It's show time for business - industrial videos

It's Show Time For Business

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's the worth of a well-produced videotape presentation? Companies using video in sales, customer relations, in-house communications, hiring, training, and other areas say the results are measured in more cost-efficient marketing, an improved company image, and a competitive edge.

At Beltone Electronics Corp., a Chicago-based manufacturer of hearing-test equipment and hearing aids, George Markham, director of sales communications, says: "We have a network of 500 independently owned dealerships with enormous needs for training and marketing support. Without videotape, costs would be prohibitive for the high level of attention we give our dealers."

Executives at Beltone also use video in marketing efforts to project an image of a progressive company that uses technology to reach out to dealers and customers in an innovative way. Markham says his custom-made business videos provide a competitive advantage in an industry with more than 50 manufacturers.

Beltone is not an isolated example of a company using video. Video-industry expert Judith Stokes explains: "In 1988, 25,000 nonbroadcast businesses were producing their own videos, spending $3.5 billion on equipment, staff, and video production. These figures will nearly double by 1995." Stokes is the author of The Business of Nonbroadcast Television, an in-depth video market study published by Knowledge Industry Publications Inc., of White Plains, N.Y.

Noting the sharp price declines and improved portability and picture clarity of professional video equipment in recent years, Stokes adds: "The industry is past the point where it takes a huge investment to get into video. Today, a comapny can get a big return on a relatively small investment if it uses video properly to further its business goals.

"Today's adults have grown up being entertained and informed with television. They are willing and able to process information presented through video. In fact, many people are better able to learn from a well-executed videotape than from a book or audiotape." She cites studies showing that visuals can improve learning speed and retention by 70 percent or more.

Ideally, video supplements but does not replace face-to-face communications. At Beltone, for instance, ties with dealers are kept strong with regular meetings, both at dealer sites and in the home office. Video will never replace these exchanges, but it can cut expenses for travel to dealerships when some aspects of training, product updating, and management communications can be handled by VHS video cassettes rather than by personal visits.

Other popular video uses in business include:

Corporate Communications. Videos increasingly are used to keep employees abreast of significant corporate events. Video newsletters can show plant openings, new products, conventions, advertising pieces, and other relevant subjects that may not be covered as fully in printed descriptions.

Professional Training. Videotapes designed by in-house training personnel often supplement face-to-face training programs. The many topics for videos in this area range from management techniques to office-equipment tutorials.

Sales Training. Customer-relations skills are mastered with the help of visual feedback, allowing sales trainees to view themselves on videotapes that capture simulated sales presentations. Once trained, salespersons take product-demonstration videotapes on the road to enhance direct sales efforts.

Assembly And Maintenance. In manufacturing plants, videotapes are used to teach workers how to assemble, repair, and maintain machinery. Safety-awareness videos illustrate plant hazards and teach workers safe procedures.

Product Development And Support. To gauge product acceptance, market researchers tape focus groups in which customers are studied as they use new products. After a product hits the market, video training tapes at point-of-sale or at the customer's location teach purchasers how to use products that range from electric toothbrushes to tractors.

Personnel. Human-resources departments are using videotapes as recruiting tools to convey an organization's philosophy and spirit. Orientation procedures for new employees may be supplemented with videotapes as well.

Although video presents advantages building an in-house video department is a challenging undertaking. Margaret Munroe, eastern regional director of the Audio Visual Management Association, says: "Don't go out and buy a bunch of equipment before you know what you're doing. You can do it cheaper in-house, but it's better to use outside [video] production houses until you learn something about the industry."

In fact, it may not be necessary for your company ever to have an in-house department. Independent video houses can plan, shoot, edit, and duplicate videos to a client's specifications; they charge $100 to $400 per hour.

Many types of involvements are available. Some companies shoot videos themselves and then hire production houses to edit them and add special effects. And many small businesses, typically those that use videotapes simply to describe a product or service to a potential customer or for employee orientation, either hire a production house to produce what they need or purchase a suitable videotape.

(Companies also can buy from a long list of off-the-shelf motivational tapes. The Resource Group in Boston [1-800-225-3959] is a major supplier of motivational tapes. It stocks over 1,000 VHS titles on subjects such as management supervision, time management, team building, interviewing skills, business writing, equal-opportunity employment, and sexual harassmemt.

(Another example of business information now in video is "Franchising: How to Be in Business for Yourself--Not by Yourself," recently released by the nation's Business Video Division, 1615 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.; 1-800-547-9797. It is available in VHS or Beta for $49.95 plus sales tax and $3.95 for postage and handling.)

The approach your company takes will depend on various factors, such as how often you need to use video, your staff's technical know-how, and the importance to your company of the strategic edge that an in-house department can provide. But whatever your company's approach, you will want to have someone on staff who is knowledgeable about video and can work with the outside production house or manage the in-house department.

Once a video is produced and duplicated, it must be viewed conveniently by its intended audience if the video is to be effective. The standard for corporate video viewing is the VHS format, which is also the format for most home videocassette recorders (VCRs). A few companies use Sony's Betamax for viewing, however, and even fewer use 8-millimeter equipment.

For larger rooms, there are so-called three-gun video projectors that can display video images 100 or more inches wide. Almost any office with a blank wall and a power outlet can be turned into a large-screen viewing room through the use of lightweight, portable video projectors using LCD technology--the kind of liquid crystal displays used in flat-screen portable computers--that are just coming to market.

Because the industry has produced a dozen videotape formats in just a few years, even businesses that decide to hire a video production house rather than purchase videotape equipment would do well to learn about the industry. How you intend to use the finished product determines how it should be produced. Although onfusing to users, the multiplicity of formats--VHS, Betamax, MII, 8-millimeters, U-matic, Betacam, and so on--is a natural result of wave after wave of technological advances in a highly competitive industry.

