StreamingLearningCenter will be running two one-week streaming production courses to be taught by my friend Jan Ozer of streaminglearningcenter.com. The two hands-on courses, to be held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA (July 20-24) and Harvard in Boston, MA (July 27-31) and will cover streaming production from set design to encoding using equipment from vendors like Sony, Bogen and Photoflex, and production software from Adobe and Apple. Class sizes are limited to ensure active participation for all students.

The course will be offered in two sections and students can take either or both. The first three days – Producing Video for the Web– focus on pre-production, including lighting, background and clothing selection, then production, including camera configuration, shot selection and framing for streaming and finally editing, with an emphasis on color correction, audio sweetening and pre-compression optimization. Each learning module incorporates significant hands-on activities, with students planning the shoot, creating the set, setting lights and mics and shooting the video.

The last two days – Web Video Compression & Delivery– concentrate on streaming encoding and delivery. Modules include a research-based review of best practices used on broadcast and corporate web sites that details the codec and video configuration used by these organizations.There will also be an overview of streaming distribution options ranging from self-hosting, to UGC sites like Vimeo and YouTube, to Software as a Service sites like Ooyala and Brightcove to full service content delivery networks.

Students will encode into H.264, VP6 and WMV formats for streaming or progressive download to Silverlight, Flash and QuickTime Players using tools like Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder or Sorenson Squeeze and Telestream Episode Pro. Students will create simple Flash and Silverlight players and upload videos for viewing on the web.

More info on the courses can be found here.