New to Brightcove and looking for a quick way to get started? Or maybe you've yet to test-drive our platform but want a detailed overview of what's possible with our software? We've re-launched our free Getting Started with Online Video webinar series, which runs every Wednesday from 12-1PM ET!
In the webinar, we talk about the importance of video for your web strategy and how an online video platform can help. We then give a live demo of the Brightcove workflow, from uploading a video to publishing it to your website to measuring results. Sign up for a day that works for you.
We really love this series because we get to show off the capabilities of our platform. Even better, we get to hear your questions during a Q&A at the end of the webinar, which really helps us improve our technical documentation, product descriptions, and other areas of our website. We've addressed some great questions in the past, but here are the top 5 we've come across so far:
How do I add a playlist to a player?
This one was so common we added a training video to our library so you can see how it's done. There's also a support document on the topic if you prefer reading the instructions.
We didn't realize this was a pain point for our customers until it kept coming up in the webinar. Now, we have extensive documentation on the topic to help publishers with this critical task. So thank you, webinar attendees, for helping us to improve our self-service support system!
If I have an Express account, what happens if I exceed my plan's bandwidth or video count limits?
Our Express plans have tiered bandwidth and video count capacities, which you can see on our editions and pricing page. But we succeed when our customers do, so we'll never shut down your video initiative just because your project is exceeding expectations. Instead, we have reasonable additional capacity charges for publishers who exceed plan limits. At a glance, additional capacity charges are:
| Bandwidth | Video Count | |
| Express $99 | $1.75/GB | $30/mo per 10 additional videos |
| Express $199 | $1.25/GB | $20/mo per 10 additional videos |
| Express $499 | $0.90/GB | $10/mo per 10 additional videos |
If you'd like to avoid charges for additional capacity, you can also upgrade your plan at any time to one with greater capacity.
What file formats can I upload to Brightcove?
We look to remove the complexity from the entire online video publishing process, and this starts with support for whatever file format you choose to export your source files in. Brightcove supports just about any file format, from common containers and codecs like h264 and AVI format to relatively obscure or project-specific ones like camstudio and raw video format. And no matter what you choose to upload, we'll transcode it to H.264 with multiple renditions, so you can reach your viewers on whatever device or connection speed they might have.
You can see the full list of supported video containers and codecs in this support document.
How does Brightcove's mobile solution work?
This is another question we love. Mobile web has a lot of momentum right now as users adopt smartphones and tablet PCs as serious web browsing devices, so we've been hard at work enabling our customers to serve high-quality video to mobile devices.
Devices running Android 2.1 and up support Flash Player 10.1, so we can serve our standard Flash experience to users on these platforms. But iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad don't have Flash support and require video served in the HTML5 runtime. Our HTML5 Smart Players contain a script that automatically detects the operating system of end users' devices and serve them the correct video format, our transcoding engine makes sure there's a rendition of your video that will play on a 3G mobile data connection, and our HTML5 players maintain all of the styling and branding elements of the Flash experience - all without any extra work on your part!
What kind of support can I expect once I sign up?
We love this question because of our belief in forging meaningful, successful relationships with our customers. When you purchase Brightcove, you're not just buying the software but also access to the vast library of knowledge and expertise contributed by Brightcove team members.
We have industry-leading documentation available on-demand 24/7. From our support site and training videos library to our user forums and developer center, we're here to help and to give you the information you need to build the best video experience out there.
Every Brightcove customer, from small businesses with the Express $99 product to large Enterprise publishers, also has an Account Manager to reach out to for advice and guidance. And our fantastic ticket-based technical support system gives you access to experts on everything from generating the highest quality video experience to troubleshooting technical issues.