Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 24)

case study Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry By Ira Weinstein he Dow Chemical Co. is a diversified company that offers a broad range of products and services to customers in more than 175 countries, helping it to provide everything from fresh water, food, and pharmaceuticals to paints, packaging, and personal care products. Built on a commitment to principles of sustainability, Dow has annual sales of $49 billion and employs 43,000 people worldwide. After roughly 4 years of discussions with various solution providers, in mid-2007 Dow activated the DiamondTV project, a global initiative to enable the creation, management, and delivery of rich media content to Dow locations around the world. To expand the effectiveness and reach of its existing communication programs, in mid-2007 Dow Chemical Company initiated the roll-out of a global rich media streaming solution from Starbak. To date, the company has invested roughly $1 million to deploy the streaming solution to approximately 40 locations. Dow chose Starbak’s Integrated Network Video (INV) for a variety of reasons, including Starbak’s approach to leveraging yet protecting Dow’s IP network, the capabilities of the management engine within the platform, and the turnkey nature of the offering. By mid-2008, the company expects DiamondTV to be available to employees in 150 locations across the globe. t Starbak Manager is a centralized management system deployed as a turnkey appliance that provides the ability to manage the devices, content, and users within the global streaming environment. address its basic requirements while allowing it to leverage its existing infrastructure. There were five key objectives of this project: • Reach and communicate with employees in 250-plus Dow locations around the world • Distribute information quickly, often in a matter of hours, to a global audience • Make information available to employees conveniently (at their desks and during local business hours) and easily • Limit information access to individuals authorized to view that content • Encourage the creation and distribution of rich media content Project Rationale and Objectives Dow recognizes the importance of its global communications—both internally and externally to customers, partners, and other interested parties. For many years, the company used satellite technology to broadcast important videos and rich media content (e.g., CEO presentations) to almost 80 Dow facilities and offices in the U.S. and Europe. Although reliable and well-received by employees, the satellite broadcast system had several limitations: • Limited coverage area—Satellite broadcasts could reach only U.S. and European offices. • Inconvenience—To view the content, users had to go to a particular location or room and tune into the broadcast at the scheduled time (regardless of time zone differences). • Distribution lag—The need to reserve satellite time and inform viewers in advance of the broadcast schedule limited the ability to distribute time-sensitive information. • Usage-based cost—Although not prohibitively expensive, satellite transmissions incur an hourly usage fee that the organization must shoulder. Choosing the Right Vendor/Solution Once it understood its needs, Dow faced the challenge of finding a streaming solution that was easy to deploy and manage and that could be deployed cost-effectively throughout its global environment. Additional considerations included finding a vendor with solid experience supporting an organization as large and distributed as Dow and ensuring that Dow’s production IP network (local area network/LAN and wide area network/WAN) was not infringed. After several years of planning and research, Dow selected Starbak and its Integrated Network Video (INV) platform. The reasons behind Dow’s choice of Starbak included the following: • A focus on leveraging yet protecting Dow’s production IP network via support for multicast networks and the use of integrated caching appliances • The availability of powerful centralized management platform enabling the creation, management, and protection of valuable rich media content • The ability to integrate with existing systems in the environment (e.g., satellite distribution networks, active directory/LDAP) In hopes of resolving these issues, Dow turned its sights on streaming, a technology that it believed would 24 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - April/May 2008

Streaming Media - April/May 2008 Table of Contents Beyond the Bottom Line Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers (Not So) Instant Karma MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry Why Video Is Changing the World A Decade of StreamingMedia.com What's Your Digital Media Strategy? Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines Analyze That A League of Their Own: Streaming Media All-Stars Where Are They Now? Wanted: Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs Anystream Agility Inlet Technologies Spinnaker S3000

Streaming Media - April/May 2008

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