Granicus Open Platform Serves Silverlight for Government Agencies
Governmental bodies looking to deliver video to the public have a new streamlined option with the Granicus Open Platform. The company just released the software-as-a-service plan to help even cash-strapped agencies keep their constituents informed.
Open Platform pricing starts at $300 per month and places no limits on how much video users can upload, store, or stream. With a subscription customers get a hardware box called the Outcast Encoder. This plugs into a computer and accepts video from cameras, videocassettes, and discs. The Outcast Encoder handles all the work of encoding video and uploading it to the customer's account.
The service currently streams Silverlight and Windows Media Video files only. Granicus will begin offering Flash delivery sometime before the end of the year, the company says. Kauai County, Hawaii, will be the first to test the company's Flash delivery in the next couple months.
Uploaded video can be stored in an online media vault, broadcast live, and made available online on-demand.
Granicus is targeting government agencies at the local, state, and federal level with this release. It has also released five application suites along with Open Platform to deliver additional services. They include the Government Transparency Suite, Citizen Participation Suite, Meeting Efficiency Suite, Legislative Management Suite, and Training Management Suite.
"The Internet video industry has undergone a tremendous transformation. The Granicus Open platform is our response to this. Our hosted infrastructure for unlimited media management and content delivery is the first step towards helping governments engage citizens and achieve more transparency. It's affordable and easy. We're fully committed to ramping up our platform to ensure all our clients have open video encoding standards in all formats very soon," says Lauren Alexander, Granicus's product marketing manager.
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