Northcote Internet

We were founded in 1997 at the very beginning of the era of 'Video on the Internet'. To put this into context, the internet is just over 40 years old and the world wide web is just over 20 years old with the first web pages being served in 1991. We were one of the first adopters of RealVideo technology and we think that we produced the first webcast of a financial results presentation in the UK when we worked for NatWest. We were very grateful for the far sighted help of Geoffrey Pelham-Lane and Ed Firth who at the time were the investor relations department at NatWest. We quickly built a base of customers always coming up with innovative solutions to get the message out. Initially it was very difficult to get our content to the analysts and investors. Corporate firewalls blocked video and stripped javascript from web pages. This was not long after a trip to a European bank where we were told that they have the Internet; it was on one machine in a locked room. We produced CD-ROM's containing hours of video with slides produced using Macromedia Director and we used to duplicate up to 1,200 copies delivering printed, branded discs within very short timescales to get round the security issues. We coaxed early CD duplicators through the night feeling like we were manufacturers. Initial concern was about allowing the content of these meetings out into an unknown world. We only produced archive video and the pictures were tiny. Making the slides legible was a major challenge and we used to spend many hours on Photoshop improving the colours and fonts. In 2001 we went live for the first time with synchronised slides. We then introduced registration to capture the identity of the users. We have grown slowly and organically taking ever greater control of our hosting environment. We started with a single server co-hosted, we became an ISP and now own our own resilient multi-site network with load balancing and BGP routing. We are delivering video to iPad, Flash as well as Windows Media and RealVideo. We are still privately owned and have financed all our investments through cash flow so that we can now move quickly to implement innovative solutions for our clients.