Today VMIX launched the public beta for Givit, our exciting new private video sharing service.

Givit makes it easy to share personal video captured on any device with select family and friends. The beta offers a free service with secure email sharing to recipients on computers, tablets, phones and other Smart devices.

Anyone can now sign up for a Givit account and try the easiest way to share video privately. To learn more about Givit and sign up for a free account, visit www.givit.com.

When a company is about to introduce a new product, there are so many matters needing attention. For example, what will distinguish this product from others on the market today? And, what will be the target market for this product? And, last, but certainly not least, what will be the name of this product?

Here at VMIX, we went through this process most recently with Vidcinity, our location-based video sharing product. Now, as we are poised to introduce our private video sharing product, we’ve learned that each case brings its own set of unique challenges, not the least of which is securing a name.

So, what’s in a name?  Plenty, as everyone at VMIX can attest. It requires a healthy dose of time, energy, sweat, frustration and, ultimately, relief and satisfaction.

After considering scores of names, VMIX finally chose the name “Givit” for its new private video sharing product due for release later this year.

“We played around with a number of terms pertaining to share, but they were already in use,” said Greg Kostello, VMIX Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. “We wanted something simple and unique; something that hadn’t been taken or trademarked. And, the name had to convey sharing.”

After receiving input from the entire company and sifting through hundreds of names, Kostello and his ad-hoc committee arrived at the product name after more than a month of deliberation. Crowdsourcing within the company proved invaluable. As it turned out, the winning name was submitted by Network and Systems Engineer Josh Gaines.

“Sometimes the most creative ideas come from the most unlikely sources,” noted Kostello.

So, why Givit?

“The word conveys both giving and receiving which is what this product is all about,” said Kostello. “I ‘givit to you’ implies giving while ‘givit to me’ denotes receiving.”

Kostello admits that he and his team learned a great deal during this exercise. During the process, they tried to incorporate the word ‘share’ into the name, but soon discovered that gravitating to a certain word or concept ultimately may not be the best approach.

Kostello also acknowledged that it’s important to make sure everyone understands the criteria going into the process and to involve people who want to be involved.  In addition, he learned how critical it is to never underestimate the target or the value of a name.

“More than anything, don’t compromise,” said Kostello. “You’ll be miserable if you do.”

Now that it’s over, Kostello was asked which was more difficult — choosing a name of a product or that of a child.  Kostello didn’t have to think twice.

“Choosing the name of a child only requires two people to make the decision.”

To sign up for the beta, visit www.givit.com.

In his new role, Kevin will design and administer all third party contracts, serve as business liaison among the Product Development, Engineering and Sales teams, develop strategic pricing models for new products, and manage business model development and analysis for new and existing product lines.

Kevin, who holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst, joined VMIX in April 2007 as Contracts Manager before moving into the role of Director of Sales Operations.

A native San Diegan, Kevin served as Business Manager at Kyocera Wireless prior to joining VMIX. Previously, he had his own consulting practice for more than two years.

Kevin earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA before embarking on a 10-year professional baseball odyssey. He spent five years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization before continuing his career in Taiwan, Colombia and independent leagues.

Congratulations on your promotion, Kevin!  Your presence in the lineup definitely strengthens the VMIX team.

Greg Kostello, VMIX Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, has been an active user on Google+, the new social networking site, since it launched in late June. He likes what he has seen so far. He contributed an article to Fierce Online Video on his overall impressions of Google+.

Please click on the link below to view the article.

http://www.fierceonlinevideo.com/story/what-does-google-mean-video/2011-07-25

Vidcinity 3.0

The latest version of our location-based video app – Vidcinity 3.0 – is now available for your viewing enjoyment in the App Store!

Expanding on its primary location-based focus, Vidcinity 3.0 incorporates a social connection component that allows users to follow and communicate with the people and places they care about most.  This release allows users to view and follow the video streams of other users while the new Video Feed view displays the most recent videos from those users.

We invite you to download the latest version of Vidcinity and to learn about its new features in the press release below.

The Vidcinity team welcomes your feedback and input.  To comment on our latest release, go to Vidcinity.com and click Support to view and use our Customer Feedback page.

The 5th annual Survivor Beach hopes to break last year’s record of 200 boards lined up on the beach near Scripps Pier.

The event is free, open to the public and includes great traditional Hawaiian entertainment by Heali’i's Polynesian Review.

