WUSA streams State of the Union Address in HD

WUSA, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., delivered President George Bush's State of the Union Address Jan. 23 live on the Internet in HD.

The Web simulcast of the HD pool feed is believed to be the first time a TV station has streamed a live event publicly over the Internet in HD.

The station used the Digital Rapids StreamZHD to encode the HD pool feed of the event into Windows Media Video format — Microsoft's implementation of SMPTE VC-1 — in real time at 1280 x 720 frame size and stream it for distribution.

Two DRC-Stream encoding boards with Digital Rapids Stream software were also used to provide SD and smaller streams for users with lower-bandwidth connections.

WUSA was the first TV station in Washington, D.C., and sixth in the United States to present its local live newscasts in HD. The station's Web site, WUSA9.com, was also the first local broadcast station Web site to offer streaming video for local news.

For more information, visit www.digital-rapids.com.