By Marla Krueger, Station Products & Innovation
Think of it as COVE on the GO.
If you are a COVE portal manager, you
have probably received viewer requests for local video availability on mobile
devices (most likely via email with the default signature “Sent from my iPhone”).
Now you can simply reply, “Done.”
The most recent major COVE feature
release gives your station a complete, user-friendly mobile video experience on
any mobile device. The responsive design-based Mobile COVE portal displays a
mobile optimized version of your desktop portal to make your content available
to more users. The best part, it pulls all of your desktop portal
settings in, so no additional maintenance is required on your part.
Back in August PBS.org launched the
mobile version of the National Cove portal. It is still in Beta, but users are
now able to go to http://video.pbs.org on any mobile device and automatically
be redirected to http://m.video.pbs.org.
 |
| m.video.pbs.org |
Since launching, all local programs
that are currently available in the COVE Portal are available under the
Programs list (http://m.video.pbs.org/programs/#az). No additional work is
required on your end.
While
the Beta was softly launching, we were working with three Beta stations –KPBS, Wisconsin Public Television and WHYY
to create the station version of the mobile COVE portal.
 m.video.kpbs.org |  m.video.whyy.org |  m.video.wpt2.org |
A few of the features of
the new Mobile COVE Portals:
- Automatic device detection and redirection to mobile sites (just promote your desktop portal URL)
- Featured local content from your carousel, no need to program a second destination
- Enhanced Local Interest section
- Full responsive design
- Integrated metrics with current Google Analytics accounts
Is
your station ready to add this new
mobile functionality to your COVE experience?
The setup process is very simple. You will only need
to setup a new URL similar to your portal URL. We have already reached out to
the COVE primary contact at each station with instructions. If you haven’t
received these instructions, please let us know at station_video@pbs.org and we will get
you set up.
Not yet a COVE station?
Want to reach a mobile audience with your content? Just send us an email and we
can get you started.
We would also love to hear
your feedback for m.video.pbs.org or for the localized station portals in
comments below.
This is great. When will the partner player support mobile?
ReplyDeleteThis really is great news. Like Brian said, it would also be nice to have player embed code that is mobile friendly (ie, non-Flash).
ReplyDeleteThe embeddable version of the player is in the works and on its way. We are working on a few different approaches, which could affect timing. We’ll let everyone know when we have a better idea of the launch date.
ReplyDelete