Christian Sterner, co-founder and CEO of WellcomeMat.com, recently spoke with Real Estate Radio about WellcomeMat, professional video production, and the burgeoning real estate and local video market.

Tune in here if you’re looking to learn more about the WellcomeMat service or find out what’s on the horizon for real estate video…

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We’ll be presenting WellcomeMat at this months Web 2.0 Meetup. The event takes place Monday (May 12) at the infamous Webster Hall in NYC. If you’re in the area, feel free to drop by and say hello!

When:
Monday, May 12, 2008 at 6:30 PM

Where:
WEBSTER HALL
125 East 11th Street
New York , NY 10003
212.353.1600

Who should come:
The NextWeb ( NY Web 2.0 Meetup ) is one of the largest and most popular networking events in NYC. Members come from various industries (Media, Marketing, Internet, etc). Come and join one of the largest networking communities in New York City!

More info here: NY Web 2.0 Meetup - NextWeb - MAY 2008

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Social fatigue has become me, but there is one thing that I find extremely fascinating about the next generation of social tools: location based networking (”LBN”). Here’s how it’s going down: you land in a strange, or familiar city and pony up to your favorite known/unknown spot. You check out what’s happening and find out that you have friends and colleagues in the area and they are GETTING DOWN! How do you know? Because you just tapped into your favorite LBN and have tapped into the energy of the scene that you are currently a part of. You have main-lined yourself into the network of that particular area! Maybe something like this:

> Sterner’s on the L train…headed in to meet “DiVideo”
> “DiVideo” is less than two blocks from you, drinking a beer and convincing __________ that local video is the future.
> Losborne is getting her nails painted black at Nailstro and is headed to meet Sterner to throw a HUGE real estate tech party.

How is Location Based Networking relevant to real estate?
You tap into a particular area’s real estate info via your mobile device. Wow…there are 15 houses in the area that I would love to check out, all within your price range! Alongside the listings, a list of all the real estate agents within [insert radius], all ready to help you at that very moment. Now this is ad money well spent for real estate pros!

This is precisely the kind of tech reality that companies such as BrightKite are trying to create. I believe they (or someone like them) will succeed in a HUGE way, for one very major reason: technology does not satisfy the need for physical interaction as much as it inspires physical interaction.

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If you caught our post last week covering the NY Apartment Therapy Meetup, you may have read we planned on posting video footage from three of the four panelist presentations (sorry Jeff, we’ll catch you next time). Here’s the first, “Jonathan Butler on Renovating a Brownstone”. For those of you not in the know, Jonathan founded the popular Blog, Brownstoner.com, covering real estate and renovation in the BK. Quick note about their blog, it happened to be the ONLY place I was able to find quality info on our now current living space here in Brooklyn. So a big tip of the hat to the folks over at the Brownstoner blog.

Watch this video and you’ll come to find out just how much Mr. Butler loves him some Brownstone.

Jonathan Butler - Renovating a Brownstone - Brownstoner.com

Popularity: 14% [?]

Jill and Maxwell over at Apartment Therapy were nice enough to let us pitch WellcomeMat to their NY Design Meetup group Thursday night. The event took place downtown in the Design Within Reach space (Soho, NYC). Admittedly, I knew very little about the group (this was my first apt therapy event). However, having kept up with their blog for some time now, I thought some of the members would have an interest our service and more generally… RE video.

For the May meetup event, the focus was on Urban Renovation Design 101: Problems and Solutions. Here’s the format:
a. 3 Person Design Panel (in which each one discusses their biggest problem and their best solution)
b. 1 House Tour
c. Design Presentations from the Crowd (This was us and Jag from HouseDNA)
d. Open Questions & Announcements

The event opened with Maxwell’s introduction followed by four separate presentations from:
Jonathan Butler - Brownstoner.com
Asher Lipman - NYC Renovation Coach
Jenny Rogers and Clove Galile - Uncommon Abode
Jeffrey de Vito - Purspace Design

We’ll be posting each of the presentations over the next few days. In the meantime, here’s a clip from the event:

Apartment Therapy NYC - May Meetup - Urban Renovation: Challenges in Design

Each of the panelists were fantastic. Jonathan discussed the experience of renovating his own, you guessed it… brownstone. Asher, the nyc renovation coach, talked about the pros and cons of working with contractors in the city. His business is to advise people and help them get the most for their renovation money. Third up were the talented tag team from Uncommon Abode, Jenny Rogers and Clove Galile. Jenny and Clove, finalist in the 2006 smallest coolest apartments contest, talked about renovating their ground floor Greenwich Village apt. Last to present was Jeffrey De Vito of PURSPACES. Jeff was very charming and filled a life’s worth of renovation knowledge and tips into a 20 minute presentation, a total crash course - renovation 101.

I shot the first three presentations until my camera ran out of juice (amateur move, I know). Because of this, I was unfortunately unable to film Jeff’s speech. It’s a shame really because his presentation was loaded with quality information. Then again, I guess that’s the benefit (and point) of actually going to a Meetup. So if you’re interested in design and home living, I strongly recommend checking out ApartmentTherapy.com. It’s worth a visit.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Extreme Home Makeover - House For Sale - Atlanta, GA

Produced by: See Inside Atlanta Homes - Atlanta, GA
Address: 5489 Ahyoka Dr - Morrow, GA 30260
Overview: See Inside Atlanta Homes produced this “Extreme Home Makeover” house for Max Chavez. In what is still considered one of the top ten best markets in the U.S., this Atlanta area English country style home produced by See Inside Atlanta Homes for Max Chavez boasts over 6500 sq ft featuring 5 beds, 7 baths and 5 fireplaces. The high quality production of this video is what brings to life this “Extreme Home Makeover” home.
Listed by: Max Chavez ReMax Advantage 678-231-1168

Extreme Home Makeover - 5489 Ahyoka Dr - Morrow, GA 30260

House for Sale - 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN

Produced by: Annie and Bob Pacieznik - Minneapolis, MN
Address: 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN 55379
Overview: Husband/Wife team produced video. Anne stages the properties and Bob markets them online. The perfect one-two punch.

