the 3G than the 4G."

"As we’ve all embraced the YouTube level, I think we’re now starting to go backwards and say ‘we want more HD," he adds. "Consumption of HD is going to go up and up and up as our pipe is getting better, as more people are bringing T1’s to their home…see to me, the mobile one is where the real game is, because we’ve untethered. We’re all laptop users. No one says, ‘Man, I bought a great desktop the other day,’ you know? So, I think that’s one, and I think 2 is, we’re actually going to start consuming more Hi-Def…"

It’s not always been clear just how important HD was going to be to online video. Brogan recalls, "A year and a half ago, I’m talking to Abby [Johnson of WebProNews] and I’m saying, ‘I don’t think you need HD. No one’s processing it. Nobody wants it. It can’t parse. It’s not worth your trouble shooting it.’ And you know, everyone proved me wrong."

One thing that’s pretty much always been clear, however, and one that will never change is that content is important. "Good quality content’s gonna rule…and making those distribution deals."

"Nobody’s buying smaller monitor screens for their desktop, and nobody’s looking for lower res, so if you’re not getting closer and closer to 1080p and beyond…We could have a bunch of cameras in our pockets and be doing just fine," notes Brogan.

Of online video’s recent and ongoing evolution, Brogan says, "There’s a lot of people just into the ‘now what?’ stage. You know, ‘gee whiz’ was a couple years ago, and ‘ok, we’re ready to start’ was last year. This year’s ‘ok, I need real serious numbers. I need real conversion."

That’s why we’re likely to see more and more solutions emerging to help video content providers crunch the numbers. In fact, just today, Brightcove launched its latest version with a great amount of emphasis on analytics.