Icareus Video Cloud for Public Organizations

For the state, municipalities, businesses and state-owned companies

Both organizations and citizens benefit from the advantages of online video

Clear and up-to-date internal and external communication is an important part of the operation of a public organization.

With video, your message gets across effectively. Video is the most effective form of communication, second only to a personal meeting – 6 times more effective than images and text.

In addition, the communication of public actors is subject to many accessibility and other legal requirements, which you can read about below.

In the Icareus Video Cloud, you produce, manage and publish both communication videos and events without technical know-how.

The benefits of online video for communication and training in public organizations

Efficiency in communication

Improve the quality and quantity of internal and external communication. According to research, up to 93% of internal communication groups consider video an important work tool.

Better competence through training

Everyone is a visual learner, at least in the sense that our brain receives most of the information it processes through our eyes. Research shows that we learn even better when information is presented in a way that targets multiple senses. In addition to image, video usually contains sound and/or text, which helps to clarify and increase the amount of information conveyed. This makes it a particularly effective teaching tool.

Cost savings

Organizations have published results of how, by transferring their training to video online, they have obtained tens of percent cost savings and even hundreds of percent annual return on investment.

Saving time

Participants do not have to travel, but can instead use their free time to their advantage. They also don’t have to attend at a certain time, able to study exactly when it suits them best.

A larger audience for an educational event

With online videos, you can reach more people than with events tied to a physical location. 

Eco-friendly

Online video and online events have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than physical events.

Reach decision-makers and citizens in a brand-safe manner

With the help of live streams and online videos, it is easy to use the expertise found in your organization and thus increase the value of your brand, as video viewing is ever-growing.

Organizations see great value in video, especially in video communication and learning. 98% of employees in organizations say that video is valuable for improving communication and training employees better and faster.

Source: Vyond 2022

Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.

Source: John Medina, Brain Rules 

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Employees are more likely to watch a video than read text.
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Government and business institutions

The communication of state organizations is based on the communication guidelines of their state administration, whose values are generally openness, reliability, equality,  comprehensibility, interactivity and a spirit of service. 

Video communication has been researched to be a clear and comprehensible form of communication, and serves different target groups very well.

Icareus’ video platform can be used for communication videos, production, management and publication of live information sessions and training content, in accordance with digital law.

Municipalities and cities

Communication is an important part of municipal and city operations. Icareus Video Cloud offers effective solutions to produce video communication and tackle accessibility and legal requirements.

With our solution, municipalities can easily implement live streaming of council meetings, virtual resident get-togethers, announcements by the mayor and other virtual and hybrid events. With the help of the video cloud, you can also produce, edit, manage and publish both internal and public communication and info videos, and subtitle them quickly and conveniently.

Collect all content in a common “city channel” online service that you can manage without the help of a website manager. If you wish, you can also invite cultural and sports players from your own municipality to enrich the video service.

Other publicly funded organizations

Other public organizations and actors that must take into account the requirements of video communication are, for example, (depending on the country) various religions and their denominations, their congregations and other authorities, as well as organizations that receive their funding from the state.

Clear and reliable communication that complies with the law and accessibility requirements is also important for them.

Public sector customers of Icareus Video Cloud

An example case of utilizing the Icareus Video Cloud in city communication

Helsinki is the capital of Finland and the center of the Helsinki region’s economic region, which includes approximately 1.49 million inhabitants and 779,000 jobs. Helsinki is also the cultural, administrative, political and business center of Finland, the hometown of many large companies and the country’s largest employer with almost 39,000 employees.

The city of Helsinki now has one reliable, flexible and centralized video communication and content service for citizens, tourists and staff. With it, Helsinki can streamline video communication and use the power of video better. Helsinki can also attract younger audiences who want video and offer an overall better service to its citizens.

Icareus Video Cloud enables and enhances the use of online video in all operations

Icareus Video Cloud offers solutions from start to finish – for content production, editing, management, publishing, aballization and optional commercialization of educational, teaching and coaching videos and events.

Produce and film

Produce and film training videos and live events with Icareus mobile applications or existing solutions. Manage virtual and hybrid events in the Icareus Video cloud. You can also produce screen capture videos and web camera recordings with Icareus Studio.

Edit and caption

Videos and recorded events can be quickly trimmed, edited with the Icareus Studio video editor to match your organization’s brand, and quickly subtitled with the Icareus subtitling tool to the same language or a translation language.

Manage

In the Icareus Video Cloud service, your entire training, teaching and other staff can manage all of the organization’s video content in one place. You can manage videos and their metadata, create and manage events and their recordings, add interactive elements such as message walls and polls, and moderate content and users and participants.

Publish and share

From the video service, you can publish and share your content to all your online environments. You can import videos into your LMS environment via the LTI interface, embed individual videos and compiled video pages on your website, intranet or customer pages. You can also build an entire learning portal or share marketing videos on your SoMe channels.

Analyze and develop

The Icareus video service offers accurate analytics on, among other things, live and recorded viewing of videos and virtual/hybrid events, produced and published videos, and users. Analyse data, improve your content and services, and repeat!

