August 12, 2010

Earthchannel Communications Announces Integration With Tightrope Cablecast

Now virtually any PEG can offer Video OnDemand on their web site and publish directly through their Cablecast system.

EarthChannel Communications, Inc. (www.earthchannel.com) is proud to announce a complete integration solution with Tightrope Media Systems’ (www.trms.com) Cablecast Digital Broadcast products. With this solution in place, Cablecast users can now extend their automation to publish their programs directly to their web site via EarthChannel’s streaming services.

EarthChannel’s media streaming services allow customers to host, publish and index their audio and video programs through a suite of easy to use services at an affordable flat-rate price. With no software to install, publishers can fully manage their OnDemand and Live streams through EarthChannel’s SaaS online software.

For PEG Channels that don’t have the bandwidth or infrastructure to host their own Video OnDemand, the Tightrope integration allows the Cablecast system to utilize EarthChannel’s robust media streaming solutions. Now virtually any PEG can offer VOD and Live Video on their web site and publish directly through their Cablecast system.

Tightrope Media Systems’ Cablecast is a sophisticated local cable station automation system that can be completely operated from a web browser. Tightrope has automated virtually all functions for you, making Cablecast ideal for organizations that want a single system where operators are never asked to enter the same information twice.

About Earthchannel Communications
EarthChannel Communications, Inc. is an employee owned debt free and organically funded corporation that has been a leading pioneer in media streaming and indexing since is founding in 1995. Municipalities, school boards and public media access centers across the United States make use of EarthChannel’s media streaming solutions. You can reach EarthChannel at 678-935-9103 or visit them on the web at www.earthchannel.com.

Media Contact:
Michael Ashby
678-935-9103 x1002
michael@earthchannel.com

About Tightrope Media Systems
Founded in 1997, Tightrope Media Systems is the pioneer of web-centric digital signage and audiovisual head end automation. Its award winning systems are used across North America in governments, hospitals, universities, businesses, schools and community television stations. You can reach Tightrope Media Systems at (866) 866-4118 or visit them on the web at www.trms.com.

Media Contact:
Andrew Starks
866-866-4118

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The great guys at Tightrope were kind enough to invite us to take part in their booth due to the new announcement that we can now integrate into their Cablecast system. More information on that to come soon, but that was the “reason for the season”.

Attendance in the trade show area was pretty consistent and I had a great time putting faces with names and meeting new people as well. It’s always a joy to talk with those that are as passionate about PEG as we are.

If you were unable to attend the show, you can find the official photos here. I put together my own set of photos that I took, which you can find on Flickr at this link.

We will be assisting in the Tightrope booth, so if you’re going to the ACM Conference, please stop by and say hello.

Overall, the conference looks like it will be well attended and chock full of good sessions and information. We’re really looking forward it and we hope to see you there.

We currently have 9 refurbished encoders available for sale. Configured as either a single channel, or quad channel, these 1RU encoders can easily fit into your rack as well as your budget and offer a two-year depot warranty.

Single channel units are $2000 and quad channels are $3000. To place your order simply give us a call at 678-935-9103 (option 1), or e-mail Michael at michael@earthchannel.com.

We’ve created accounts in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. So if you’re a member of these online communities, we’d appreciate a Follow/Like/Fan and add us to your network.

We may put on our marketing hat from time-to-time, but our primary goal in taking part in these other networks is learn more about what you’re doing and working on. I’m often amazed at how our publishers creatively use our tools. Keeping in touch via Twitter and Facebook are a small way to stay in touch and see all the amazing things you guys are doing.

Silverlight is a Microsoft cross-platform, cross-browser media player that provides the industry’s best streaming compatibility for all viewers. It allows PC, Mac and Linux users the ability to view your content seamlessly. Now all users can leverage the power, quality and efficiency of Windows Media with this browser add-on.

If you’re still using Windows Media Player, add this free upgrade so you can reliably stream to all Windows and Mac users. The upgrade is quick and easy and makes no changes to your current workflows.

It’s a detailed article that shows the evolution of a project from it’s early beginnings to it’s current state-of-the-art streaming media solution. Our hats off to Nyambi and his staff for receiving this well deserved honor!

About PEGChannels.org

PEGChannels.org is solely focused on those involved with running, managing and creating content for PEG channels. If you’re not familiar with PEG, it is an acronym for Public, Educational, and Governmental, which are the three common methods of television access within a municipality.

EarthChannel is proud to be the flagship sponsor of a site so committed to promoting channels in the PEG community.

Fortunately, technology has done much to assist our democratic process. The 1980s gave us our first taste of affordable video gear. By 1986, Video production equipment that had previously required investments of more than $100,000, could suddenly be acquired for under $20,000. One of television’s greatest ‘barriers of entry’ had fallen!

The widespread proliferation of Cable TV during the 80’s helped to remove the other huge ‘barrier of entry’… delivery. Previously, only broadcasters had a means to distribute video programming. Cable TV offered dozens of available channels! And, their municipal franchise agreements normally included free channels for Public Access, Education and Government.

