The Day the Video Played September 1998
InterVU Delivered over 300,000 video streams for CNN.COM of live coverage of President Clinton's Grand Jury Testimony. The total figure reflects Internet viewer demand met by InterVU over a four-hour period beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT on September 21, 1998.
InterVU also reported that the number of simultaneous video streams it delivered to CNN.COM viewer peaked at over 18,000 during the 11 a.m. hour (EDT). CNN reported receiving approximately 20,000 simultaneous requests for video during the same time period.
InterVU's distributed Network was specifically designed to handle a high volume of simultaneous end-user requests to meet the demand of large event audiences. "The numbers speak for themselves," said Ed Huguez, COO InterVU on September 21st. "This morning, the InterVU Network successfully met the demands of what we believe is the largest Internet viewing public ever, flawlessly delivering the video to as many as 18,493 people simultaneously, and handling over 300,000 requests altogether."
InterVU (www.intervu.net) hosted on demand video footage of the Clinton testimony throughout the week for CNN's Internet audience.
Broadcast.com, then the leading aggregator and broadcaster of streaming media programming on the Web, announced that it set a record day for simultaneous users on September 21st. Broadcast.com provided live and on-demand audio and video streaming of Clinton's grand jury testimony tape on the Internet, in addition to providing broadcast solutions for CNN.com, MSNBC.com and CourtTV. With that coverage, combined with its daily business services and audio and video programming, the company estimated it had supported over 50,000 simultaneous users. Of these 50,000 users, 30,000 accessed the stream via unicast technology and an estimated 20,000 utilized broadcast.com's multicast network. Broadcast.com expected daily unique visitor count to exceed 1 million on September 21st.(http://www.broadcast.com)
RealNetworks estimated over two million viewers experienced the Clinton Testimony online using its RealVideo technology. This activity represented a record in Internet broadcast history which was enabled by RealNetworks strategic relationships with major broadcasters, including ABCnews.com, Fox News, CNN and NPR. "Today was a watershed in the history of Internet broadcasting," said Rob Glaser, chairman and chief executive officer, RealNetworks, Inc., "A lot of people have read about Clinton's testimony; RealNetworks enabled millions of people to experience the testimony live over the Internet in RealAudio®and RealVideo®." "RealNetworks was fast approaching a 'cable-sized' audience", said Mark Hall, executive producer, RealNetworks, Inc.
Amazon.com was busy taking advance orders for ''The Grand Jury Testimony of William Jefferson Clinton,'' and on Monday it was its hottest-selling title at Amazon. Followed by a soon to be released Stephen King novel and the Starr report was in the number three slot.
@Home Offers High-Quality on Demand Viewing of Clinton Video
On the heels of the landmark decision by Congress to release the videotapes of President Clinton's grand jury testimony, @Home Network(TM), the leader in high- speed Internet services via the cable infrastructure, announced that its subscribers would be able to view the testimony on demand on the @Home service.
When the Starr Report was released on the @Home service over 40% of @Home subscribers accessed the News Channel, a two-fold increase over typical traffic patterns. @Home anticipated that subscriber traffic to the News Channel would again spike when the video testimony was released on Monday.
Because @Home's high-speed cable network allowed for near-instantaneous downloads of large data files (such as video), @Home subscribers had immediate access to the testimony, as opposed to users of traditional dial-up connections, who encountered significant delays due to bandwidth constraints and network congestion.
The cable connection allowed for higher frame rates, near-CD quality audio, and a larger frame size, which together represented a significantly higher quality video experience. "The public's response to the release of the Starr report online showed us that the Internet has become a preferred medium for news and information," said Richard Gingras, editor-in-chief and vice president of programming for @Home Network.
Unfortunately, many people who tried to access the Starr Report online were unable to do so because of the extremely high traffic levels on the Internet. They expected that the release of this video will create major headaches for traditional dial-up networks and ISPs. But, because @Home had massive bandwidth through cable, they could deliver the video on demand to customers without the annoying delays and image problems typically associated with Internet video streaming and webcasting.
The @Home Viewing Experience @Home separated the four hours of video testimony into discrete, indexed components so that subscribers could choose which sections of the testimony they would liked to view and when they would like to view them. Benefits of this segmented presentation include: