Online video for high schools and middle schools is a great way for schools to communicate and engage their community. From filming events or classroom lectures with a professional camera to using a user friendly, portable flip camera, school faculty and staff have endless possibilities of sharing their message online to students, friends, family and alumni.

For example, several Southwest Chicago Schools including high schools from District 230 and middle schools from District 140 using ClickStreamTV to broadcast their graduations live on the internet. District 230 had first used ClickStreamTV  in 2009 to broadcast their high school ceremonies, and once again used ClickStreamTV in 2010. Although colleges and high schools have streamed their ceremonies live for a couple years now, District 140 led the way for middle schools to use this ground breaking technology and stream their eighth grade ceremonies live as well!

ClickStreamTV provided the Southwest Chicago Schools with an easy-to-use, branded video player for the schools to stream their live video of the graduations ceremonies on the web.  ClickStreamTV was built for users without any IT knowledge, so any staff or faculty member could use the system. The ClickStreamTV system also provided comprehensive video statistics for the schools to monitor the graduation viewers.

Answering the schools’ need for a simple system for friends and family to use, ClickStreamTV system allows the school’s viewers to watch videos from any computer system, smartphone and iPad.  They can also easily navigate through other video content on the schools’ video player, such as past school productions that may be viewed on demand.

With ClickStreamTV’s system and support, District 230 could easily stream their graduation live and add video for on demand viewing, such as the archived ceremony or special events to their ClickStreamTV player.

The schools successfully streamed their live graduation to over 7,000 people who were unable to attend the ceremonies. The system’s automated statistic tool track their video content effectiveness, which helped the schools to evaluate how their videos were received by viewers. With ClickStreamTV, the schools are now able to communicate more effectively with the community by streaming video live or on demand of their graduation ceremonies, sports games, and school productions to special events. They can even improve their email communications by using ClickStreamTV’s Video Email tool, which allows them to target recipients with their videos and messages, and track their effectiveness with the ClickStreamTV statistics tool.

ClickStreamTV recently announced the online video solution provider is partnering with EC Suite, a global provider of e-commerce, hosting and CDN solutions, to provide enterprise-quality video for small to medium sized businesses (SMBs).

“Over the past 20 years in sports broadcasting radio, TV and cable, ratings have been decreasing as online content viewing has been increasing at an incredible rate,” said Kevin Yahl, founder and president of ClickStreamTV. “We’ve developed ClickStreamTV to allow SMBs a solution to provide high-quality video online that was once only available to large enterprises.”

EC Suite will offer the ClickStreamTV product to provide a simple solution for customers to put video on the web. SMBs can easily sign up and enroll for ClickStreamTV without requiring installation, additional hardware or IT staff to operate.

The ClickStreamTV and EC Suite partnership includes Limelight Network, Inc as the content delivery network to provide high-quality streaming at no additional cost. Using ClickStreamTV, customers can easily stream optimum video live, on demand or generate revenue from pay per view (PPV) video players.

“Due to the movement to online media, there now is a need for businesses to monetize their video content with a pay per view system,” said Yahl. “ClickStreamTV was built to provide SMBs the tools to publish and monetize video online at a price they can afford.”

Monetizing video with a PPV system is possible through ClickStreamTV’s partnership with EC Suite, which enables reliable recurring payment processing for video purchases using ClickStreamTV. However, customers are not limited to using the EC Suite service and have the option of using a provider of their choice for content monetization.

ClickStreamTV’s open source based system automatically delivers video to any computer system, browser or smartphone all from one centralized management system. Video statistics and Video Email tools are also included in every ClickStreamTV package for SMBs to optimize their online video media.

To learn more or start using the ClickStreamTV video solution, go to www.clickstreamtv.com/signup or www.ecsuite.clickstreamtv.com.

With tomorrow’s presidential election set to be a historical event regardless of the outcome, it has gotten me thinking about how the candidates have used online video in their campaigns and how they could have used streaming media tomorrow night.

From the very first YouTube debate, the Internet, and more specifically video on the Internet has played a vital role in campaigns. Going beyond traditional campaign ads, both presidential candidates have used the web to house a collection of videos aimed at giving voters a clear understanding of their stances.

Barack Obama has dubbed his video portal BarackTV  and has included in it introductary videos on himself, his wife, as well as running mate Joe Biden. Also in the collection are ads, video from his campaign tour, as well as speeches he has given. The advantage Obama has in this market is that he commands the support of many young, tech savy individuals. Rather than hoping supporters and undecided voters catch his appearances on television, or expecting articles in newspapers to drum support, Obama has created a one-stop destination for information about himeself.

McCain on the other hand has taken a different approach to his video content. Located on his official site, the Republican cadidate has chosed to use video to deliver two messages. The first are the standard attack ads that are seen on television. The other, more important message, focuses on McCain’s stances on various issues. Many times, voters can’t find the information they need on a candidate’s policy on a specific issue, and McCain has attempted to remedy this problem with video.

Looking ahead to tomrrow night, how might campaigns use streaming video while voters are at the polls?

One suggestion is to stream live video from rallies and campaign headquarters, giving supporters an inside look at this important night.

Another suggestion is to provide streams of events going on throughout the country such as concerts. Perhaps even charging supporters a small fee that could be used to fund the events or even benefit charity. 

As this election marks the first intensive use of the Internet, tomorrow night could be the first national coming together of video and viewer, with the entire country focused on one single event