While still a relatively labor-intensive and complex process, some of the more progressive municipalities and state entities took advantage of these lower costs and alternative means of delivery to start cable-casting public hearings and meetings. For the first time, citizens had the opportunity to stay abreast of local and state proceedings without attending in person! This technological advance introduced a new era in government transparency and accountability. Live and taped video playback allowed citizens to easily see their elected officials at work, something that had heretofore been quite difficult!

The 90s brought even greater cost reductions in television production. Computer based video recording, switching, graphics’ creation, editing and playback had huge impacts on the labor necessary to produce live and taped programming. By the end of the 90s, Internet video streaming began to offer another means to deliver programming. While this technology was still quite expensive in those days, it provided access to an audience much wider than the mostly home-based, cable television subscriber.

Video streaming also began to provide another powerful and time saving feature; Video-On- Demand (VOD). While timed, videotape recording technically provided a form of VOD, the convenience of Internet-based video-on-demand offered a far more efficient process. Viewers could quickly access programming that they missed during a live proceeding and watch it at their leisure, from home or office.

The dawn of the new century brought an even more efficient technology; video indexing. This new feature for streaming video allowed long-format, video programming to be segmented into shorter sections that corresponded to individual items of interest. Some of the more progressive municipalities embraced this technology to divide their video proceedings into individual agenda items. By incorporating video indexing into their Internet VOD programming, citizens now could choose the specific items of interest, without investing hours to view the 15-20 minutes they wanted to watch.

The 2000s also saw huge reductions in the costs of streaming video. Internet bandwidth became a commodity product. ‘Economy of scale’ purchases saw bandwidth costs plummet over 80%. Streaming hardware costs were also reduced by over 50%. Then, even smaller municipalities could afford and justify incorporating live streaming and indexed video. Some groups even leveraged this inexpensive technology to produce regular ‘virtual town hall meetings’ and live ‘talk with your elected official’ streaming events… giving normal citizens access and input never before available.

The mid-2000s saw streaming video proliferate dramatically. Firms like YouTube allowed thousands of Internet users to share video clips with the rest of the world. Viewers could now search through millions of presentations by simply typing a few key words and view the ones of interest on-demand, from the comfort of home and office.

YouTube-type technology has forever changed the concept of transparent government, as the last election cycle demonstrated. The impact of this watershed capability cannot be overstated! Citizens can now find speeches, comments and interviews from virtually any elected official, captured and uploaded by thousands of normal citizens. This technology allows virtually everyone access to important information critical to our society and the democratic process!

In 2008, the next generation of this technology was introduced… ‘viewer-defined indexing’. While tens of thousands of users worldwide have the hardware and software tools to capture, encode and upload videos to YouTube-type Internet sites from satellite, cablecast, broadcast and Internet sources, the vast majority do not have this capability. However, viewer-defined indexing allows any viewer to 1) watch a video, 2) specify the precise segment or ‘video byte’ they desire and 3) create a short Internet link that can be emailed or embedded into a website.

By utilizing viewer-defined indexing, anyone that has the capability to viewing an online government proceeding can easily create and email (or post on a website or blog) a link to a precise segment of that program. This process allows all interested citizens and stakeholders to evaluate and showcase their elected officials work. Government employees are routinely required to create DVD/videotape copies of proceedings in response to requests from citizens via the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). By allowing citizens to create their own links to specific portions of a video, FOIA requests can be almost totally eliminated, literally saving hundreds of hours of labor and thousands of dollars each year.

EarthChannel Communications, Inc. (http://www.earthchannel.com), a leading Internet video service provider to state and local governments is the industry’s first firm to offer viewer-defined indexing. By incorporating EarthChannel’s “TinyClip” feature, its clients can provide viewers a means of creating and extracting a direct link to any segment they choose within any available video presentation. The link to this precise segment can then be easily shared via email or postings on websites, blogs and forums. This break-through technology empowers all viewers of governmental proceedings and videos with a simple tool to share video clips.

Online video and enhanced indexing offer efficient tools to compliment the current local and national trends toward increased governmental transparency and accountability. As these trends evolve, new video technologies will continue to lead us toward better government.

TinyClip allows your viewers to instantly create unique clips of your media for use as link as embedded content on a web site, or blog. Now your viewers can share the specific information or topic that is most relevant to them quickly and easily.

The TinyClip tool allows viewers to select the start and end of the clip that they would like to make, then simply copy the direct link, or embed code to place a Silverlight Player on their web site, or blog.

For more samples, videos and more, please select this link.

It’s during this time of year that our thoughts turn to what we’re thankful for and without a doubt we are most thankful for our customers. It was a pleasure to serve you this year and we’re eagerly looking forward to 2009. We have a lot of new services and features in the works and we can’t wait to show them to you in the coming months.

Until then, happy holidays!

– The EarthChannel Team