LEIGHTRONIX Streaming Technology Expands Reach of An Exclusive International Affairs Forum Lecture
Holt, MI (PRWEB) October 21, 2013 -- On Thursday, October 17, 2013, during an International Affairs Forum (IAF) lecture at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), LEIGHTRONIX provided a live television broadcast and online stream using two IncodeX One™ high-quality digital video encoders to expand the reach of a lecture that would have otherwise had very limited viewership due to seating restrictions.
At the evening event, retired U.S. diplomat and former Iranian hostage Michael Metrinko presented “Iran and the United States: Time for a Reset?” at Milliken Auditorium located on NMC’s campus. As the event quickly sold out, the International Affairs Forum (IAF) teamed up with the UpNorth Media Center and LEIGHTRONIX, INC. to broadcast the lecture as a live cablecast and Internet stream. Due to the partnership, Charter Cable viewers were able to watch the live lecture on UpNorthTV Channels 97 and 992. The stream was also made available to anyone with an Internet connected desktop or laptop, Apple devices, such as an iPad or iPhone, as well as on Roku streaming media players.
Links to access the lecture online were posted for viewers on both the UpNorth Media Center’s and NMC’s websites. To watch on a Roku player, viewers simply had to subscribe to the IAF private channel. Viewers were also able to tweet questions to Metrinko during the event.
“The Media Center has been streaming community content online for years, but we’re always working to add new capabilities,” said Joe VanderMeulen, executive director of the Land Information Access Association (LIAA), the nonprofit service organization that hosts and operates the UpNorth Media Center. “With the help of LEIGHTRONIX and some ingenuity from our staff, we’re making it easier to access local video content from nearly any device. Whether it’s on an iPhone or a Roku player, people should be able to see what’s going on in their community in any way that is most convenient for them.”
LEIGHTRONIX worked side-by-side with the IAF, the media and information technology staff of NMC, and the production and logistics crew of UpNorth Media Center, to make this important lecture available to as many people as possible. The content was recorded at the Milliken Auditorium and delivered to two IncodeX One encoders via a master switch.
The first IncodeX One was utilized to provide a Point-to-Multipoint broadcast of the event. Configured to accept the 720p high-definition signal from the production switcher at the auditorium, the IncodeX One output a 1280 x 720 resolution live Internet stream of the event through LEIGHTRONIX’s Content Delivery Network, to viewers’ computers, Roku devices, and compatible mobile devices. The stream was delivered at a conservative 1 Mb/s (megabits per second) in order to accommodate the widest range of mobile devices possible. Using the IncodeX One’s Point-to-Multipoint capability, this stream was also delivered in its full 720p HD resolution to multiple remote locations, including projectors in one other NMC campus auditorium as well as three classrooms on the campus.
“The display on the iPad was very, very high quality,” Bob Chauvin, Outreach Coordinator for the UpNorth Media Center, said. “It was crisp, clear, and pretty incredible really.”
The second IncodeX One was configured to stream the HD signal from the auditorium over NMC’s network to the UpNorth Media Center’s headend, where the signal was decoded, scaled to SD, and output live to an UltraNEXUS™ video server. The UltraNEXUS delivered a broadcast quality version of the event on UpNorthTV Channels 97 and 992, illustrating how Point-to-Point technology can be seamlessly integrated into the workflow for a standard cable channel. The UltraNEXUS output signal was also fed into a PEGstream-SD2™ live streaming media encoder, allowing the live event to also be displayed on UpNorthTV’s regular live stream over the Internet in SD.
In addition, a separate 1280 x 720p recording was made by LEIGHTRONIX using their E-HD2™ high-definition video server. Outperforming other HD codecs, the popular E-HD2’s H.264 hardware records and plays amazingly high quality video images at surprisingly low bit rates.
About LEIGHTRONIX, INC.
LEIGHTRONIX is recognized as an industry leader in specialty video equipment design and manufacturing, including digital video solutions, television automation, live and video-on-demand streaming media, IPTV, and remote equipment control. A model of stability and longevity in the quickly evolving professional video market, LEIGHTRONIX continues to set standards in product value and versatility that exceed customer expectations in both product performance and support. The company’s cutting-edge, quality equipment at affordable prices have made LEIGHTRONIX one of the most trusted names in the video communications industry for over 30 years. For more information, visit http://www.leightronix.com.
Sherri Powers, LEIGHTRONIX, INC., http://www.leightronix.com, +1 (800) 243-5589 7130, [email protected]
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