Case Study: Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry

The Dow Chemical Co. is a diversified company that offers a broad range of products and services to customers in more than 175 countries, helping it to provide everything from fresh water, food, and pharmaceuticals to paints, packaging, and personal care products. Built on a commitment to principles of sustainability, Dow has annual sales of $49 billion and employs 43,000 people worldwide.

After roughly 4 years of discussions with various solution providers, in mid-2007 Dow activated the DiamondTV project, a global initiative to enable the creation, management, and delivery of rich media content to Dow locations around the world. To expand the effectiveness and reach of its existing communication programs, in mid-2007 Dow Chemical Company initiated the roll-out of a global rich media streaming solution from Starbak. To date, the company has invested roughly $1 million to deploy the streaming solution to approximately 40 locations.

Dow chose Starbak’s Integrated Network Video (INV) for a variety of reasons, including Starbak’s approach to leveraging yet protecting Dow’s IP network, the capabilities of the management engine within the platform, and the turnkey nature of the offering.

By mid-2008, the company expects DiamondTV to be available to employees in 150 locations across the globe.

Project Rationale and Objectives
Dow recognizes the importance of its global communications—both internally and externally to customers, partners, and other interested parties. For many years, the company used satellite technology to broadcast important videos and rich media content (e.g., CEO presentations) to almost 80 Dow facilities and offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Although reliable and well-received by employees, the satellite broadcast system had several limitations:

- Limited coverage area—Satellite broadcasts could reach only U.S. and European offices.
- Inconvenience—To view the content, users had to go to a particular location or room and tune into the broadcast at the scheduled time (regardless of time zone differences).
- Distribution lag—The need to reserve satellite time and inform viewers in advance of the broadcast schedule limited the ability to distribute time-sensitive information.
- Usage-based cost—Although not prohibitively expensive, satellite transmissions incur an hourly usage fee that the organization must shoulder.