For weeks now we’ve been working at full capacity to bring you the latest version of 5min’s Smart Player – the third major release of our flagship distributable player – now sleeker, noticeably lighter, faster and above all – more customizable than ever before, making it the ideal white-label player solution for your site.

During this time and since the release of the player’s previous version, we’ve been making every effort to listen to you, our Content Partners, Distribution Partners and the 5min community itself in order to bring you the best possible player to suit your needs across every online outlet – the result is a new and improved Smart Player, armed with new customization, content delivery and monetization options for an enhanced viewing experience alongside more control over the player’s overall look and functionality.

The same all-in-one player, now with more customization options than ever before, to ensure seamless integration on your site, on your blog or any of your web pages. With such a smart, simple way to add 5min’s quality how-to video content to your site, you can now define your player, tweak and skin it, and create a custom-made video section for your site or blog – all in minutes and with a lightweight snipper of code. One of our goals was and remains to make relevant distribution of quality how-to’s a cinch – whether via the embeddable default Smart Player, through our VideoSeed product range, or our dynamic video widgets Now, with a new player in tow, we’ve also made it easier for you – publishers, bloggers, site owners and content creators – to gain maximum control over the latest Smart Player and make it totally your own.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be rolling out with the new player across our Partner websites, so keep your eyes open and let us know what you think of the changes we’ve made.

So, what’s new? Below are some of the highlights of the new 5min Smart Player:

More Display Options to Choose From:
The latest version of 5min’s flagship player is now more customizable than ever before, allowing full customization on a per-publisher level — you get total control over the display of your player, from color scheme to branding to sizing, so that you can create a player which suits your website’s needs to a tee. Publishers can also choose which Related Videos are featured within the player and how.

Lighter, Faster Player Behavior:
Now more than 3 times faster in behavior and response, 5min’s latest Smart Player is built with ActionScript 3, designed for high-level functionality and lighter, faster performance — with an initial weight of under 100K, the Smart Player has never been so impressively lightweight and sleek. 5min’s new Smart Player is event-driven, providing a higher performance rate and fine-tuned capabilities alongside a wider variety of customization options, skins, and display preferences. From shorter to loading times to record-time response, the Smart Player has never been faster to use.

Different Ratio Options:
Designed for ideal viewing in either 4:3 or 16:9 format — choose your ratio display settings according to your needs.

Better Branding & Personalization:
More possibilities than ever for content creators and publishers – now you can add a watermark logo to accompany your content in the video area itself, benefit from better branding and even opt for a permanent branded banner addition to appear right below the player.

Streamlined Ad Unit Placement:
The new Smart Player is available for use in all sizes provided via 5min’s VideoSeed range, and supplies an optimal placement of 300 x 250 ad units on your site.

Smart Ad Management:
The new Smart Player incorporates a 3rd party integrated platform for management of video ad inventory — all ads can be easily and accurately managed through this new component, providing up-to-date in-house reporting for your content and monetization of such. All player options may display all ad types and are compatible with a companion banner, for a maximum number of ad views.

Distribution Made Simple:
With the latest Smart Player, it is now more simple than ever to share videos – one click within the video player to embed, send to a friend or share through any one of social networks and web services supported.

In addition to the new and improved Smart Player, you’ll probably notice some exciting changes on our watchpage:

- We’ve made the move to a 16:9/widescreen display as default.
- Easier, more intuitive navigation — now you can easily browse your favorite categories directly from the new watchpage.
- Discovery, made simple – now more than ever it’s simple to find more of the great content you’re after, with the new watchpage tabs.

Stay tuned for the many more great and exciting changes we plan on unveiling in the coming months – we’d love to hear your comments!