Washington's TVW made the switch to the Wowza Media Server to deliver interactive, accessible public affairs content.
the state of Washington's public affairs broadcast network, TVW, reaches more than 3.8 million households with live coverage of federal, state, and municipal news and events as well as an archive of more than 60,000 hours of programming. Launched in 1993 and streaming over the internet since 1995, TVW has maintained a forward-looking vision of how accessible streaming technology can advance the public good.
Because the political process at its best is a real-time dialogue between the opposing sides of an issue, TVW envisioned a streaming solution that would allow it to reach the broadest possible audience with the least resistance. TVW needed to stream 24/7 live coverage of news and events, as well as provide a suitable platform to allow citizens to easily access TVW's vast programming library. Identifying Flash as the best technology to meet its reach goal, TVW needed a reliable, high-performance streaming server solution that would address its technical needs, its long-term vision, and the ever-present budgetary constraints.
TVW has been at the vanguard of Washington political coverage since 1993. A nonprofit corporation with a mandate to bring "the public's business before the public," TVW reports on the issues as they happen, on the federal, state, and municipal levels. At a time when local and state news coverage is shrinking, TVW has not only served a public need but it has done so while always embracing the forward-looking possibilities of technology to engage citizens in the political process. In 1995, it was the first state broadcaster to offer streaming content in Real format. And in 1996, it topped itself once again by being the first to offer live streaming.
TVW is one of the founders and leading lights of the National Association of Public Affairs Networks (NAPAN), which has been conceived in all 50 states to help establish and expand noncommercial television networks devoted to providing citizens with fair, balanced, and unfiltered access to their state governments. In support of this mission, TVW strives to increase real-time coverage to its audience of more than 3.8 million. It is undertaking a total Flash conversion of its library of 60,000-plus hours of programming.
"The explosion in popularity of online video, as both entertainment medium and political tool, has reaffirmed our commitment to streaming content, which we began in the very early days of the technology," says Scott Freeman, director of IT for TVW. "It is our goal that we continue to serve the citizens of Washington with excellent and engaging programming while meeting the dynamic changes in how people get information."
To deliver this Flash content, TVW chose Wowza Media Server Pro for several reasons:
* Wowza Pro provides TVW with the reliable performance it needs to deliver uninterrupted live political coverage at all times of the day; 365 days at year.
* It lets TVW to expand its online reach with low-fr�ction Flash streaming at 75% lower total cost of ownership than competing solutions.
* Wowza Pro extensibility and interactive capabilities enable TVW to integrate it with voice indexing and vital features of TVW operations.
* Integral scalability features provide a solid pia tform for fu ture expansion as TVW converts its archive of more than 60,000 hours of programming to Flash.
* Wowza Pro protects the integrity of TVW's live and archived content through its anti-ripping secureToken technology.
Flash Democracy
TVW has worked hard to remain on the cutting edge of internet technology. In 2000, it upgraded its online offerings from Real to Windows Media. While Windows Media streaming served its purpose, it also exposed accessibility issues. Because the Windows Player is not natively in the browser it requires a download. TVW felt this obstacle denied many less technical viewers the benefit of TVW's content. In 2006, TVW began to experiment with Flash, starting with progressive download for on-demand content, with the goal of democratizing the accessibility to its programming through this consumer-friendly, browser-based technology.
While progressive download got TVW part of the way to its goal, content security issues and the absence of live streaming support prompted the search for a better solution.
"Flash reaches the broadest possible audience," says Freeman. "We couldn't ignore that-it makes our coverage of the political process easily accessible to virtually anyone." Freeman envisioned a single solution that would let TVW deliver both on-demand and live content in Flash and bring the content interactivity that progressive download simply couldn't achieve.
TVW's streaming needs led the network to evaluate other streaming solutions. Its conclusion from a 15-day pilot was that many solutions were unduly expensive, and they fell short of expectations in performance and flexibility. After learning about Wowza Media Server Pro, the innovative Flash streaming server software that had already won several industry awards and racked up an impressive list of global customers, the TVW team was immediately impressed.
"Wowza Pro worked right out of the box. What was more impressive, it streamed live feeds uninterrupted in our 15-day pilot. Not a single hiccup," says Freeman.
Wowza Pro performed equally well in other tests, including a showcase of its integral Live Stream Repeater functionality that assures TVW of being able to meet demand for large-scale live political events that attract thousands of simultaneous viewers. Other benchmarks revealed Wowza's unique approach to on-demand navigation, which allows site visitors to skip to the content they're looking for with the same ease as pressing the fast-forward or rewind buttons on their DVD players.
Still another key deciding factor was Wowza's commitment to security. Wowza Pro's ready-to-deploy SecureToken anti-ripping technology offered a perfect solution for making sure that none of TVW's programming would end up as Youlube political parodies anytime soon.
A Model for Public Affairs Broadcasters
TVW's commitment to Wowza goes well beyond its immediate challenges of delivering real-time coverage of the 2008 election. "Wowza has given us a scalable platform that will serve us well into the future," says Freeman. "It also lets us make the past of the political process widely available. Along with new content, we also plan to stream archival materials from our library of [more than] 60,000 hours of programming, which will be converted to Flash." TVW expects to complete this full conversion of the archives sometime in 2009.
"Wowza has enabled us to deliver on our mandate like never before," he continued. "We know that with Wowza on our side we can engage the citizens with the immediacy we always dreamed of and let them look back, for example, to see how a particular candidate or elected official voted on an issue."
Other public affairs broadcasters face similar challenges, and Freeman believes that TVW's experience can prove valuable to other NAPAN members. "Our deployment will hopefully provide a case study on how technology can advance the public good," adds Freeman. "We are confident that we will achieve this goal, while continuing to faithfully and honorably serve the citizens of Washington state."
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