A revolution in video production: How a tool helps you to produce high-quality videos

European Business: What is the idea behind VARYCON?

Lars Reinartz: The idea behind VARYCON is to make all processes in video production intuitive and simple, so that everyone can adapt, update or internationalize high-quality Videos independently. And of course, to reduce our customer’s time and money that is spent in long consultations or approval sessions with video agencies or internal video teams.

European Business: And how does VARYCON work?

Lars Reinartz: With VARYCON you can easily edit, internationalize or update your video content. It uses an intuitive CMS in which you can change e.g. texts, graphics, objects, voice-overs, music or even complete scenes. The video is rendered in the twink of an eye in the cloud. All you have to do is to confirm the changes and a few minutes later you can download either a preview or your final high-res video. Once you created a template of your film you are able to change your film whenever you want to.

You can even manage your team with VARYCON by defining the role of every team member and have the full control: a final approval is possible before a film is rendered. By the way: VARYCON has a very transparent and plannable cost structure.

European Business: How important is the use of video communication today?

Lars Reinartz: Very important! According to an estimation, video is expected to make up 82% of internet traffic by 2021. This will be 15 times higher than it was in 2017. This development can be partially explained by improved data transmission, e. g. 5G, but also by simplified production conditions for videos, starting with the private smartphone or technologies like cloud rendering. Because video becomes more and more common in our communication, it’s absolutely necessary for companies to invest in unique, high quality video productions rather than drowning in the mass of generic, indistinguishable day-to-day content.

European Business: What are the advantages of using VARYCON to produce videos yourself instead of hiring an agency?

Lars Reinartz: VARYCON reduces time and money that is spent on consulting with agencies or letting them do adaptations or updates of your corporate videos. And it helps you managing your production team and approvals efficiently.

For example, you are a product manager for a larger consumer brand and your boss asks you to produce a national video campaign for a new product. After you have produced the campaign the product is launched in several other countries. Usually this is the point where the real suffering begins. Excel spreadsheets have to be generated with the text overlays to be filled in by other managers in the respective countries. This has to be coordinated with and approved by the Global Headquarters. Then, the open data of the film has to be requested from the production agency and sent to the countries where the adaptations are made by local agencies. Often, the translated texts collected in the Excel sheets are far too long for the respective scene. The whole process starts all over again, including dozens of emails, dropbox links, etc. Sounds insanely complicated, I know. It is! Each of these steps costs money, time and nerves. Most of the time the planned international roll-out never happens.

With VARYCON each component of a video can be changed and replaced by the regarding manager of the country with a few clicks in our CMS, for example text insertions, photos, the color grading, logos, lower thirds, 3D-visualizations, the music or the voice over. Of course, the actual footage can also be replaced. After the final approval of the defined team leader the film is rendered in the cloud and is ready for usage. This reduces correction loops, coordination efforts and costs.

European Business: There are several (free) apps that help producing videos with your smartphone quickly. What makes VARYCON better?

Lars Reinartz: The philosophy behind VARYCON is focused on the needs of our customers, which mainly use video communication in a professional business context. We don’t want to deliver another tool that offers generic overlays or footage that has been seen thousand times before on the web or on social media. We really help them to make their company and brand stick out of the mass by creating a unique set of high-quality templates specifically for individual needs – easy to adapt or internationalize. In that way they can build a scalable strategy for their video production that is fast, budget friendly and always up to date.

European Business: What do you think, will easy and quick video production gain more importance in the TV and film production?

Lars Reinartz: The way corporates and brands produce high quality videos for their corporate communication will definitely increase its speed. In the private sector we are already witnessing the democratization of video production tools. The same will more or less happen on the corporate side, which is by nature a highly competitive game. Because every company is already able to become its own TV station, more and more institutions are beginning to act like that. They are testing all ways, formats and tools of internal production. The best tools help them to produce videos that really stick out of the mass and – which is even more important – foster their brand image under constantly changing visual habits. Like in the past they do that as efficient as possible regarding time and money. So, easy and quick video production will naturally gain more importance for them.

Interview: Vera Gaidies | Photos: VARYCON