We wrote about CrowdFlik as part of our company profiles from Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013. The New Jersey-based company built its app to take advantage of how a younger generation creates its video–using smartphones and not stand alone video cameras. The app allows users to create crowd-sourced video and have it edited automatically. Make.tv in turn attempts to move beyond hardware such as NewTek’s TriCaster, and deliver the goods virtually.
Make.tv’s web-based interface doesn’t attempt to offer a new approach ala CrowdFlik but follows the old school layout of a “classic production control room”, according to the Cologne, Germany-based company. Offering a product that exemplifies the quickly growing SaaS (Software as a Service) trend, make.tv places its studio and player technology in the cloud to create a collaborative and interactive workspace. Working from a laptop or desktop, users edit multi-cam style, and can switch live to output to the Internet as well as to mobile and on air.
That’s what they hope to pull off in their new market, the U.S. The company already has a German broadcaster who has given the app a spin. Such in-the-cloud production is still a bit raw and untested, however, and won’t yet compete with slick, mature products like NewTek’s TriCaster 8000, pricey hardware/software which offers 1080p multi-cam switching, eight Mix/Effects rows and 3D visual effects including virtual sets.
Make.tv is one among many companies moving into cloud-based production, however. The competition will be fierce with products like Adobe Anywhere as a good example of the sort of deep, full-featured collaborative workspace that points to where the future of production lies. But until then, enjoy this modest interview with make.tv’s CEO Andreas Jacobi. You might even be inspired to see what the fuss is about, and take his app out for a free test drive of your own.
