Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Networking
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Convention Webcast to Use Streaming Media

Democratic convention organizers brace for heavy traffic on DNCC's server

July 31, 2000 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - In six weeks, IT managers will get a live demonstration of large-scale - really large-scale - webcasting when the Democratic Convention goes live over the Internet.
The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) hopes to webcast interactive, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the party convention, to be held Aug. 14-18 in Los Angeles.
One major question is how well the audio and video feeds will sound and appear on viewers' PCs as the number of people logged on increases.
During a 30-minute virtual press conference demonstrating the system two weeks ago, reporters typed questions into the instant messaging box on their screens while microphones and video cameras captured responses from DNCC Chairman Terry McAuliffe and the organization's CEO, Lydia Camarillo, and streamed them to the Internet using webcasting technology from Akamai Technologies Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.
Computerworld observers who tuned in over an Integrated Services Digital Network 128K byte/sec. connection said they found the audio to be crisp and clear. Moreover, full-motion video of the two DNCC officials was said to be quite smooth as they responded to questions sent via instant messaging.
On one occasion, the e-mail application on a Computerworld user's PC borrowed bandwidth to check in with the corporate server, causing a momentary slowdown in the webcast video. But audio continued normally, while video remained in sync and returned to its original performance once the PC had finished fetching e-mail.
Peter Ragone, director of media relations for the DNCC, said he was pleased with the results of the preview but conceded that the 200 users logged on for the press conference were a drop in the bucket compared with the thousands who would likely click to the convention. No one really knows how many people will log on, said Ragone, who wouldn't offer a prediction.
Sanjay Srivastava, Akamai's vice president of enterprise services, said the system could stream video and audio to more than 20,000 concurrent users and scale to several hundreds of thousands. But neither Akamai nor the DNCC would say if the DNCC's implementation of that technology would handle such levels.
Alex Benik, an analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston, said it's a little early to come up with firm figures on how many users can be supported on a webcast while sustaining adequate performance.
Benik noted that streaming media webcast technology is still in its infancy. "[The webcast of the convention] would not have been feasible 18 months ago," he said.
In a separate announcement last week, Akamai officials said the webcast of Steve Jobs' keynote



Jump to comments

Networking

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

White Papers & Webcasts

How to Secure and Accelerate Your Oracle Applications
Learn about the escalating application performance and security challenges facing corporations, today!  

Aligning IT to Business: The Rising Importance of Application Delivery Networks
Application Delivery Networking (ADN) will play a vital role in helping enterprises incorporate strategic technologies to achieve business initiatives.

Optimize Performance of Datacenter to Datacenter Traffic
To get the backups and database synchronizations completed on time, enterprises rely on WAN optimization from Blue Coat.  

Mitigate Risk, Lower Costs and Improve Network Efficiency
Create a stable IP network that not only meets today's challenges, but is flexible enough to also meet future demands.

Enterprise Application Delivery: No User Left Behind
Gain the ability to deliver applications to all users, using any device, across any network.  

Preparing Your Business Services for the Future
Would you trust your network monitoring tools enough to know when something is truly halting a business service?

Practical Strategies to Accelerate Business Applications Across the WAN
Discover how Blue Coat SG appliances, uses five essential techniques to speed delivery of internal and externally hosted business applications  

IPAM: Slashing Network Costs
Slashing Network Costs by Consolidating and Automating Core Network Services

Infonetics: WAN Optimization Appliance Market Highlights 1 Q09
Vendor market share positions shuffled once again in 1Q09, learn more now!  

Horror stories: Managing IT Across Multiple Locations
How one extra sharp IT manager eliminates daily agony, hassle and repetition.