Since its founding, Turner Broadcasting has been a technical innovator working to deliver the very best media experiences to its consumers. As part of Turner and the first TV-affiliated news site on the Web, CNN.com likewise has worked to bring online news to millions of consumers in the most innovative and user-friendly manner since 1995.
As a natural extension of the innovation core to the DNA of both Turner and CNN.com, Turner selected Octoshape as a best-of-breed P2P technology to help provide CNN.com's users around the globe with what we believe is the best live webcast experience available on the Internet. Octoshape is an established P2P delivery company, and has served several other media companies besides Turner.
Further, using P2P technologies to distribute commercial content on the Web is hardly new. Companies like the BBC, Joost, AOL and many others have delivered content using P2P technologies for years. P2P technologies are also used by millions of consumers daily for activities such as the transmission of files via instant messaging applications and Internet telephony.
Today, P2P technologies have evolved to the point where previously unattainable scale for live webcasts is now achievable. In preparation for high interest in viewing CNN.com's Live streaming of President Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, Turner anticipated that the resulting stresses on the various CDNs and the Internet in general would make it extremely difficult - if not impossible - to serve such an unprecedented audience without the use of P2P technologies. In concert with CDNs, CNN.com was able to provide over 1.3 million simultaneous live video streams on Jan. 20 - and more than 650,000 of those simultaneous streams were delivered with P2P technology.
Turner has been forthcoming about the use of P2P technologies in the CNN.com Live video player - both with users and the public at-large. Since Octoshape was incorporated into the CNN.com Live player in Nov. 2008, users have been presented with the option to accept the P2P plug-in to enhance performance upon initial launch of the live player; and if they exercise that option, are presented with the end-user license agreement (EULA) that describes how the software operates. It also is important to note that users are not required to use the software in order to receive the requested video stream. All of CNN's video is available to consumers without the use or installation of a P2P plug-in.
There are also multiple ways to delete the Octoshape software from a user's computer. Within the CNN.com Live player's "Help" feature, users are referred to Octoshape's website and provided with instructions on how to uninstall the plug-in. Additionally, the software can be uninstalled via traditional Windows tools for adding/deleting software.
As Turner continues to deliver quality content to the largest audiences possible, we recognize that the Internet will continue to evolve, and methods for scalable delivery of Web content will necessarily evolve with it; and as a company, we will continue to work with industry stakeholders - including ISPs and privacy experts - to develop the latest, most innovative and user-friendly methods for scalable delivery of content on the Web.
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Another perspective:
CNN: Inauguration P2P Stream a Success, Despite Backlash
http://bit.ly/vfEl
Since its founding, Turner Broadcasting has been a technical innovator working to deliver the very best media experiences to its consumers. As part of Turner and the first TV-affiliated news site on the Web, CNN.com likewise has worked to bring online news to millions of consumers in the most innovative and user-friendly manner since 1995.
As a natural extension of the innovation core to the DNA of both Turner and CNN.com, Turner selected Octoshape as a best-of-breed P2P technology to help provide CNN.com's users around the globe with what we believe is the best live webcast experience available on the Internet. Octoshape is an
established P2P delivery company, and has served several other media companies besides Turner.
Further, using P2P technologies to distribute commercial content on the Web is hardly new. Companies like the BBC, Joost, AOL and many others have delivered content using P2P technologies for years. P2P technologies are also used by millions of consumers daily for activities such as the transmission of files via instant messaging applications and Internet telephony.
Today, P2P technologies have evolved to the point where previously unattainable scale for live webcasts is now achievable. In preparation for high interest in viewing CNN.com's Live streaming of President Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, Turner anticipated that the resulting
stresses on the various CDNs and the Internet in general would make it extremely difficult - if not impossible - to serve such an unprecedented audience without the use of P2P technologies. In concert with CDNs, CNN.com was able to provide over 1.3 million simultaneous live video streams on Jan. 20 - and more than 650,000 of those simultaneous streams were delivered with P2P technology.
Turner has been forthcoming about the use of P2P technologies in the CNN.com Live video player - both with users and the public at-large. Since Octoshape was incorporated into the CNN.com Live player in Nov. 2008, users have been presented with the option to accept the P2P plug-in to enhance performance upon initial launch of the live player; and if they exercise that option, are presented with the end-user license agreement (EULA) that describes how the software operates. It also is important to note that users are not required to use the software in order to receive the requested video stream. All of CNN's video is available to consumers without the use or installation of a P2P plug-in.
There are also multiple ways to delete the Octoshape software from a user's computer. Within the CNN.com Live player's "Help" feature, users are referred to Octoshape's website and provided with instructions on how to uninstall the plug-in. Additionally, the software can be uninstalled via traditional Windows tools for adding/deleting software.
As Turner continues to deliver quality content to the largest audiences possible, we recognize that the Internet will continue to evolve, and methods for scalable delivery of Web content will necessarily evolve with it; and as a company, we will continue to work with industry stakeholders - including ISPs and privacy experts - to develop the latest, most innovative and user-friendly methods for scalable delivery of content on the Web.