Case Study: Streaming the Democratic National Convention
There was plenty of video streaming - both live and on-demand - at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Big-budget dotcoms like MSNBC.com, ABCNews.com and Pseudo.com streamed from skyboxes and elaborate sets while roving crews with DV cams streamed footage from inside and outside the halls to niche audiences through obscure websites. But while the Republicans kept their own streaming to a minimum, the Democrats launched one of the most ambitious demonstrations of video streaming to date through their www.dems2000.com
website.
Documenting an event C-SPAN-style is very different from trying to communicate a message. And few institutions are more intent on delivering a focused message than the national political parties. The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) employed streaming media in a number of ways -- including four 8-hour days of live, gavel-to-gavel coverage -- to spread the word to the widest possible audience. Every technical decision was a political decision. Joseph Finneran of Fresh Technologies, supervising producer of digital media for the convention, points out, "None of this is purely for technology's sake...It all comes down to 'are we getting the basic job done of connecting our political message with the public through these technologies?'"
The primary gavel-to-gavel video coverage originated out of Slingshot Networks' facilities at LA's Staples Center - the same facilities used for televising sports events at Staples. Veteran live television director, Glenn Weiss, used 12 HDTV cameras, including a jib, steady-cam, robotic camera and multiple handheld cameras, to capture the action (see note). A standard-definition 4x3 feed, down-converted from HD, was transmitted via satellite to Slingshot's broadcast facility in Nashville for live streaming. In Nashville, the video signal was encoded into three bit rates - 28k, 56k, and 120k - for each of the three major streaming formats (Real, Windows Media and Quicktime). Each encoder had a backup to ensure an uninterrupted stream in each format and bit rate. The encoded files were then sent through an OC-12 pipe to Akamai for streaming through their distributed network.
Digital Planet (formerly iXL-Live) brought its extensive live streaming experience (Woodstock, Wango Tango 2000, etc.) to the table and confronted one of the most difficult challenges of the entire webcast-- ensuring compatibility and connectivity between vendors. Fay Greene, vice president at Digital Planet, says, "Our mandate was to make sure that at every level...this plug meets that plug and there ain't no gap in the middle." Fresh Technology's Finneran illustrates the essential role Digital Planet played in the webcast when discussing Joe Einstein, Digital Planet's technical producer. Finneran observes, "If you say to him, 'I'm having trouble with this particular firewall issue, or this particular connectivity between Akamai and AT&T'...he gets on the phone and solves it - instantly. That's the kind of firepower you need for a live event like this."
If users had only wanted to watch live coverage of speeches and packaged video clips, they were better off watching C-SPAN. It was the interactivity achieved through Akamai's NetPodium - a live, managed-chat application - that most distinguished the webcast from the broadcast. For three hours each night of the convention, visitors to the NetPodium web page could ask questions of and listen to answers from Democratic Party luminaries. A single locked-off camera with a wide-angle lens captured Travis Berry, senior advisor for technology to the DNCC, on the NetPodium "set" - a table, two chairs and a laptop located behind the main speakers' podium - as he relayed questions posed by users to guests such as Jesse Jackson and California Senators Boxer and Feinstein. When guests were unavailable, Berry interacted with NetPodium users directly.
A cadre of screeners fielded more than 2,000 text questions from users, sending technical queries to Akamai respondents in Seattle and politically relevant questions to DNCC subject matter experts in L.A. Only a few questions made it all the way to Berry and the interviewees, but most received at least a text response. In addition to the managed chat, the NetPodium application enabled real-time polling of users and detailed traffic reporting.
Users were first directed to a "pre-flight test" to confirm computer-connection-NetPodium compatibility, and to facilitate downloads of media players and plug-ins. The NetPodium video was streamed through an embedded player at 28k, 56k, and 128k bit rates in the Real and Windows Media formats (NetPodium doesn't support Quicktime). In addition to the video and chat windows, NetPodium users saw graphics accessed from a huge database of photos and informational graphics covering virtually any guest who might show up on the NetPodium set.
