Review: Quick.TV
Edit Interactivity
This is the key to Quick.TV. Entering this area will bring up the selected video in the middle of the screen and allow you to modify it with a range of interactive options from a toolbar to the top left (Figure 2). As a tool is dragged onto the video it becomes active or editable by a range of customisable options in a menu to the right of the video.
Figure 2. Quick.TV’s editor brings up the selected video in the middle of the screen and allows you to modify it with a range of interactive options from a toolbar to the top left.Each of the tools can be inserted at any point in the video, for any duration, by marking the in and out points on a timeline running at the bottom of the video screen. Multiple layers can be applied, but only the top one would be clickable.
This format, in which layers are built up and customised (familiar to anyone with a grasp of Photoshop), is very intuitive. There’s no need for a background in programming or postproduction to understand how to build up the interactivity.
To apply a text overlay, for example, the text tool is dragged to the video (its position and size on screen and appearance at any time can be adjusted), and a range of colours, sizes, and font styles can be applied. The background can be as opaque or transparent as you like.
Templates can be built and saved to automate the process when batch processing multiple videos, for example. Every overlay can be linked to a clickable URL. An optional function, Marked Tray, will pull up a text box which can be used to inform the viewer that he or she is are about to leave the video to visit an external website.
Broadly, the same process of customisation applies to each tool. These include image overlay, chapters for sectioning the video (particularly useful for long form video), and voting and form options, which ask viewers to respond to questions or provide personal information. The video can be paused for form filling or any CTA, if required.
“Forms are ideal to insert within videos viewed off-site, syndicated or shared, as they invite viewers to sign-up to your offer or subscription at the time they are actually watching your video,” Quick.TV’s Matt Moran says.
Currently chapters are marker points that allow viewers to skip to the part in the video they’re more interested in. While only one chapter template is offered as of now, there are plans for a variety of designs and layouts.
A Tag tool can apply hot spots to any part of the video and can be made obvious to the viewer, perhaps by bolding the box surrounding the item, or discoverable, in which case the CTA is only enacted when the cursor hovers over the area (Figure 3). Labels can be added to each hyperlink.
RSS feeds can also be introduced by simply pasting the feed’s code into the right-hand menu bar, a useful function for real-time stock and price information for example.
Another tool, Routing, is in the final stages of development. This will allow users to link multiple videos together to build dynamic videos that viewers can explore with a single click. Users will be able to choose a video to link to in a manner similar to how most of Quick.TV’s clickable overlays work.