Customer Showcase
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Major League Baseball Advanced Media
- The Challenge
- Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) enjoyed one of the more popular live sports video offerings on the web, but realized that in order to reach an even wider audience, they would need to dramatically improve the existing user experience. To accomplish this, goals were set to increase the video quality as well as average viewing time by at least 300%. They also determined that traditional streaming methods had proven unable to support the quality, reliability, scale and economics needed to achieve these new objectives.
- The Swarmcast Solution
- After exploring a variety of solutions, MLBAM chose Swarmcast's Autobahn Live for its ability to meet these exacting requirements, while managing delivery costs. Because Autobahn Live works seamlessly with Microsoft's Silverlight, it supported MLBAM's need to develop a rich end user experience. More importantly, the Swarmcast solution transforms costly proprietary video streams into standard HTTP traffic, which enables MLBAM to leverage global internet infrastructure. To achieve the highest quality user experience, Autobahn Live blends multiple CDNs simultaneously, which dramatically improves the quality, reliability and scale of live video.
- Results
- Since adopting Swarmcast's Autobahn Live solution MLBAM has grown its online video business dramatically, a fact underscored by achieving a record 11.9 million unique users to the site in June 2008 (comScore). Average view durations have increased well beyond initial projections and MLB.TV now features TV-quality 1.2 Mbps video. In 2008 alone, MLB.TV will stream over 10,000 hours of live baseball to a large and growing audience.
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"Swarmcast presented the only method of delivering high-quality live streaming to hundreds of millions of viewers with the reliability that enables us to grow a business around the Internet as a distribution channel."
- Joe Choti, Chief Technology Officer, MLB.com
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TV Tokyo
- The Challenge
- As one of the three major broadcast TV networks in Tokyo, TV Tokyo was looking to extend its programming beyond the airwaves, and seeking a live online streaming solution that would provide quality and reliability on par with its traditional over the air broadcasts. With this new channel, TV Tokyo would be able to reach new and larger audiences with an expanding variety of unique sports content.
- The Swarmcast Solution
- To provide the high quality user experience and reliability that TV Tokyo required, the Autobahn Live solution was selected for its ability to cost effectively leverage existing internet infrastructure and improve the quality and reliability of video delivered through Microsoft's Silverlight rich media platform.
- Results
- In February, 2008, TV Tokyo debuted its live online streaming offering for the World Table Tennis Championships, where a team of players held the longest rally in history - 168 continuous hours. Not only was this the very first implementation of Silverlight in Japan, but Autobahn Live streamed the entire event without any rebuffering or stalls making it the longest continuous live event stream in history.
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"With Autobahn, we have the confidence and the freedom to offer high quality video to the world, completely ushering in a new era of what is possible for and with Internet video."
- Ikuo Saito, Deputy General Manager of TV Tokyo
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Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Party
- The Challenge
- As a leading provider of live music events, iClips was given the opportunity to broadcast Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Party to a projected global audience of over 70,000 people. The scope and duration of this event (over 10 hours) demanded a solution that would not only provide a reliable video stream but would enable the concert to be broadcast to a geographically diverse audience in upwards of 40 countries.
- The Swarmcast Solution
- For this historic event, iClips selected Swarmcast's Autobahn Live solution for its ability to deliver highly consistent video quality to a large and diverse online audience, all while keeping delivery costs in check. Autobahn Live's unique ability to translate live streams into HTTP, combined with its use of multiple CDNs in a wide variety of countries provided iClips with the delivery platform needed to ensure the event reached the targeted global audience, with the highest quality user experience.
- Results
- On June 28th 2008, the 46664 concert featuring Will Smith, Queen, Josh Groban, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and a host of African musical stars was broadcast online for 10 hours, via the Autobahn Live solution, to an audience of over 70,000 viewers in over 40 countries. In addition to enjoying a seamless, uninterrupted stream of the event, the event raised over three million dollars for Nelson Mandela's 46664 campaign against HIV/AIDS.
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