The New Wave of Video Communication
Television's early growth can be paralleled to the use of video on websites. Today, Production Machining offers a number of articles on its website that include video clips that help communicate the articles’ messages more clearly.
Remember when television first started gaining popularity because of its effectiveness in conveniently communicating to the masses? Neither do I, but I’m confident that its growth can be paralleled to the use of video on websites. Today, Production Machining offers a number of articles on its website that include video clips that help communicate the articles’ messages more clearly.
When video first started appearing on the Web, large file sizes and slow Internet connections made viewing cumbersome, and the value was obscured. As with television, technology needed time to catch up to Web video’s inherent value. Today, streaming video capabilities and faster connection speeds allow play to begin immediately while the file continues to load in the background (at a faster speed than it plays).
Video has quickly become one of the most effective and popular means of communicating on the Web. Many largely successful sites, such as YouTube and Metacafe, have been developed for the sole purpose of showing video. Video stories have become the most popular links on many news sites. A picture is worth 1,000 words, and video is many times that.
In that same line of thinking, Production Machining and its sister publications have been making a push, where helpful, to include video with online articles. These videos can help educate readers in an entirely new way. It’s almost like seeing things just as the editor sees them. When matched with the technical details delivered in the copy of the article, along with corresponding photos and illustrations, the reader can truly get the entire story.
In our August issue of the magazine, we take a look at how bar-fed material handling on mill-turn machining centers helps to overcome several inherent weaknesses of vertical machining centers for production machining. The online version of “Are Bar Fed Machining Centers the Next Big Thing?” also includes a video that demonstrates how six-sided machining is accomplished on these machine tools.
Also online, “Turning Toward the Future” provides a breakdown of Schutte’s SCX series of CNC multi-spindles. Given the unusual design of the workzone, animation video helps to more clearly demonstrate tool movement on the Y axis and part handling between workstations.
In another example of the benefits of video on the Web, one of our editors presents a narrated video tour of Bryco Machine, a Chicago-area screw machine shop that reorganized the shop floor to implement a leaner process.