The video-equipment marketplace is further complicated by its overlapping segments of equipment: consumer; the better industrial, or professional, grade; and broadcast, used in teleproduction studios.

Consumer VHS camcorders, combining a camera and a video recorder in one unit, are adequate for many business purposes, such as documenting key events. A VHS camcorder costs less then $1,000, and its tapes may be viewed with inexpensive VCRs.

Businesses that use video for more than simple documentation may exceed the capabilities of consumer-grade equipment, however, and they should consider industrial product lines. Industrial-quality video equipment generally is not sold at consumer outlets but may be purchased from dealers who cater to the video professional. Industrial lines are more rugged and have better picture quality than consumer lines.

If you can afford industrial equipment, buy it, says Peter Utz, director of an audiovisual program at Morris County college, in Randolph, N.J. He has written more than 100 articles and several books on the video industry and its technology, and he lauds the benefits of industrial equipment. "It may not have the bells and whistles of the consumer stuff, but it will last longer and give good service."

In response to demands for video with higher resolutions (a sharper, more detailed image), JVC Corp., the developer of VHS, has introduced Super-VHS, a higher-quality format that also uses 1/2-inch tape. Utz is enthusiastic about Super-VHS. "For the industrial videographer, it is the most important development in years," he says.

Videotape shot with a Super-VHS camera and played back on a Super-VHS VCR gives a dramatically sharper picture than standard VHS. These high-resolution cameras and VCRs are available from most major video manufacturers, including JVC, Panasonic, Olympus, and Canon.

Super-VHS improves picture clarity when viewed on a conventional television set or monitor, but to achieve the full effect, a Super-VHS-capable display is needed. High-end (high-quality, high-cost) televisions from Magnavox, RCA, NEC, Sony, and others are now being shipped with Super-VHS connectors--referred to as S-Video inputs--which make the sets compatible with both Super-VHS and the old sets. A Super-VHS monitor costs $600 to $2,000. When it is used with a Super-VHS VCR, it displays a picture with about 50 percent more detail than a picture on conventional VHS equipment.

The VHS format (along with Super-VHS) is the dominant format for consumer and low-end professional equipment, but it is by no means the only format for business applications. Sony's ED Beta format has better resolution than Super-VHS but is not widely used, and it is unlikely that the average viewing location will have Beta playback viewing capability.

Sony recently enhanced its 8-millimeter format for corporate desktop video applications. The 8-millimeter format provides excellent picture quality with small, lightweight camcorders and playback equipment that fits easily on a desk. These products are designed for business applications in which space is limited, such as in retail floor displays or in executive offices.

Super-VHS increasingly is used for sophisticated video applications that require editing and special effects, but the high-end professional videotape industry is dominated by Sony's U-matic equipment--a 3/4-inch videotape format. Conrad Coffield, a Sony product manager, says, "We estimate that, today, there are 250,000 U-matic tape machines used in the U.S. alone." U-matic facilities are also found widely in Europe and around the world.

Sony is the largest supplier of U-matic equipment, but JVC also has long involvement with the format and manufactures compatible equipment. U-matic cameras and video recorders can be found in most TV stations and video production houses, as well as in many schools, companies, and government agencies.

Because of its low cost, portability, and high picture quality, Super-VHS is starting to penetrate U-matic's traditional markets. An industrial Super-VHS system with camera, two decks, and editing capability may be purchased for $20,000; a basic U-matic production system costs $25,000 or more. For small businesses, an entry-level Super-VHS system that's adequate for making simple training or marketing videos costs less than $10,000.

Video of the highest clarity is produced on open-reel 1-inch tape decks, found in large teleproduction studios and manufactured primarily by Ampex, Sony, and Hitachi. Videotapes recorded on 1-inch systems can be copied many times with little degradation, making them ideal for productions involving extensive editing.

Recent advances in video technology have produced two new 1/2-inch formats that rival the picture quality, if not the editing capabilities, of 1-inch equipment. These formats are marketed under the names of Betacam (Sony and Ampex) and MII (Panasonic and JVC). Betacam has been out longer than MII and is a more mature technology. Though it is new, MII has gained key advocates. NBC shot the 1988 Olympics in Korea with Panasonic MII equipment.

Although piecesof equipment with different formats are generally incompatible, some can work together. JVC and Panasonic, sister companies under the parent Matsushita Inc., are pioneers in multiformat integration systems, which allow different formats to coexist.

With such a variety of equipment on the market, and with technological advances certain to continue, it is easy to become enamored of video hardware and hard to keep pace with its development.

Peter Utz predicts that the coming digital video technology will open up many new niches for small video facilities that specialize in new, sophisticated forms of video production. But he cautions that "it's a lot easier to buy equipment than to use it effectively."

Ranging from compact, low-cost, 8-millimeter to futuristic digital formats, the array of products on the video market and in development means businesses may find that video is as challenging to evaluate as a new phone or computer system.

The good news is that, with so much variety, all sizes of businesses and all types of needs can be served.

Further, there is not necessarily a correlation between size of business and size of the video investment. As costs for video decrease and capabilities soar, we can expect even small businesses to make relatively large hardware and personnel expenditures as they find that video uniquely meets their communication and promotion needs.

Yet businesses that choose not to buy equipment will not be left out of the video age. Independent production houses can be expected to upgrade their equipment and skills continually.

Video, whether produced in-house or with outside help, is clearly a business communications medium that will expand for years to come.

COPYRIGHT 1989 U.S. Chamber of Commerce
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group