We've got plenty of exciting changes in the soon-to-be released WRAL.com redesign, but my personal favorite is video.


Video will be easier to find and faster to load. We've switched to the Flash video format for all of our on-demand, or non-live, video clips. Flash video results in a much better user experience. Gone are the long lag times between when a visitor clicks on a link and the video plays. Flash also plays better on Macs, which have had trouble with our existing video formats.

We'll have more live video than ever. From our new player, you will be able to watch our live WRAL.com NewsChannel, the WeatherCenter Channel, Doppler5000 and all of our newscasts. And you'll always have quick access to the lateset WRAL newscast. Thumbnail images, updated once a minute, give you a real-time glimpse of what is playing on each channel.

Our new video player has a series of tabs that makes it easy to find video by topics such as Live, On Demand, NewsChannel, Lottery and Restaurant Ratings. You also can perform keyword searches for video from within the player.

In addition to our new player, we've embedded a smaller video player on many section fronts. This gives users quick access to top video while browsing the site. Want the latest forecast as video? Just head to Weather and click on the video window. Want to see last night's sports highlights? Go to Sports and click on the video window.

We've also automated a lot of our video processes, which means you get access to WRAL's video assets faster than ever. We'll also be working hard to bring you extended interviews and raw video that you won't see on TV.