New England Cable News (NECN), the nation’s largest regional cable news network serving 2.8 million New England households, has begun streaming video-on-demand (VOD) news stories to its Internet Web site.
Jointly owned by Comcast and the Hearst Corporation, NECN chose Mirror Image Internet, a Woburn, Mass.-based Internet content delivery provider, to stream its video and audio programming to www.necn.com. The online service offers viewers free around-the-clock access to up-to-date news, weather, entertainment and sports video clips.
Mirror Image’s Content Access Point (CAP) technology, used for the NECN site, was designed to bypass Internet congestion and provide fast downloads and uninterrupted streaming delivery to 2.8 million homes, even during the unexpected traffic spikes associated with breaking news. The service supports leading multimedia formats, including RealNetworks, Windows Media and QuickTime.
In addition, Mirror Image automated the upload, publishing and distribution process to offer management intelligence on viewers’ patterns and bandwidth usage. By removing the “heavy lifting” from NECN’s origin server, Mirror Image said it has saved NECN 55 percent on reduced infrastructure and operating costs.
As the foundation for the world’s first Application Delivery Network (ADN), the CAP platform, said Mirror Image, combines high-capacity computing and large-scale storage with extensive connectivity. The scalability and flexibility of the technology provides a platform that companies can continue to extend as specific needs and customer demands change and grow over time. The CAP infrastructure operates on equipment made by Mirror Image technology partners Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Sun.
For more information on Mirror Image’s CAP technology, visit: www.mirror-image.com.