While most users' questions never made it to the live video stream, and the inability to view other users' questions prevented the building of an online community, the interactivity of the managed chat still had value for the Democrats. Megan Prentiss, director of enterprise services for Akamai, points out, "[Clients] appreciate [NetPodium], not always as a revenue generator, but as a pure relationship building platform...Even getting a viewer from Peoria to ask a question means they are buying in to the process."The DNCC integrated additional live streams into the www.dems2000.com website, including four Be Here 360° cameras running 24/7 from the convention floor. (Pseudo.com used Be Here 360° cameras at the Republican National Convention, but deferred to the Democrats in L.A.) A few hours of Democracy, Live!, a primarily VOD series of one-hour, multiple-camera, issue-oriented programs, were streamed live from the Los Angeles Convention Center next to the Staples Center. And NetPodium's ability to conduct live web page tours was featured in a live Monday morning webcast - hosted by Karenna Gore - covering the launch of the www.algore.com website.
The DNCC also integrated video-on-demand content - some archived from the live webcast, and some originated for VOD - into the website. Unlike the live streams, which were encoded in Nashville, video destined for VOD was encoded in Los Angeles using Media Cleaner Pro on Apple G4s. VOD content included an archive of notable speeches and Dems Uncut, a series of short, issue-oriented videos shot on location around the city by students at the American Film Institute.
The scale and complexity of the www.dems2000.com webcast rivaled that of any webcast done before. The technologies required for a project of this scope have many cutting edges, and no one company has yet mastered them all. Perhaps the most essential task is to assemble disparate companies into a well-functioning team for the duration of the project. Finneran observes, "This technology is so quickly evolving that when you dip your toe in this pool and decide, 'I want to delve into the world of New Media Technologies to try to get my message out there,' you're overrun with companies who all say they are the best at this new format or this new approach...We reviewed endless numbers of brochures and websites to try to discover which group of technology partners would best fit together to achieve our goals."
No matter how well you prepare, Finneran notes, "Even for a veteran or seasoned producer, these things are rites of passage. You go through them, they completely consume you, and you come out the other side wondering, 'Was it worth it?' and, 'Should I ever do it again?'" These questions will surely be answered by 2004, when many of the same players - and certainly some new ones - will return to apply new, yet-to-be-developed technologies to an even more ambitious webcast.
The Stream Team:
DNCC:
The Democratic National Convention Committee. Ultimately responsible for all aspects of the www.dems2000.com website and all streaming there from.
Fresh Technologies:
Oversaw the production and distribution of all digital media for the convention, including digital still photographs, audio, and video streams used on the website, and the 18.5' x 30' video wall behind the main speakers' podium. Worked on the '92 and '96 conventions and helped assemble the "Stream Team" for this year's convention.
Slingshot Networks:
Its facilities and equipment are used for sports and other video productions at Staples Center. In conjunction with NHK of Japan, provided HDTV equipment and crew for the webcast. Slingshot uploaded the standard-definition feed to the satellite, and then downloaded the signal at its broadcast facility in Nashville. The NTSC video signal was encoded by Slingshot in Nashville, then fed to Akamai for distribution over the Internet.
NHK:
The Japanese television network. Co-produced the primary gavel-to-gavel video with the DNCC. To get better quality camera positions and coverage, NHK provided a significant amount of HDTV equipment. Offered the same arrangement to the Republicans, who chose to decline.
Akamai Technologies:
Responsible for streaming audio and video files through its distributed network. The Akamai network enables users to access rich media files from servers on the "edge" of the Internet, thereby avoiding network congestion and facilitating uninterrupted streaming. Akamai also provided NetPodium, an online chat application, and hosted VOD files.
Digital Planet (formerly iXL - Live):
Provided production consulting in the Internet space for live streaming and VOD. Also ensured compatibility between a variety of streaming and video distribution technologies.
AT&T:
Hosted the www.dems2000.com website and provided satellite transponder time for the transmission of the video feed to Slingshot's broadcast and encoding facility in Nashville.
Be Here:
Provided four 360° streaming cameras on the convention floors. Multiple users could simultaneously pan and zoom the cameras from their desktops.
Note: High-definition video feeds went to 25 HDTV broadcasters in the U.S., and to NHK of Japan, provider of some of the HDTV equipment. Slingshot's Snell and Wilcox HDTV switcher was also equipped with an HD still store, the images from which were of sufficient resolution to be converted into JPEGs and used as web graphics. A standard-definition 16x9 feed, down-converted from HD, was sent to the video wall behind the main speakers podium. The same standard-definition 4x3 feed that was used for streaming was also distributed as a free pool to local TV stations and cable operators that didn't have access to the C-SPAN television feed. Return To Story