Are you looking for a way to gain a competitive advantage? Consider video in your next sales presentation. Don’t have a million dollar budget to produce a video, you say? Today’s latest technology can assist you to produce a quality video at surprisingly little cost.

Do you or your salespeople make presentations on a laptop with a program like PowerPoint? Blending video into this type of presentation is now easier than ever before. In the past you had to purchase elaborate and expensive equipment and then spend many hours figuring out how to make them work. Today that has changed. This week I’ll focus on three new products that typify what is happening in the industry as computers and video blend closer and closer together.

	Dazzle provides the ability to caputre images from your camcorder directly into your laptop or desktop.

Dazzle, from Dazzle MultiMedia (formerly LA Vision) (www.dazzlemultimedia.com) allows you the ability to send video directly from a VCR, camcorder or TV to your computer. This has been done in the past but the unique benefit of Dazzle is that you can connect it to the parallel port on your laptop computer. There is no need for a slot. For traveling business professionals and salespeople this can help to create instant videos on the road, in a hotel room before that big presentation the next morning.

Dazzle can also capture still frames, which puts it in direct competition with industry-leader Snappy from Play, Inc. (www.play.com). Dazzle will capture your video at 30 frames per second (standard format used on television in North America) and provides video and audio recording and playback. Dazzle will accept both composite and S-video input so that can give you much better clarity in your pictures and video than through a simple camcorder.

Video conferencing is available also. This is a growing trend in the industry as more and more business people choose to communicate through video conferencing rather than always taking airplanes to see each other. As quality continues to improve and the price keeps dropping expect to see more acceptance of video conferencing for business applications.

The biggest advantage of Dazzle is the size of the file created. Because the file created will be playable on most Windows-based machines and provides an MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) format that is compatible with programs like PowerPoint, it is a standard. This standard is also compressed a great deal to allow for both minimal storage space and faster downloading time when sent over the Internet. The product literature claims that they can compress 10 minutes of video onto a 100MB Zip Disk. This is in contrast to full motion video taking roughly 1GB for the same 10-minute piece.

Dazzle portends the shape of things to come for presentation technology. The only drawback is that as we saw many sloppy pages produced with way too many fonts when desktop publishing arrived, we’re bound to see way too many sloppy videos being produced now that a unit like this is affordable and easy to use. Suggested Retail Price is $299.00.

	The Buz (with one "z") from Iomega provides professional editing for about $200.00 but must be used from a desktop computer--insert card required.

Finally, another video tool was demonstrated recently at COMDEX from Iomega for video creation. The Buz (with one z, just like the company’s other product, Jaz) is billed as a multimedia producer. With this unit you can capture, edit and share videos, digital photos and sound using your computer. The price is right, only $199.00 SRP. (www.iomega.com).

Buz will provide resolution up to 720X480 at 30 frames per second. This means that you could consider it for some in-house video production capability. The software provided with the unit enables you to create rather impressive home movies as well as movies for in-house training and some limited marketing. To communicate to your target market, this is a great tool to have.

The biggest concern regarding the Buz is the support that one could receive from Iomega. This is a company that is often very slow and even abysmal in customer support and service on other products (like the Zip and Jaz drives). The products are usually reliable, but if you need support, plan to wait on hold for an hour or longer and often get cut off and have to begin the process all over again.

One drawback is that Buz uses a different format. It doesn't use traditional MPEG but rather M-JPEG. This format can take more space for saving. It is also not a true standard in the industry. However, if you have the space and don't need to be concerned with standards, this would be a good choice.

The best feature of the Buz is the compact box that contains video input and output abilities. You have all you need from one unit that plugs into a card inserted into your computer. No, this one won’t work on your laptop computer. However, if you capture the video on the road and bring it back to be pumped into the computer, you’ll find it can be quite useful in creating company-wide videos for presentations.

This unit should be available by the time you read this but check with your favorite retailer for the latest information.

Conclusion

All these new multimedia devices provide the ability to create video on your computer. This is a trend for presenting to potential new customers, training for employees and web-based information dissemination.

Even if you don’t think any of these devices fit your particular needs now, let their arrival be a wake up call if you’re in business: Your customers currently like and in the future will like video even more. Smart business owners and sales professionals will see the writing on the wall and grab their nearest camcorder to record it!