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On Monday (April 20, 2009), Open Box unveiled its solution for online video.  The simple fact is that if you use or create online video, you know that multiple formats are a necessary evil.  If you want to watch something on your BlackBerry or an iPhone or your computer, you need the right plugin or format.  Open Box’s Sesame Vault aims to change all of that.

For the end user a.k.a. the normal person

Alright, so you’re a person who watches video.  Why should you care?  Here’s why—you don’t have to install anything.  Everything is done on the server side so whatever device you have, you should be able to watch video.  Some devices - ahem iPhone ahem - can’t play back flash video.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you went to a page and it would just give you a video that you could play?  Yep, Sesame Vault solves that. 

Also, if you’re a podcaster or an aspiring video producer, you may want to check out their free single user account.  Let someone else take care of the heavy lifting for conversion, compression, and compatibility. 

If you are interested in distance learning, like getting a degree online, Sesame Vault could be a great solution.  Just imagine if you could watch your lectures online on any device during a break at work.  You might want to let your online school’s IT department know about the service.  Gonzaga already uses the service, so you know it is a viable solution.

For businesses

Right now, online video is growing.  Deploying information through video is one of the most complete ways of conveying data.  The last thing you want is for a format incompatibility to cause a delay in communication. 

Sesame Vault allows the user to take a video and put it online without a lot of the hassles of converting the original file to lots of other formats.  Sesame Vault will make 11 different formats of the file and supports lots of devices.  Additionally, when a user connects to a site using Sesame Vault, Sesame Vault will determine which format to present. 

Open Box has their own infrastructure and is claiming an uptime of 99.99%.  Their plans start at a free single user account, with the first paid option being $49/month all the way up to $349/month.  Prices vary with the amount of GB transferred in a month.