Written by Jackson West
Posted Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 1:24 PM PT

 

Israel’s Reshet Network Sharing Video

Reshet, one of the largest commercial television networks in Israel, has released a beta of its own online video service, “Video Machine.” The Flash-based application is Hebrew-only, but gives users all the familiar features such as sharing links via email, searching on tags and creating playlists. Ido Wiesenberg of Frido, which developed the site, sent in a screenshot with English translations mapping out some of the key features.

Freshet Video Machine

The CDN is powered by the streaming capability of Castup, which, like Frido and Reshe, is based in Tel Aviv. While I generally abhor Flash-only applications, Frido takes advantage of Flash’s platform to introduce some nifty drag-and-drop features to the interface. The video quality is pretty good, though in full-screen view clearly not broadcast quality. My favorite feature is that relevant clips ’stack’ so to speak, allowing users to kick back and watch a number of clips in a row. “[Video Machine's] objective is to maximize the user’s viewing duration with a minimal number of clicks,” Wiesenberg wrote in his email.

Seeing a major Israeli media company work with local technology startups to develop its own online distribution solution is a refreshing change from the sometimes acrimonious relationships between technology companies and established media companies here in the States. NewTeeVee would love to hear from you if you read Hebrew and take a minute to check out the site in more detail.

Sphere
Topic: Networks & Studios, Online Video, Software, Startups
« Previous Post Next Post »

Comments & Trackbacks

  1. Best online video experience I ever had.
    Good quality, easy navigation. I am sure this will have a blockbuster success.

    Ben on March 7th, 2007 at 9:07 pm - Permalink

  2. Jackson, thanks for the compliments :)
    The correct link to the video machine is:
    http://www.reshet.tv/video.aspx

    We are working these days on an English version and looking for broadcast partners worldwide. The new English version will include lots of new interactive and sharing features.

    Looking forward to read your comments,

    Ido Wiesenberg
    Co-CEO at FRIDO
    Ido (at) Frido.co.il

    Ido Wiesenberg on March 7th, 2007 at 11:02 pm - Permalink

  3. I tested the site (I’m israeli) and it seems excellent and very snappy. Just wanted to add that the site also works perfectly on a mac (firefox). shouldn’t be surprising being all flash but most Israeli sites that use castup don’t support firefox.

    great move for Reshset. I hope the other netwroks (Keshet and channel10 will follow).

    bentzurm on March 7th, 2007 at 11:04 pm - Permalink

  4. Hello,

    This is not the first time I have seen ‘video machine’ site.

    As a software engineer, I think one of the important issues in a good application is the User experience. ‘Video machine’ exceeded my expectation due to its intuitive, easy to use interface and more.

    One more thing, the site contains awesome video clips.

    Great job!

    eran sakal on March 7th, 2007 at 11:51 pm - Permalink

  5. I admit, the ballroom dancing was pretty entertaining.

    Jackson West on March 8th, 2007 at 1:10 am - Permalink

  6. The layout of this seems very similar to the CNN Pipeline layout, although it’s been a long time since I logged into that so it could have changed since then.

    Matt Large on March 8th, 2007 at 4:11 am - Permalink

  7. What a wonderful interface!
    beauty design and great usability

    i love it!

    michael on March 8th, 2007 at 5:37 am - Permalink

Leave a reply








Safari hates me

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have gotten caught in our trusty (but occasionally overly ambitious) spam filter. Please drop us a note and we'll retrieve it.