Copenhagen-based 23 announces “The Player Release”, or an update to the 23 Video platform allowing organizations to develop their own branded video players to build video websites through 23. The big news here is that their technology has been updated from Flash to HTML5, which has lowered the barrier to entry for organizations to develop creative new video players (since Flash is a more challenging platform to develop on). Meanhwile, HTML5 also allowing greater flexibility on mobile devices, where HTML5 video is king.
“Video players haven’t been evolving with the web, and it had become impossible to create great players that just work everywhere. You had to choose between awkward Flash players or leaving a big group of users behind. Instead, most companies have settled for very simple standard players and didn’t build the player experience they really wanted for their customers or users,” says Ditte Wulff, CEO of 23
With the update, web developers can quickly brand the player or add video controls, and tweak their player with a Player Builder that can build and deploy players as part as a normal web development process.
“The biggest challenge was to make a single set of tools that would use HTML5 video in modern browsers, on iPads, iPhones, and so on — and to have the same design and code work with Flash and older browsers. What we came up with is a full, open-source player framework and a Player Builder for developers and designers to use. It takes the pain away from thinking outside of the box, and makes sure players just work everywhere,“ says Steffen Tiedemann Christensen, CTO and Co-founder of 23.
Currently 23 counts video sites for more than 300 organizations, and is expanding physically across Scandinavia, opening up sales offices in Stockholm and Oslo. CEO Ditte Wulff explains that their business model is very network based, and they’ve found that having 100% human support in the equation is something that works for their clients.
This human element is right there in the name- the name 23 comes from the statistic that there only needs to be 23 people in the same room for the probability of two people having the same birthday be greater than 50%.
“When you buy 23 video you have human support, so you have local support,” says Wulff.