All funds from donations will go to the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, a San Diego facility at the forefront of the fight against cancer, developing promising new therapies and offering a wide array of treatment options.

VMIX founder and cancer survivor Terry Ash will co-chair the event, which is a precursor to the 18th annual Luau and Longboard Invitational, scheduled for August 21.

VMIX surfers and supporters, we’ll see you down there!

 

Is your market young, urban and mobile? If so, they probably rely on Facebook, Twitter and location-based apps like Foursquare to meet, socialize and share experiences.

VMIX client Unilever UK recently launched a mobile application called LYNX Stream, designed with the young, predominantly male target market for their line of LYNX/AXE deodorants in mind.

LYNX Stream collects every video, photo, text, tweet, check-in and status update a group of friends makes on their mobile phones to produce an automatic “Stream” of the night’s fun. It also generates a mash-up style highlight reel, which can be viewed online and shared across the social networks of Stream participants.

How do we at VMIX love LYNX Stream? Let us count the ways!

LYNX Stream makes full use of the flexibility and power of VMIX APIs to ingest, encode, store and deliver media from users’ mobile phones.

The app also pulls together location check-ins, status posts, tweets and other mobile data to build a multimedia timeline of the event.

When the Stream is over, VMIX delivers raw media clips to the Animoto service to create the mash-up highlight reel of the event, which is ingested again and stored on the VMIX platform, to be enjoyed and shared later by users.

What we love most is that LYNX Stream engineers built the app in a just a few short weeks, and with very little support from our development team, which illustrates just how accessible and extensible our platform is.

Even though LYNX Stream is directed at a mostly male audience, we found group of girlfriends who put it to good use on the streets of London, watching the recent royal wedding of Will and Kate. Here is their highlight reel!

Learn more about LYNX Stream

A week or two ago, the VMIX team boarded a party bus with the purpose of celebrating the recent release of Vidcinity and planting as much video around San Diego as we could!

We stopped at three popular San Diego destinations—downtown Gaslamp, Balboa Park and historic Old Town. Armed with iPhones loaded with the Vidcinity app, teams were tasked with taking the very best video at historical and popular locations, as well as with engaging and educating business owners and passersby about Vidcinity and its many uses.

Before our first stop, we all customized our mad-lib style t-shirts, with many of us kicking up our Vidcinity personas a notch by adding fun accessories.

For about four hours, the streets of San Diego were home to a team of beer-drinking Bavarians, an eighties rock star, Charlie Sheen (of course!), and a few very disoriented pink-tutu’d ballerinas.

What was the Gaslamp originally called? Our teams learned the district was known as the Stingaree, which is also one of the most popular clubs in the present Gaslamp. In Balboa Park, we channeled our inner tourists, and met a lot of really nice international visitors. By the time we landed in Old Town, the teams were ready to relax in the historic plaza, sipping on margaritas and listening to music.

A couple of our favorite highlights from the event?

• Tim doing his David Bowie impersonation in front of the Reuben H Fleet Science Center
• Street performers at the Burger Lounge
• Pink Floyd by Los Rios Mariachi!

The bus trip back to home base was all about the revelry, and you’ll discover the incriminating Vidcinity videos if you run the app while traveling along highway I5. Fortunately, using your Smartphone while driving is illegal in California!

When all was said, video’d and done, we’d uploaded over 150 videos in just three hours, and were able to reach businesses and tourists in a very unique and engaging way.

Each team brought a fun angle to our first Vidcinity field trip, which added to the amazing variety of videos that users now get to enjoy when they near the Gaslamp, Balboa Park and Old Town vidcinities.

Yes! We’re excited to announce that Vidcinity 2.0 is now available in the App Store!

This release focuses on adding support for iPad 2 and a number of great improvements to usability and social sharing. We’ve also refreshed the app visually, making it cleaner, brighter and richer looking all round.

We invite you to download the latest version of Vidcinity, and read about its new features in the press release below.

The Vidcinity team also welcomes your feedback and requests—we really do! To weigh in on features or let us know how you like the latest version, go to Vidcinity.com and click Support to view and use our Customer Feedback page.

 

The VMIX team is truly one of the most tightly knit, hard-working groups of technical innovators I’ve met in my thirty-plus years in industry, and as a CEO, I am proud to work with and for them. Enjoy!