House for Sale - 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN 55379

House for Sale - 6501 Branson Park Way - Franklin, TN

Produced by: Garrett Dixon (Reel Tour Vision) - Gallatin, TN
Address: 6501 Branson Park Way - Franklin, TN 37064
Overview: Garrett Dixon of Reel Tour Vision displays this home beautifully for Loebsack Homes with smooth movements and unique camera shots such as filming while driving to the home.
Listed by: Max Chavez ReMax Advantage 678-231-1168

House for Sale - 6501 Brandon Park Way - Franklin, TN 37064

Condominium for Sale - Cristalla 1010 - Seattle, WA

Produced by: Layne Freedle - Issaquah, WA
Address: 2033 2nd Ave - Seattle, WA 98121
Overview: Steve Paoli former sales manager of Cristalla and owner of this property narrates a tour of 1010 Cristalla.

Condominium for Sale - Cristalla 1010 - Seattle, WA 98121

Ocean Front Home for Sale - Seal Rock, OR

Address: 11912 NW Short Street - Seal Rock, OR - 97376
Overview: Real Estate Agent Matt Kurtz brings to life this beautiful ocean front home in (Portland) Seal Rock, Oregon with great use of various camera shots and an informative presenter. This 3 bed, 2.5 bath with wood floors and a 3 car attached garage is filled with an incredible view of the Pacific ocean and coastline.
Listed by: Matt Kurtz - Real Estate Agent - Portland, OR

House for Sale - 11912 NW Short Street - Seal Rock, OR 97376

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-posted by Christian Sterner

Note: the following post is based on my experience, and resulting knowledge (or lack thereof).

At Sony Electronics, we spent a ton of time, money and resources trying to sell/market High Def (high definition). At the time, if you weren’t in the electronics, broadcast, or video production/engineering world, you had no idea what “HD” was. Additionally, there were significant technical, knowledge, and financial barriers between customers and HD in the home. It’s a pleasing fact that HD did see the light day, even with the odds stacked against it.

HD on the web is a very different animal, but it definitely has one solid advantage that TV(s) did not: the buzz acronym “HD.” Around every corner, you find people using this acronym to describe quality differences between their video offering and others. However, in terms of getting web content prepped for the web, and getting that content into the hands of viewers, HD isn’t yet the solution. Many times, even if a shoot is done in HD, by the time it meets the viewers’ eyeballs on their computer, it isn’t. There are many reasons for this: most are technical (compression of HD files for web readiness, network distribution, processing power at the end user level etc). In short, HD video is a very large amount of video data. The more data there is, the harder it is to pipe it through networks, and translate at the end user’s machine.

Aspect Ratio: What is It?

Aspect ratio is a ratio used to communicate dimensions of the viewable area of a video. This is true on a TV, true in projection (projectors), and this is true on the web. Here’s how to find the aspect ratio of a video:

1) Take the width of your video, as a pixel count
2) Put your width count over your height count as a fraction
3) Reduce your fraction

Typically, that fraction will come to 4/3 or 16/9. Just interject the colon to make your fractions ratios (4:3 and 16:9 respectively).

HD is a 16:9 format natively, but 16:9 videos are not always HD. Does that make sense? HD has to be 16:9, but any video can be built into a rectangular, 16:9 video frame?

Summary

16:9 is not always HD, and-unless you are some major media company-you should not yet buy into the hype of HD video on the web. Well over 90% of end users can watch a video in flash. Make sure your videos are being displayed in Flash. Lastly, if you do choose to display videos in 16:9 and you are doing so in Flash (again…you should be), this is strictly an aesthetic choice, not a statement of clarity/quality.

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Joel Burslem’s post today about the Rea Group had me wondering if American real estate web companies have cornered ourselves into a show of card tricks that never ends.

The gist of the post was about the Rea Group, whom makes their money when real estate professionals and property owners pay them to list their properties on their site(s). Simple huh? Pay me to list your properties and I will either a) deliver by sending buyers/renters your way, or b) you will stop using my service.

I know that idealism is the ultimate no no in the real estate space, but wouldn’t listers know within a short period of time whether or not it is worth it to pay to have their properties on Site A as opposed to Site B? Out of all the innovation that has occurred within the U.S. real estate space, I wonder what true value has actually been unleashed. I have a few personal favorites, but the rest seem like boring card tricks.

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NewTeeVee reports that Pickle, which was bought by EW Scripps in August of 2007, is shutting down its user-generated video/photo service.

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Here is the latest in our ongoing series called “The End of User Generated Video.” Video Egg is about to join Brightcove, and ManiaTV, disallowing user-generated video uploads. While BlipTV has not yet joined the No UGC party, they have stopped allowing real estate videos on their site.

Here are the highlights from Video Egg’s email blast:

“…Yes, as of May 31, 2008, we are discontinuing our consumer video uploading, hosting and sharing service at my.videoegg.com. No, we are NOT going out of business! We are simply refocusing our business away from our consumer video service and concentrating on our advertising network and technologies.”

“…If you would like to create an account with another partner who can host and serve your videos, please consider sites such as Vimeo, YouTube, Blip.tv, Ooyala, Userplane, Veoh or Kickapps.”

Plan to see this trend continue…we definitely do. And, to be sure, know that WellcomeMat does not have any plans to stop allowing user-generated video. Our game is marketing places…and any video is better than none.

Popularity: 49% [?]