Coping with Bandwidth Limitations
Like other enterprises, HP struggles with bandwidth limitations and looks for some streaming efficiencies with the adoption of multicasting across the HP network. But unlike others in the field, Wray Smallwood, Web engineer for Media Solutions, doesn't see multicasting as a panacea. "Originally, we thought multicast was going to be the Holy Grail," he says. "But with multicast, as you go router to router, switch to switch down the network … you begin to lose a little bit that you can't get back. You have to get a reliable stream, with all the packets close enough so there aren't many hops of multicast between the streamer and the consumer."
Media Solutions' servers currently host 36GB of archived on-demand content - close to 1,000 separate streaming files, 15 to 20 percent of which originated as live webcasts. Most content is either updated or dropped after a few months. "We do charge for hosting," says Lachtanski. "So people will manage the amount [of content] they keep on the servers." Streaming files are burned onto CD-ROMs before they're removed from the servers. The Media Solutions Group has yet to adopt a digital media asset management system - all content is still archived on tape. "If somebody wants us to go back and re-digitize their video [with an updated codec], we'll pull the tape out of the archives and redo it," says Lachtanski.
Media Solutions uses streaming media in a number of communications scenarios. For example, Fiorina's company-wide satellite broadcasts are also webcast and made available on-demand, allowing employees, investors and others in distant time zones to view her addresses. Her last major address was streamed by 68,000 unique users in the first week.
Both satellite broadcasts and webcasts are used for new product launches. Sometimes, cost is the determining factor when considering distribution options. "Doing webcasts is relatively cheap compared to a full-blown satellite broadcast," notes Lachtanski. "So a lot of times they'll opt for a webcast as opposed to satellite because they can't justify the ROI for their [product] launch." Product demos and training videos are also available for on-demand streaming over the corporate intranet and the public Internet, occasionally with several audio tracks for different languages.
HR Applications
Streaming is employed in a number of human resource (HR) applications, such as helping HP to implement its new "re-invention of itself" initiative. "There's a lot of communication that needs to go along with these programs," notes Lachtanski. "It's all part of the re-invention of the whole company. One of the things streaming brings to the table is consistency of the message."
Some of the HR webcasts utilize polling and surveys through online forms. For presentations requiring a higher level of interactivity, Media Solutions uses Akamai's Network24 application, and plans to shift to Akamai's newer Forum application in the near future. For applications that require interactivity over low bit-rate modem connections, Media Solutions uses HP's eLearning-on-Tap application - a non-streamed, Java-based slide presentation that uses two-way audio via a telephone connection.
Through one unique Media Solutions application, Fiorina can call into a server dedicated for her private use and leave an audio message. The message is automatically recorded as a .wav file, and an engineer is paged. The engineer immediately encodes the .wav file for streaming as an .rm or .wma file and uploads it to HP Communications, which is responsible for HP's Web presence. Within minutes, Fiorina's message is available for audio streaming on the desktops and laptops of HP employees around the world.