Lightyear Digital Theatre

:: Overview
:: Content Delivery
:: Content Delivery Network
:: Network Uptime
:: Network Monitoring
:: Network Reporting
:: Content Management
:: Strategic Carousel Video Transfers Ltd.
:: INSINC Capability, Reliability and Experience

INSINC is a specialty service carrier focused on media and corporate communications over TCP/IP infrastructures. INSINC offers live event netcasting services, wide area network connections, fiber installations, broadband wireless, and Internet audio and video delivery services. INSINC has become a leader in distributing digital audio and video, providing high degrees of expertise in reformatting pre-recorded and live audio and/or video into digital files for distribution over terrestrial and wireless Internet connections. INSINC is a team of broadband streaming specialists integrating disparate technologies (ATM, TCP/IP, VoIP, wireless, satellite, video conferencing, film, telephony) with proprietary video management and delivery tools, media presentation tools, strategic consulting, and broadcast production services.

INSINC’s IMPACT software suite of interactive presentation tools, media asset management, self-service netcasting and audience measurement reports, streamline the delivery process of netcasting to its clients and their customers, employees, suppliers and stakeholders. This can result in faster, clearer communication, longer visits to web sites and access to centralized media assets by widespread employees, customers and consumers.

Lightyear has developed complete systems for the storage, transmission and display of digital material. These digital systems not only enable a massive expansion in theatrical programming and on-screen exhibition, they also decrease overheads and increase profitability. Lightyear has spent years distilling the theatre to its essence, assembling components, technologies and methodologies, that are totally reliable, in order to create an efficient, well appointed and unique environment in which to enjoy screen entertainment. The result is a state-of-the-industry audio/visual experience, in a low cost package, that will help keep profit margins high for licensed Lightyear exhibitors. Lightyear believes that society has arrived at a threshold of change in the worlds of entertainment and culture and that digital technology will alter virtually every aspect of the public entertainment industry. Vastly increased versatility and dramatically improved efficiencies of production, marketing, distribution and exhibition will result from the convergence of emerging digital technologies. The days of film-only theatrical entertainment are virtually over. Live broadcast events and digitally transmitted movies will return true excitement to the arena. The methods for producing astounding quality live real-time concerts and Broadway shows, that will thrill remote audiences, are here now! Timing and technology are aligned and Lightyear is fully prepared to take a significant lead in the “Digital Revolution”. Lightyear proposes an unprecedented digital experience. INSINC proposes to assist with the delivery of such media, both live and on-demand, to Lightyear modeled Compact Interactive Theatres.

INSINC will use its own Streaming Media Content Delivery Network (CDN), in combination with architecture deployed by Akamai, to distribute the video signal(s) provided and required by Lightyear.

INSINC has the largest Canadian owned streaming media infrastructure in Canada, with a proprietary distributed server network, which guarantees reliability and wider reach. By deploying all major streaming INSINC remains technology-neutral, allowing clients to choose their preferred digital player(s) and platform(s). INSINC maintains a distributed network environment that utilizes multiple Tier One network transport provider backbones in multiple locations for delivery of media content over the Internet. Our network is managed from our Broadcast Operations Centre (BOC) in Burnaby, BC where Gigabit Ethernet fibre connections stream directly into the networks of Telus and the Shaw Big Pipe. Together, these Internet access points afford ideal distribution throughout the Province of British Columbia and excellent peering relationships with other international Class A Carriers. INSINC also manages streaming and other media servers out of multiple collocation facilities. These collocation facilities also provide secure, Class A Carrier, computer-housing environments.

