streamingmedia west 2007: best practices in webcast production

• Joe Tripician, Medialink

• Alan Richardson, Sprint Creative Media

• Gordon Castle, Turner Broadcasting / CNN

• Wayne Oates, McDonald's Corporation

• Larry Kless, Kaiser Permanente

Streaming Media West, Session A102, November 6, 2007

Best Practices ForWebcasting Production

© Copyright 2007 Turner Broadcasting System

2CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

Low Cost – High Quality Production

• Turner has developed a new production system and approach that dramatically lowers the cost of live multiple camera production

– The SportsKit is a complete four-camera production system with the ability to schedule, produce and stream events live over the public internet

– Designed for easy and fast deployment and operation

• PlayON! is a new business within Turner developing partnerships with conference, leagues, teams and rights holders

– Subscription based products with revenue sharing between partners and Turner

Launched in April 2007

160+ events per season from 12 USL Division One teams

Launched in September 2006

Provided 700+ events across 22 sports in its first year



How It Works: The SportsKit



SportsKit in Action



Live and Recorded Production

Field Production Crew Switcher Encoder

PUBLIC INTERNET

Encoded in Windows Media format, dual stream (750 kbps and 350 kbps)

Video Servers

PUBLIC INTERNET

Crew of 4-8 people

Separate audio and video

inputs

Web site, account

management, customer

service, etc.

Consumers

ANALOG

DIGITAL



ACC Select Homepage



A few examples



What Have We Learned?

• Clear consumer passion for these events

– Fans are willing to pay to see their sport

• On-demand replay is as valuable as being able to watch live

– Usage data is 50/50 for live vs. on-demand viewership

• Average of 14% week-over-week subscriber growth

• Average 11.5% splash-to-order conversion– Industry average is 1-2%

• The Sportskit coupled with a successful training program have enabled the production of 1200+ event to date

Access to Sports They Can’t See Anywhere Else Access to Sports They Can’t See Anywhere Else Is More Important Than Any Other Feature Is More Important Than Any Other Feature

McDonald’s Golden Anniversary Restaurant,

Chicago, Illinois

Internal Company Event on accessmcd.com

Public Press Event on mcdonalds.com

McDonald’s Golden Anniversary

Showflow – 50th Anniversary Webcasts

Dual Event - April 15th, 2005

Internal Event Dedications

External Press Event

Internal Company Event on accessmcd.com

Town Hall Meeting

Worldwide Press Announcement

Streaming Media West 2007 21

Webcasting accelerates dissemination of corporate strategies, general communications, training on new products, programs, sales strategies and helps bridge geographic barriers.


Primary audience - employees on internal enterprise networkEmployee base of approximately 55,000Delivering over 300 live video webcasts a yearDelivering over 200 live audio webcasts a yearServed up more than 50,000 replays last yearRegular all-employee events can reach over 40% during live event and another 10% view the

replays within 1 weekDepartment level participation is usually much higher at 80 – 100% participation on live program

and 10-20% viewing replay within 1 weekRecent impromptu event with interim CEO (10,000 live, 1800 replays within 1 week)


As webcast program manager, I spend much of my time connecting with stakeholders from different organizations.

IT, Network Services, Video Production, Corporate Communications, Executive Support, Event Planning, Marketing, Investor Relations, Public Relations, Facilities …


Enterprise employees at desk200K stream standardMulticast enabled networkOn-demand content served from distributed content engines and dedicated streaming serversHigh quality videos downloaded and played back locally (progressive download)

VPN connected employees200K streamNo multicast so we use stream splitting at the edge to serve up unicast streamsAudio only for users who don’t want to saturate bandwidth

Mobile phone employees3GP streamsAudio only streamsNo slides

AudioconferenceOperator assistedLive questions allowed

Joe Tripician, Medialink

Alan Richardson, Sprint Creative Media

Gordon Castle, Turner Broadcasting / CNN

Wayne Oates, McDonald's Corporation

Larry Kless, Kaiser Permanente



Planning process

Client request generated through Corporate Communications or other department depending on focus of web cast event

Needs assessment conducted in initial planning meeting

Production management tasks and assignments including timeline, budget, site survey, state of readiness, milestones, project team, production design, vendor negotiations, crew, pre-production of content with clients

Set up, rehearsal, live event, strike, evaluation

Anatomy of a Web cast

Web cast Production Tools

Remote video and audio fly packs with: Portable video switcher Scan converter Preview and program monitors Camera control units Black generator Wireless microphones Audio mixers Audio compressor/limiter, EQ Audio and video distribution amps CD player Patch panels

Video Rack Switcher

Video set-up

Ch. 1 Ch. 2

Switcher out to VDA

VDA video out to codec

CAM 1 VID PB 5Slides 4

DSR-50 DVCAM Record

IBM laptop (CGs)

IBM laptop (CGs)

Confidence monitor

CCU RACK

CAM 2 CAM 3

RGB Specturm Scan Converter

AG-MX70 Panasonic Switcher inputs

S-video out

DSR-70 DVCAM Playback

Laptop to Scan Converter (Video Out)

Pre-show Loop Program

DSR-45: ISO recording of CAM 3

Firewire

Firestore

USB

Audio Rack EV-1 Mixer

Audio set-up

LoopCh. 3 and 4

Wireless lapel and Handheld from Rack

Ch. 2 Gooseneck

Podium

Ch. 1 SM58 on boom stand (backup

podium)

Audio Rack Back Panel

MIC OUT to codec

Ch. 1 Ch. 2

Ch. 5DSR-70 Monitor out

(RCA to Phono)

LINE OUT to ADA

ADA LINE OUT to Ch. 1 & 2 Record

Mackie inputs

DSR-70DVCAM Record

DSR-40 DVCAM Playback

PA OUT to PA

system

Examples

Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health Press Conference http://www.dor.kaiser.org/studies/rpgeh/

Healthy Heart Press Conference http://www.permanente.net/healthyheart/

Northern California Residency Programs Open House http://residency.kp.org/ncal/

Kaiser PermanenteResearch Program on Genes, Environment, and Health

http://www.dor.kaiser.org/studies/rpgeh/

Live Web cast

Research Programs on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) Web Cast February 14, 2007

Kaiser PermanenteHealthy Heart web site

http://www.permanente.net/healthyheart/

Live Web cast

Healthy Heart Web Cast April 26, 2007

Portable Web cast Control Center - Healthy Heart Web Cast April 26, 2007

Live Web cast

Kaiser PermanenteNorthern California Residency Programs

http://residency.kp.org/ncal/

Live Web cast

KP NCAL Residency Open House Web cast Sept. 8, 2007

The Key to a Successful Web cast

Establishing relationships Building consensus Managing expectations Facilitating change Being prepared


Day of eventProduction team takes over

Staging is set

Cameras set

Audio set

Talent set


Day of eventBack Office preparation

Start Encoders

Watch Questions

Advance Slides

Monitor Phones


User generated content

Streaming from mobile handsets

Streaming to mobile handsets





audience(Mobile/PC)

live event

video broadcast source

Sprint’s video portal





audience(Mobile/PC)

live event

video broadcast source

Sprint’s video portal with real time GPS location on Google map


User generated real-time

mobile video

User GPS position shown in real

time onGoogle map (video studio)

Monitor, manage and map multiple live streams and archived videos, simultaneously. Add new video feeds. Switch between multiple cameras and displays GPS map of live mobile broadcast events.

streamingmedia west 2007: best practices in webcast production

Economy & Finance

live event

video production

production design

live video

event planning

live program

new production system

public press event