Behind the Scenes of AnandTech's Server Tests [Video]
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 18, 2012 11:38 PM EST- Posted in
- Cloud Computing
- IT Computing
We've been quietly testing doing more video content on the site over the past year. I've done a few reviews over at our YouTube channel, and we also host all of our smartphone/tablet camera samples over there as well. Going into 2013 we'll be ramping up the amount of video content on the site to go along with Pipeline and the Podcast as some the new features we've introduced over the past couple of years. In doing so we're also going to be hosting videos locally.
When we were looking for the first content to trial our locally served video, I asked Johan de Gelas, the head of our IT/Enterprise testing at AnandTech if he could put something together. Johan came back with a behind the scenes look at the Sizing Servers Lab in Belgium, the back-end for all of our server reviews and testing.
Johan's video is embedded below and if this goes well he's promised to bring us a look at ARM based servers on video in the not too distant future.
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univern72 - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Anandtech is one of my favorite tech sites because of two reasons: it has extremely technical and thorough analysis/reviews of products/tech, and all the content is available primarily as text.More content is always a good thing, but on news sites, I never watch videos. If you have video content alongside your usual text content, that's awesome. If you have video-only content of things that make much more sense as video (unboxing a product or something), cool. However, please don't make articles you would currently have run as text into video-only. Not only would that be a non-preferential format for at least me, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't view video at work.
Keep up the awesome content!
pattycake0147 - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Seconded. Text is much easier to quietly consume throughout the day. I often times read a page of an article at a time and it is very simple to pick up where I left off. Sound through speakers isn't a good idea at work and headphones can be equally frowned upon. I also find that it's easier to retain information from reading it rather than watching a video.I'm not saying video shouldn't be included, but it should be used as a supplement rather than a replacement.
HibyPrime1 - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
I actually really enjoyed some of the video reviews. The one that sticks out in my head the most was the nexus 7 review. Topics that are greatly improved with visual aids make great videos. Smartphones, laptops, tablets and things of that sort are great in a video.I think extremely complex things like disclosing new architectures and the like should definitely be kept to text, it's much easier to re-read text when you didn't get it the first time than to go back a few seconds in a video.
If the videos are to be made in addition to the great written articles, I'm all for it. Anandtech has some of the best tech journalism on the internet, it would be a shame to see that go away in place of videos.
ArpHiemstra - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
I can only agree to this. I hardly ever watch video content. Mostly this site is read by me on the work location, a lot of colleagues also do this. Watching video is not really an option. I also find that the depth and width of most review videos I have seen to this date are not up to the same standard as the text based reviews.So I really hope that video is at most used as a supplement but not as a replacement to text.
Kind regards
webmastir - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
I disagree. I really enjoyed watching this. It's nice to change it up a bit.Mr Perfect - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Some things can only be expressed through video, but I tend to prefer text, for a couple of reasons.First, at work or in a public place it's acceptable to quietly read through a text article, while listening to a video generally is not.
Second, video on phones, even using what 4G we have around here, is usually slow to load and a muddy over-compressed mess.
There are other sites that present a lot of video content(Newegg, World of Tanks, other tech sites), but I simply don't bother with it.
Leaninsider - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Others like me, like video-content more than text content, depends on the person...@Johan; Good video,keep up the good work.
unrulycow - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
+1hammer256 - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Huh. I never knew you had a youtube channel. Actually, I probably did, but it didn't stick. Would it make sense to have a link to it on the main site?jeffkibuule - Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - link
Video channel seems to be Anand's personal YouTube account, rather than an AnandTech branded channel.