Each is connected by a minimum 100Mb / maximum 1Gb Ethernet network to provider backbones ATM Core

• PVC’s
• (E10-E100) Ethernet
• Fiber Access
• (Gig E) Gigabit Ethernet
• Fiber Access
• Ethernet over
• ADSL (Copper)
• Access
• Public Domain Internet

CIT Video Processing Asset Management

• Redundant services hosted at each location
• Ability to handle bursts in traffic for events
• Can distribute network traffic over multiple Internet access points

For international and large capacity events INSINC is pleased to be the preferred Canadian representative of the internationally deployed, massive, fault-tolerant, load-balanced Akamai network. Akamai’s intelligent edge platform for content and streaming media comprises more than 15,000 servers with over 1,000 networks in 66 countries. INSINC can route traffic to its Canadian network or the Akamai network as it wishes, transparently, ensuring the strongest possible delivery environment. There is no packet loss or video degradation on INSINC-provided bandwidth as:

INSINC’s key bandwidth providers employ a strategy of a minimum of 30% excess capacity on any route at any point in time

• INSINC engineered servers are configured to optimally handle a pre-determined number of concurrent media streams to avoid any CPU or disk processing related latency issues.
• INSINC will have 50% surplus network capacity at any point in time. The functionality to provision low streaming volumes and one-time events is inherent in the INSINC solution. Similarly, the ability to scale on demand with an automated load balancing systems is achieved through access to the globally distributed Akamai network.
• INSINC – Akamai International Content Distribution.

INSINC will cause their network services to be available not less than an average of 99.999% and their media server technologies to be available not less than an average of 99.95% of the time in a calendar month. A definition of service failure is failure to connect with the stream(s) over 3 consecutive attempts within a 5-minute period.

Online reporting tools provide an Interface to our network, and allow our technicians to monitor traffic and system resources. Automated monitoring processes run constantly to check and ensure the integrity of the entire system. These automated processes are connected to a 7×24 paging system. Equipment failure and network outages are mitigated by foresight and preventative maintenance. With INSINC’s redundant architecture, any potential outages remain transparent to consumers of content delivered over our CDN and our suppliers CDN. INSINC offers a proprietary, automated live stream monitoring service, StreamDog. StreamDog runs continuously, testing the play state of regular and event-based video streams according to their programmed start and end times. Upon the detection of any video playback error, StreamDog immediately notifies service personnel by email and wireless messaging. This notification persists until the situation is resolved and the video play state returns to an acceptable value.

Example of INSINC Network Monitoring

Example of INSINC Network Bandwidth Monitoring

INSINC’s reporting system details critical information about the streaming service including:

• Report by IP Address
• Total number of hits
• Total number of unique views hits (limited by firewall, NAT, proxy)
• Total number of unique visitors (by domain)
• Number of hits for each individual clip
• Number of unique hits for each individual clip (limited by firewall, NAT,proxy)
• Total Megabytes Transferred
• Number of concurrent users
• Average and peak concurrent users
• Clip length, and average view time for each individual clip
• Details of most popular dates and times content is being accessed.

INSINC supports a full complement of content management tools. From initial media capture to post-production editing and clipping, all facets of the archive lifespan are managed by our integrated Streaming Media Management system. The EPS Scheduler application gives Assembly personnel the ability to list scheduled events for each provisioned venue. Dropdown menu filters are used to selectively display events according to venue and/or event type or status. (See Figure below.)

EPS Scheduler “View Events” Page

To allow integration with other scheduling applications, the INSINC can ingest scheduled event data into the system from spreadsheet, cvs or tab delimited file. Archives will be accessible from the integrated display for playback and editing of clipped segments and archive management. Pending changes to the EPS Scheduler application include a calendar-like interface for a clear view of events and more intuitive schedule management.
For Live events, our MediaDex Event Logger allows content editors to create clips of interesting segments in realtime. These clips will be associated with the produced archive in MediaDex’s Media Clip Editor, which is used during post production to edit and delete previously logged clips, and/or to create new clips (see Figure below.)

Media Clip Editor

Pending modifications to the Media Clip Editor include an easy to use visual mode that allows setting the in and out time points while playing the video archive. Additional planned system enhancements will allow the remote encoders to be easily integrated with this system. To this end, an Archive Management application will be used to import the externally generated archives into our media catalogue database for integrated retrieval and playback. Our Streaming Media Management system manages the archived and live stream data, and provides access methods for linking to media from a web site. Should a more robust content management system be required for the Legislative Assembly’s web site, a specific solution will need to be sought that accommodates existing workflows and procedures.