The law dictates accessibility and other requirements for online video services of public operators (at least in Europe)

If your organization is a public or publicly funded operator, your online video services must comply with e.g. accessibility requirements, digital services act, and data protection regulations. Read more about what needs to be taken into account and how Icareus Video Cloud helps you meet the requirements.

  1. Subtitling requirements according to the EU directive. The Accessibility Directive is a directive published by the EU in 2016 for public sector organizations. Regarding subtitles, the accessibility directive applies to videos published after September 23, 2020. Icareus supports various subtitles: subtitles can be attached to all streaming videos in the desired languages, and in addition, Icareus offers an integrated raw subtitle tool, which can be used to subtitle videos quickly and cheaply with the help of artificial intelligence.
  2. WCAG accessibility requirements – WCAG, i.e. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is an international guideline. The law on the provision of digital services requires compliance with the A and AA level criteria of the latest version of the WCAG guidelines, i.e. the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Icareus video portals, pages and video players support WCAG 2.1. AA level criteria.
  3. Where are your videos and metadata stored, and who can see analytics data about viewers? The EU data protection regulation also applies to video services. Although the regulation allows the transfer of content and user data between the EU and, for example, the USA, if the service provider complies with the Privacy Shield data protection level and is registered with the service. However, many public administration actors have considered that, in terms of the data protection regulation, it is safest for the data controller to use service providers who store the data in Europe. Icareus’ video cloud meets GDPR requirements, all videos and metadata remain in Europe and only you can view your own users’ personal or analytics data.
  4. Digital Services Act, SoMe services vs. own websites – According to the Digital Services Act, if social media channels contain videos containing important information for customers, the information must in any case also be provided on the organization’s own website (or mobile application). With Icareus’ video players, all videos can be embedded on the operator’s website in accordance with the law.
  5. Data Protection Act, acceptance of cookies and embedded video players – According to the Data Protection Commissioner’s interpretation of the law, public operators must offer the same good service to end users, even if they do not accept website cookies. For example, YouTube’s Embed videos require cookies to work and are not in compliance with the Data Protection Act. Icareus video players work on websites even if cookies are not accepted.
  6. Public user interfaces in official language(s) – Public administration actors must offer their online materials in the official language(s) and in some places in several other languages. It is not acceptable that, for example, the user interfaces of video events are in English if the official language in use is not English. The contents of Icareus, such as metadata descriptions, subtitles, video portals, pages and video players can be localized for the language of your choice.
  7. Reliability of content – Today, social media is filled with various disinformation content and various “fake news” videos have appeared. In the terms of use of free video services, you give the service provider and other users the right to e.g. copy, edit and redistribute your video content. In the Icareus video cloud service, only you decide in what form and where you share content and all rights remain with you.

The benefits of Icareus Video cloud for public operators

Simplify your internal online video process

Live events and webinars, communication and training videos and SoMe videos - manage, edit and publish videos all from the same cloud service in a browser. Easy publication on websites, either compiled in one place or embed them in your online services or e.g. LMS learning environment.

Produce, edit and subtitle teaching and training videos easily and conveniently

With the Icareus Studio tool, you produce and edit high-quality videos that look like your organization - by screen capture, recording from a webcam or by importing videos into the tool. With the Icareus subtitling tool, you can subtitle videos manually, or by using artificial intelligence-based raw subtitling, you can quickly get a body of subtitles for videos.

Information sessions, meetings and other Live-streaming events in your organization's appearance

Publish events on your own pages or in its own event URL - open, protected, with registration or for a fee, easily and quickly, without the help of a website updater.

Helps meet digital and data protection legislation and accessibility requirements

Produce subtitles manually, or quickly and automatically as artificial intelligence raw subtitles. Legal video embeds and full support for WCAG recommendations and GDPR requirements.

A cyber- and brand-safe environment without the risk of "fake news".

Keep full control over your contents and their rights in a cyber-secure manner. In your own video cloud, only you own the rights to your content and decide where, when and to whom it is shown. Videos cannot be copied, edited, or published under your own name, as in SoMe services, and they cannot be mixed with other content of social media users.

Longer and better viewing experience on websites

Research has shown that your own video service prolongs viewing of case videos compared to social media. Top-quality video, with the organization's brand, in its own video player, without installations, embedded on websites or on its own video portal or video page.

Increase the effectiveness of your marketing communications

Publish videos in a brand-safe environment that matches your organizational look, and make instructions for e.g. different websites. Share your own videos with your stakeholders, e.g. the media, with your own video player, which directs the viewer to your pages (and not e.g. to social media). Also take advantage of the different advertising and marketing features of our service.

A more versatile video service

Motivate actors from different organizations (communication/marketing/administration) to make video content for a joint service

An easy-to-use, inexpensive and quick-to-deploy cloud service

You can use the service in as little as a day, and the service can be used by anyone involved in communication, marketing, training or content.

News related to the Icareus Video Cloud service:

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Additional materials related to the solution

Presentation about the Icareus Video Cloud for Public Organizations solution

Presentation about the Icareus Video Cloud for Cities and Municipalities solution