We’ve all heard the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But suppose we speak those 1,000 words at a moderate pace and demonstrate what we are talking about in a five to seven-minute video? According to both common sense and numerous studies, the learning opportunity and communications impact of video are clearly superior.

But until recently, video was costly to produce and cumbersome to distribute, making it impractical for all but the most “canned” applications. All that has changed with Enterprise IP Video tools to capture, record, manage, distribute, and access all video content across an organization’s existing network infrastructure.

The result? Lower costs, greater usage, and more effective communications.

The work of one company I’m familiar with in this technology space, VBrick Systems, is representative of what’s now possible for agencies. It boasts dozens of government customers within civilian, defense, and intelligence agencies that are empowering employees to develop and use media-rich content without fear of compromising network integrity.

Some of the more innovative, effective use-cases of this technology in the government include:

• Event Broadcasts: The Department of Justice broadcasts critical information regularly to employee audiences ranging from 7,000 to 9,000 agency-wide.
• Crisis Communications: DHS distributes video from the northern border from both unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and manned missions providing situational awareness of disasters like the North Dakota floods.
• Video Briefings: The Department of Commerce utilizes internal video briefings throughout the enterprise to reinforce Departmental goals, initiatives, and accomplishments on a regular basis.
• Community Outreach: DHS Secretary Napolitano reached tens of thousands of people online with a speech that was not covered on TV.
• Training: FDIC uses VBrick enterprise-wide for training of all employees. The CBP training academy in Harpers Ferry utilizes the technology to record training activities and reproduce that content for learning and AAR.
• News Distribution: The Federal Reserve coined the term “financial situational awareness” by delivering CNBC, Bloomberg, and other financial channels to the desktops of all Fed employees. This gave up to 5,000 employees instant access to information they could have only learned from websites.
• Digital Video Signage: Every TV and monitor within the Washington Convention Center is powered by VBrick’s Digital Signage capabilities to inform visitors of events, locations, room scheduling, etc.

These are just a few examples of how enterprise video over existing data networks is being created and distributed today within the government.

I hope it sparks ideas for other agencies and other applications!

Steve Charles is co-founder and Executive Vice President of immixGroup, Inc., which helps technology companies do business with the government. He is also a member of Breaking Gov’s Editorial Advisory Council.