Date: 2009-09-29 Category: Profiles
Profile: MultiStream
Cardiff based MultiStream is a company that specialises in all things streaming. The organisation is a unique combination of broadcast and information technology experts, and work with broadcasters, OB units, facilities houses, production companies and event mangers to provide the webcast element of their production. MultiStream pride themselves on getting their clients’ content to the intended audience, irrelevant of the location, timing, technology or type of content involved.
Claire Jones spoke to Ruth Thomas of MultiStream to find out more.
What’s the history of your company?
MultiStream was formed in 2007 by Richard Baker and myself. We spotted an opportunity in the market to create a company which only offered webcasting as opposed to having a company which sold the service as just an add on. With Richards expertise in IT and my experience in production, we had the perfect combination to offer this specialist service.
What unique products/services does your company provide?
MultiStream provides live and on demand webcasting services, streaming events and conferences live on the internet. We are unique because we have experience and balance. Experience because
we have worked with a variety of clients, from FTSE 100 companies to large public sector organisations, and balance because we have got broadcast and information technology experts under one roof.
Core to all our projects is the client. We tailor the process to suit their needs and we continually look for ways to enhance the broadcast.
For example, we can enhance the user experience by providing branded web pages that contain synchronised slides from a presentation and embedded video. The slides simulcast alongside the video
feed and automatically advance for the user exactly as if they were in the presentation.
What’s been the key to your success?
We have been careful not to spread ourselves too thin. We are not a production company, broadcaster or marketing agency. Instead, we are an internet broadcasting specialist that works in partnership
with these companies to stream that critical launch, announcement, meeting, ceremony or gig.
We also provide a service that is tailored to meet the needs and requirements of our clients. Whatever the location, time or technology involved, we guarantee that our clients will get their content to
reach their intended audience.
What one piece of outside technology software/hardware/other has benefited your company most?
We deliver our webcasts using a Content Network Delivery provider; this piece of technology is suited to our business because it has clusters of edge servers worldwide. We upload the live stream to the
nearest edge server and then dependent on the viewers location, the server closest to them will deliver the live stream.
CDNs are full proof and they offer redundancy so that we are not relying on one server to deliver content. The technology proved to be invaluable in 2007 when we delivered a live webcast of a drug
trial results from a conference in Athens. Watched by 2000 viewers worldwide, the CDN provider enabled successful delivery of the live webcast.
What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
Know your field of expertise! If you are passionate about what you do, then this will come across to prospective clients. More importantly, listen to your clients. Include them within the proposal process by
asking questions about what they would like to see. If you understand who they are and what they are trying to achieve, then a successful and long-lasting relationship will be formed.
Where do you see your company going in the future?
As webcasting technology is continuously progressing we aim to be at the forefront of industry delivering bespoke services to our clients.
Flash is the latest live streaming technology to develop so we will be producing our webcasts with simulcast slides in Flash format which will enable the webcasts to be ubiquitous in all browser formats.
Whats more, our turnover has trebled in the past year so we aim to continue growing successfully in this manner.
For more information on MultiStream, visit www.multistream.co.uk.
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