Vimond Media Solutions announces Vimond Connect
Vimond Media Solutions has announced the launch of Vimond Connect, which is billed as the first solution for digital media service providers who want to facilitate a social media experience for viewers of video on demand.
Vimond Connect allows consumers of VOD to comment on the content as they watch, and anchors the comments to the exact moment in the video when they were posted, so they can be seen at the same point by viewers watching later. This enables a spoiler-free conversation around television content between viewers watching VOD – news, sports and entertainment – at different times, with a spontaneous social experience.
Vimond Connect’s feature set is designed to give a real sense of social interaction, with users able to find content that their friends have enjoyed, go straight to the most commented moments in a program, create groups of friends to share comments with, initiate private chats with online viewers, and monitor trending topics. Vimond Connect lets viewers continue the discussion after watching, by being notified when someone responds to their comments, and can automatically create compilations based on chosen criteria such as topic hashtags or ‘most commented’ moments. For a more intimate social experience, conversations can be restricted to chosen receivers or groups, and with Facebook and Twitter integration, viewing and commenting activity can be made public to wider audiences.
“Social media interaction is the lifeblood of most people’s digital experience today, and yet until now there has not been an easy and coherent way to integrate it with VOD services,” said Helge Høibraaten, CEO of Vimond Media Solutions. “With the decline in linear TV viewing, media consumption has become a more solitary activity, but previous pilots have shown that viewers really value the facility to share their reactions and thoughts as they watch. Now Vimond Connect offers the first opportunity for providers to bring their services more into line with the way today’s consumers like to watch and share their experience of watching.”