The inauguration of Barack Obama as President was historic not only politically but in the world of new media.
Conducted during normal business hours, the inauguration wasn't accessible via TV for most working people, who instead logged on and watched via live web streaming in record numbers.
Akamai, which provides bandwidth services for about 20% of the world's internet, recorded "unprecedented global demand for bandwidth" during the inauguration, according to Beet.tv.
The inauguration wasn't only about volume. Media companies took major strides in presenting streaming video in a more content-rich and user-controllable format.
As Kent Chapline describes on Lost Remote, the CBS O & O's offered a page with seven different streams, allowing the user to choose the perspective they wanted for the Inauguration. The page also included on demand offerings of the inauguration speeches of presidents back to FDR, and an embedded live Twitter feed during the event.
MSNBC's player also included past inauguration speeches with this great add-on: Each speech had a searchable transcript in the sidebar; click on a section of the speech in text, it cues it up to that point in video. Cory Bergman of MSNBC.com offers more details on Lostremote.com.
Overall, these digital media tools enabled large media companies to tell the inauguration story immediately with greater breadth and depth than ever before, all while giving more control over the content experience to...dare I say it...the media consumer.
For a complete review of all the major media companies' streaming coverage, check out the review by Dan Rayburn on Businessofvideo.com.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Mapping a story with geographic breadth
The recent flooding in the Northwest provided a good example of a situation where taking the extra time to MAP the news can add real context and meaning to a story.
Unlike the preceding winter storm, which was concentrated in well-known, urban areas, the flooding hit small, lesser known towns hardest. Many of these communities are places the average local TV viewer may not have heard of, or at a minimum would have difficulty locating.
On KGW.com, we wrote stories and posted photos and videos from the affected areas, as we would normally do. But we also created an interactive map using Google's mapping feature, situating the stories, videos and photos onto a map that the user can control and explore.
View Larger Map
The result is a highly visual way of putting the story in context, conveying the breadth of the storm and also educating users about the places where the damage happened.
Creating a quick where-did-a-story-happen map takes only minutes using Quikmaps. Creating a multi-media map that includes multiple locations and multiple tyoes of media content can take several hours but is well worth it when the geographic reach is part of the story, and where there are many content elements.
Unlike the preceding winter storm, which was concentrated in well-known, urban areas, the flooding hit small, lesser known towns hardest. Many of these communities are places the average local TV viewer may not have heard of, or at a minimum would have difficulty locating.
On KGW.com, we wrote stories and posted photos and videos from the affected areas, as we would normally do. But we also created an interactive map using Google's mapping feature, situating the stories, videos and photos onto a map that the user can control and explore.
View Larger Map
The result is a highly visual way of putting the story in context, conveying the breadth of the storm and also educating users about the places where the damage happened.
Creating a quick where-did-a-story-happen map takes only minutes using Quikmaps. Creating a multi-media map that includes multiple locations and multiple tyoes of media content can take several hours but is well worth it when the geographic reach is part of the story, and where there are many content elements.
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