With the Cricket World Cup set to start this weekend, business around the country can look forward to reduced productivity as staff and management sneak off to have a quick round down at the bar while keeping tabs on the score of their favourite teams.
This was a problem faced by local multimedia house, EcoWeb, which, during the previous World Cup Soccer event hosted in SA, was eagerly seeking a solution that would keep staff happy, productivity levels high and network congestion to a minimum.
"We were approached by Graphic Image Technologies (GIT) with a streaming video solution that met the needs of the company, both in terms of the technology used, the targets met and the overall cost," says Mike Laws, GM, Sales and Marketing at EcoWeb.
"The solution was installed for internal messaging throughout our organisation, enabling our CEO to communicate efficiently and effectively with staff no matter their location," he says. Value-adds soon became apparent over the course of the World Cup Soccer games. "Streaming video allowed staff who were interested in following the results to do so at TV quality with no impact on productivity or network bandwidth."
The technology enables users to receive up to six live analogue signals, encode them in real-time to MPEG-1 2 or MPEG-4 standards and then stream them over an IP network in multicast or unicast mode. "Operators and organisations can use their DSL, fibre, and Ethernet LANs for IP-based TV broadcasts, such as the Cricket World Cup," he says.
"Our streaming video solutions are capable of transmitting multiple channels of live TV and video over IP networks in real-time," says Mark Chertkow, MD of GIT.
Obviously there are a number of real world business applications. According to Chertkow, GIT products are in use around the world in governments, corporations and educational institutions. "Politicians stream multiple channels of live debates, committee proceedings and news over IP networks to desktops of hundreds of representatives and staffers while company executives use the technology to access the monthly proceedings of board meetings over corporate networks. CBT initiatives are also easily enabled using the technologies regardless of the location of the staff member or pupil," he explains.
By implementing a multicast solution on your LAN, the world cup need not place a damper on your productivity levels, with staff able to monitor the games from their desktop while attending to their day to day function.
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Graphic Image Technologies is a media-focused company operating in the digital video, advanced Web and multimedia environment.
The GIT Multimedia Bureau produces presentations, CD-ROMs and kiosks. In addition, it develops Web applications and provides database and e-commerce integration.
In the video arena, GIT is focused on offering a vast array of solutions, ranging from broadcasting video over satellite and ATM, to multicast applications for use in the corporate LAN and WAN and Internet streaming environments.
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