City of Berkeley Selects Granicus for Streaming Media Management and Distribution; Solution Optimizes Access to Information & Lowers Costs.Business Editors SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2003 The City of Berkeley has implemented a new streaming media See streaming audio, streaming video and digital media hub. management and distribution solution that reduces costs across all City departments, while increasing community and employee access to information. Using an enterprise solution from Granicus, the leading provider of streaming media solutions to local government, the City of Berkeley publishes indexed video of weekly city council meetings and other public information pieces to community members and city employees over the Internet. This initiative has decreased the costs of responding to incoming requests for city council meeting information, while increasing video publishing turnaround time (1) In batch processing, the time it takes to receive finished reports after submission of documents or files for processing. In an online environment, turnaround time is the same as response time. by up to 75%. The system is also expected to reduce costs and increase availability of Berkeley's internal training and public education videos. "Our implementation with Granicus is much more cost-effective and comprehensive than in-house alternatives," said Weldon Rucker, Berkeley's City Manager. "We have saved staff time and improved customer service during a time of fiscal constraint Constraint A restriction on the natural degrees of freedom of a system. If n and m are the numbers of the natural and actual degrees of freedom, the difference n - m is the number of constraints. by giving website visitors 24x7 access to information," said Donna LaSala, E-Government Manager, City of Berkeley. "This is a great example of how technology should be used to increase civic participation and make local government more effective." Berkeley chose the Granicus solution because it is designed specifically for city and county governments and meets specific public sector needs. Particularly beneficial to Berkeley is a group of unique features that automates the creation of a searchable index with "jump points" based on agenda items for each video archive. The resulting searchable index has proven crucial for city council meetings, which can run 4-6 hours in length. The searchable index is a benefit to community members and city staff who refer to meeting archives for clarification of City issues. Another feature critical in Berkeley's decision to select Granicus, intelligent video routing, eliminates the bandwidth issues traditionally associated with streaming media by intelligently leveraging internal and external streaming servers Refers to a dedicated computer system delivering streaming media or to a streaming service within a Web or application server. See streaming audio and streaming video. to distribute streaming media requests. As a result, traffic for streaming media never affects Berkeley's existing Internet connectivity no matter how great the demand. The City of Berkeley video website -- www.cityofberkeley.info/video -- now has fully integrated video and document files for each live or archived meeting and additional public education videos. Each video is indexed, allowing browsers to jump to the relevant portion of the meeting quickly, and have all pertaining per·tain intr.v. per·tained, per·tain·ing, per·tains 1. To have reference; relate: evidence that pertains to the accident. 2. documents at their fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. on demand. Prior to implementation of this system, the public would request the video from the city clerk In the United States, a City Clerk is an elected or appointed official who is responsible as the official keeper of the municipal records. In some places, the Clerk may be known as the "Village Clerk" or "Town Clerk". , with an average turnaround Turnaround A situation where a company that has had poor performance for an extended period of time experiences a positive reversal. Notes: A speculator may profit from a turnaround if he or she accurately anticipates the improvement of a poorly performing company. of 48-hours. "The City of Berkeley has a large population of tech-savvy people who have high expectations of their government's ability to deliver information," said Tom Spengler, Granicus Co-Founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "Granicus and Berkeley have more than met their expectations and those of the city staff and have delivered a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use solution." About Granicus: Granicus, Inc. is a leading provider of streaming media solutions to local government agencies. Cities and counties utilize the Granicus solution to improve external and internal access to public meetings, which are available in the Windows Media Microsoft's audio and video framework for Windows, which embraces playback, encoding and streaming. Windows Media Player is the digital jukebox and media player that comes with every version of Windows. (TM) audio and video format live over the Internet, and as searchable archives that can be used for efficient long-term record keeping. By measurably improving public and internal access to information beyond what can be provided through cable broadcast, Granicus has become the popular streaming media solution of choice for such innovative cities and governments as Ventura County, City of Sacramento, City of Brentwood and City of Pinole Pinole (pĭnōl`), city (1990 pop. 17,460), Contra Costa co., W Calif., on San Pablo Bay; inc. 1903. Primarily residential, it manufactures concrete and chemicals. . For more information about Granicus, please visit: www.granicus.com or call 415-522-5216. |
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