EDMONDS — Imagine staring out the window from your hospital bed and seeing a tropical sunset over Hawaii. Or taking in the stunning poolside view from Grand Bahama or a peaceful forested waterfall.
That’s the vision behind The Window Channel, a high-definition video startup that is courting customers in the hotel and hospital businesses.
“We want to be the leading provider of the highest quality ambient, scenic content,” said Jim Wilmer, one of the business’ founding partners. He also is principal of Wilmer Communications, a small Edmonds firms that’s big in the Web-based marketing business for hotels and resorts. “It’s the ultimate vicarious experience, watching the world go by.”
Four or five years ago, Mark Knight, one of the photographers Wilmer uses for his marketing firm, said he wanted to create a library of high-definition video. The idea was to create an HD video version of Getty Images, the Seattle-based stock photo firm.
Knight said the idea had been kicking around in his head for a while, inspired by futuristic scenes in the movies “Total Recall” and “Back to the Future II,” where characters relaxed by watching scenic images on giant screens.
So, through Knight’s shooting and by acquiring footage from videographers, Knight and Wilmer assembled such a library. The video “windows” can transport a viewer to the canals of Venice, the rugged countryside around Smith Rock in Oregon or the middle of downtown Chicago.
“Once we started getting into it, we realized it’s not as easy as it looks,” Knight said.
It turns out that getting a long, still video shot and the ambient sound of a tranquil viewpoint isn’t as easy as setting up a camera for half an hour and then leaving. The Window Channel’s scenes, shot all over the globe, are shot from “locked-down” cameras and include just the sound captured at the spot. No distracting panning of the camera or new-age music. Just the scene as it would look from a picture window.
“Typically, we need to scout a location in advance and figure out what particular time of day is best,” Knight said.
If the idea is to shoot a scene without passersby walking in the background, it might be necessary to shoot near sunrise. One intrusive sound — someone talking, a car horn — in the background might mean a total reshoot.
Once the venture got under way and the partners had hours of video to use, however, the question was how to get the video out to clients and customers.
“The challenge was the technology was there, but the channels and distribute were not,” Wilmer said.
So the duo looked for other ways to use hours of HD footage. They brainstormed ideas for the hotel industry. They talked about new TV content that hotels could offer other than their usual customer service video.
“Everyone hates the talking head who tells you where the bar is, where the pool is and so forth,” Wilmer said.
So he produced prototype scenic videos for the Hyatt and Westin hotels and got a good response. In the past year, two resorts in Texas operated by Hyatt and Westin began offering The Window Channel as a free in-room channel for guests.
“The response is really, really, incredibly good,” Wilmer said.
Craig Sundell, general manager of The Westin Stonebriar Resort in Texas, said guests have commented favorably on the channel, which complements the resort’s emphasis on “rejuvenation and renewal.”
Health care facilities also have shown interest, and a medical center in Austin, Texas, where Knight lives, is another early customer.
“The feeling is that it can be a wellness therapy for people in recovery and therapy at the hospital,” Wilmer said.
After trying it out for two weeks, the hospital doubled its subscription agreement with The Window Channel, which is creating “video chapters” from which patients can choose.
Wilmer said other venues for The Window Channel are being explored, including for promotional and retail uses. Overseas hotels and customers have expressed interest as well. For example, Wilmer said, hotels in the Middle East are looking for content because they can’t show some Hollywood-produced in-room movies because of local decency laws.
At a trade show last week, showing its footage on a large plasma screen, people were mesmerized by the scenes, Knight said.
So far, The Window Channel isn’t profitable, but it’s generating revenue through subscription and licensing fees. With luck, Wilmer said, the business will be at the break-even point by the year’s end as its client base grows.
One day, people may be able to enjoy The Window Channel at home. As the means for high-def video distribution improve and HD televisions become more common, Wilmer and Knight believe the market for their scenic “eye candy” will expand.
“We are a little ahead of the curve,” Knight said, “but it’s catching up with us quickly.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com
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