Atlantic Videos
Simon Mees set up Atlantic Videos (www.atlanticvideos.co.uk) in 2005. He had previously worked as a web designer but decided to focus on video production as he could see that video would become increasingly important as the Internet developed and it represented a significant business opportunity.
Atlantic Videos serve a number of different markets, including businesses, tourism, house sales, and music videos. Simon says ‘There are many useful ways that businesses are now using video on the web, including product demonstrations, video testimonials and tours of buildings.’
Based in the rural village of Trelash, Simon is some distance from his local exchange at Otterham Station and is currently able to achieve a broadband connection of only around 1 mbps.
Simon says ‘This low speed of connection has a number of disadvantages for me. Firstly, it means that I waste time everyday as it takes me so long to upload video to the web. I estimate that if I were on say a 5 mbps connection speed, I would save around an hour a day compared to at present. Just think of the impact that has on my productivity!
‘Secondly, because of the difficulty of moving very large files around on a low speed connection, I send proofs to my clients which are more compressed and so at a lower quality than I would be able to if we had higher bandwidth.
‘For my clients, this means that they are not seeing proofs at the same quality as they would if for example they used a London company, which is typically operating with the benefit of an 8 mbps connection. For my clients, it is the same difference in quality as, for example, looking at a fax compared to an original document. This is bound to have an impact on their perceptions of my business and my competitive standing.’
Simon continues ‘From my perspective, although it is great that Cornwall is now 99% broadband enabled, there is now a two tier speed situation and that means that once again Cornwall is at danger of lagging behind the rest of the UK. The impact is especially marked in industries such as video that demand high bandwidth. And, even within Cornwall, we have significant speed variations, with rural areas such as mine, that is some way from the local exchange, only being able to achieve very low speed connections.
‘This puts my business at a competitive disadvantage. I am having to compete with businesses elsewhere in the UK, who are able to do things better, for no reason other than that they enjoy a better digital infrastructure.
‘The situation also impacts on the wider Cornish economy. Because so many people in Cornwall have low speed connections compared to the rest of the UK, their experience of video on the web is impaired. This means that they are less likely to use video on their own websites and that in turn places them at a competitive disadvantage in their own marketplace. For example, if I speak to a hotel in London about adding a video tour to their website, they are completely on board with the idea whereas a Cornish hotelier is more likely to be resistant because his personal experience of video on the web is not so good.
Simon continues ‘The situation will get still more extreme, I believe, unless action is taken to stop Cornwall lagging behind
As a web programmer, I have seen the same thing happen with websites. Initially we all designed and programmed allowing for slow dial-up connections but once a critical mass of broadband users were in place, clients started to press us for bigger pictures, cleverer pages and so on. Suddenly a dial-up user’s experience on the Internet became very frustrating. It isn’t just that things take longer to work on dial-up, it is practically impossible to do anything on the Internet mow without broadband.
What the work of actnow has achieved for Cornwall by giving us all broadband is soon going to be undermined completely as the rest of the country enjoys faster speeds and we become the minority that most web designers will be forced by business to ignore.
‘Once the bar is raised in video quality on the web generally, then it will be even harder for me to compete, using a low speed connection, as I will still have to be compressing my video proofs to a greater degree than others, with the resulting loss in quality.’
Simon concludes ‘The Internet is poised to become increasingly video-oriented and this is a huge opportunity for the creative services sector, but only if we can compete on a level playing field.’