Our systems are developed using open, standards-based systems such as PHP, Perl, and PostgreSQL. Standards conforming data exchange methods and protocols are used wherever possible. The graphical interface is open and web based, using templates for the majority of its layout. Customization is relatively easy, given that the underlying functionality is not significantly affected.

Corporate Relationships

INSINC has entered into strategic alliances with a number of companies and intends to enter into additional relationships with leading Internet-related organizations to expand and enhance its application technologies and improve services for customer base. Relationships have been formed to date with suppliers Big Pipe Inc. Big Pipe, a division of Shaw Communications, owns and operates a national fibre-optic backbone network, providing data networking and Internet services to North American businesses. In addition to being the primary Internet Backbone for Shaw’s broadband Internet customers, BIG PIPE’s services are available to Internet and Application Service Providers (ISPs and ASPs), Carriers and Enterprise Organizations. INSINC has one Gigabit Ethernet and three (3) 100MB connections directly onto Shaw’s backbone, which services over 1.5 million digital subscribers. Telus Whole Global Trading and Solutions. TELUS Corporation is one of Canada’s leading telecommunications companies providing a full range of telecommunications products and services that connect Canadians to the world. The company is the leading service provider in Western Canada. TELUS also provides data, Internet Protocol, voice and wireless services to Central and Eastern Canada. With the purchase of QuebecTel and national digital wireless company Clearnet Communications Inc., TELUS is rapidly strengthening its position as a leading national service provider. INSINC procures wholesale fibre and DSL services from Telus and maintains a fiber connection directly on net with Telus. This provides the Company direct access to Telus’ 1.5 million plus broadband subscribers. Akamai Technologies, Inc. Akamai is a leading provider of secure, outsourced ebusiness infrastructure services and software. Akamai has the world’s largest distributed network and technology platform and an integrated suite of services and software for content and application delivery, content customization, and business intelligence with over 15,000 servers distributed over 66 countries.

INSINC partners with Carousel to convert multiimage presentations to video for broadcast. Carousel operates a full production facility inside of INSINC’s Broadcast Operation facilities. Carousel operates a proprietary Interactive Motion Control system that INSINC streams to the Internet. The Canadian Press. Through its sales and marketing channel, Canadian Press (CP) resells INSINC netcasting services to its Photo Assignment and Command News clients. The agreement also calls for INSINC to provide hosting and streaming solutions for CP’s audio files sold by CP to newspaper member and non-member websites. CP is Canada’s national news cooperative, serving most of Canada’s newspapers, television and radio stations, cable companies and a variety of corporate, government and educational government clients. Novanet Communications Limited. The Company has an agreement with Novanet Communications Limited to become the exclusive provider of technology and services for the packaging of IP-based audio and video over Novanet’s extensive satellite datacasting network. Novanet provides customized satellite network design, implementation and system management services to leading newspapers, broadcasters and retail outlets throughout North America as well as hundreds of thousands of paging customers. Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. The Company is a Channel Partner of Hewlett- Packard (Canada) Ltd. which is also INSINC’s primary equipment leasing agent. This arrangement allows the Company to employ the latest technologies through an innovative upgrade plan offered by Hewlett Packard. Audio Visual Integration and Application Solutions Inc. (AVIAS) AVIAS is an organization specializing in the design, engineering, sales, support, integration and project management of specialized audio and video services. INSINC subcontracts onsite audio / visual services to AVIAS for specialty remote webcasts.

INSINC has a history of developing low cost, practical, value added innovations. Foremost among them is INSINC Slidecast, an application for delivering real-time graphical and HTML content synchronized to a live stream and SRM (System Resource Management) for media asset management and control. Additional Value-added considerations that are existing, pending, or currently under review by INSINC include:

• Additional Search Functionality
• Integrated Media Player
• Media Management
• Flexible Clip/Video Editing
• Integrated Usage Reporting
• Improved Scheduler Interface
• Enhanced Stream Security to prevent unauthorized access
• Stream and Network Performance Monitoring
• Management/Administration abilities to create new encoders in the system, add rooms, etc. (Account Manager, currently being tested)
• Import of External Schedules into EPS