Rockwell Streams Well

Many corporate video jockeys believe that fat pipes and multicasting will bring their streaming media worries to an end. With the recent upgrade of its multicast-enabled data network, Rockwell Automation's RA Studios, the company's video and multimedia group, is in the enviable position of testing the validity of that theory. Rockwell (www.rockwell.com) recently upgraded to dual 45Mbps DS3’s between Milwaukee and Cleveland, and Gigabit Ethernet LANs running within the two cities. And while its application of streaming video is certainly not problem free, RA Studios’ methodical implementation and its close relationship with Rockwell’s IT department have brought it immediate success both inside and outside the company.

RA Studios was created after Rockwell International acquired two industrial automation powerhouses — Milwaukee-based Allen-Bradley in 1985, and Cleveland-based Reliance Electric in 1995. The acquisition included their respective TV and multimedia groups, which turned into RA Studios. (After Rockwell International affected a spate of corporate spin offs, Rockwell Automation survived as a $4.3 billion industrial automation company with over 23,000 employees.) RA Studios’ staff of 60 — divided between Milwaukee and Cleveland — is responsible for Rockwell’s Web presence (a.k.a. RAIN - Rockwell Automation Information Network), as well as the RAINStream Channel, Rockwell’s streaming media delivery program.

RA Studios follows a TV-like strategy, by streaming various programs through the day, from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST. To schedule its multicast streams, RA Studios uses Lariat’s StationManager broadcast management software. "Our concept for multicast was to run an internal television station analogy," said David Puette, manager of engineering and production for RA Studios. "Lariat was one of the only players out there that had affordable software that was set up to do what we wanted to do."

Most of Rockwell’s streaming content consists of corporate communications, HR applications, and product demos. Rockwell has yet to adopt more than infrequent streaming for training or other eLearning.

Knowing that an obstructionist IT department can thwart the best-laid plans for streaming media, RA Studios formed an early alliance with Rockwell’s IT group. "Often, the poor guys in IT are told about great plans after the fact," says Puette. "We partnered early with our IT networking people and said, ‘Let’s work together to make this thing happen.’" Now, the IT group is invested in the success of streaming at Rockwell. Puette notes, "It was the IT folks who were asking why we didn’t want to push [the bit rate] a little harder." The IT group has also helped to keep a rein on renegade streaming by insisting that all streaming within the corporation be funneled through RA Studios.

Multicast First, Unicast Later

What's interesting is that Rockwell chose to go with multicast technology, which aims to save bandwidth by sending one signal from an origin server and splitting it up to all the viewers. This is quite different from unicast, which essentially means each user gets their own connection with the server thus taking up more bandwidth.

While Rockwell’s use of multicasting does make efficient use of network bandwidth, it’s been no panacea. "We’ve learned that multicasting is kind of a nightmarish world to live in," says Puette. "All parts of your network have to be multicast enabled." The Canadian portion of Rockwell’s network, for example — a relatively small presence — is not yet multicast enabled. Puette adds, "And when you go overseas, the pipe sizes are all over the place." A few far-flung sales offices are still on 56K dial-up connections, and as a result have no access to the 250Kbps streams that Rockwell delivers. Puette says, "We view multicasting as our initial video-to-the-desktop entrée. Our ultimate goal is unicast … content [the users] want, when they want it."

RA Studios delivers Windows Media in 250Kbps, 15fps, 320x240 video streams through an embedded Windows Media Player. The decision to go with Windows Media was made by the IT group, for several reasons. "The desktop support people were not really interested in doing a massive deployment of Real," says Puette. "The other part that kyboshed Real was the sheer cost associated with it." He adds, "[Windows] is there, it’s part of the OS, and it’s free." Rockwell uses the embedded player in spite of occasional problems reported by Mac users. Puette notes, "We have very few Macs in the corporation."

Rockwell's Video Production

RA Studios runs a broadcast-quality video production facility in Cleveland, including a 50’ x 60’ soundstage and three Sony BVP-550 studio cameras. Recording formats include Digital Betacam and BetaSP. For fieldwork, RA uses two DVW-700 Digital Betacams, a BVW-400 BetaSP camcorder, and a pair of dockable BVP-7As. Post-production facilities include two linear online suites — one DigiBeta and the other D-2. Non-linear editing is done on two stations — a Discreet system running edit software and combustion paint and effects, and an Avid 1000. Producers run Adobe Premiere on their desktops for logging clips and putting together EDLs.

RA Studios has helped to amortize all that hardware by offering video production services to outside companies. The Cleveland corporate production market has been receptive to what RA Studios has to offer. "We’re corporate guys. We understand corporate speak," says Puette. "It’s a real nice thing for local companies to be able to come to guys that aren’t interested in becoming the next Steven Spielberg."

Working for outside companies has also provided RA Studios with a measure of stability while other video and multimedia groups were facing cutbacks or extinction. Puette notes, "While our parent corporation’s business has ebbed and flowed, we were able to keep ourselves alive with fresh dollars from outside the company." He adds, "The other benefit of working externally is that we get fresh ideas from the outside. People come to us and want to do something wacky, and we do it. Those ideas find their way back into Rockwell … It’s a total win-win." In addition to production for streaming, RA Studios also turns out video and multimedia for kiosks and sophisticated tradeshow displays.

RA Studios brings in annual revenues of about $2 million, and functions on a cost-recovery basis. Any returns-on-investment are realized by the clients, but common business sense says that customers wouldn’t keep coming back if RA Studios’ didn't deliver bang for the buck. With its recent adoption of streaming media, RA Studios has just expanded the "bang" it can offer its internal and external clients.