Sonic Foundry Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), a leading rich media solutions company, will use its Mediasite Live? system to Webcast live on Dec. 17 a unique Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) project. In a rare engineering feat, WisDOT will float the entire arch of the new Mississippi River bridge in La Crosse, Wis. and connect it to permanent bridge piers. The arch is 475 feet long, 50 feet wide and 87 feet high. It is comprised of 2.8 million pounds of steel held together with more than 28,000 field bolts. Once completed, the entire bridge will span 2,573 feet.
Using Mediasite Live, a real-time rich media Web communications system, WisDOT will chronicle the event, complete with interviews with department staff, civil engineers, construction crew members, local elected officials, government agency representatives and La Crosse area residents. The Webcast also will display engineering diagrams and photographs detailing the progression of the construction project. Weather permitting, the WisDOT Webcast will begin on Dec. 17 at approximately 6:00 a.m. Central Time. To view the Webcast, live or on-demand, visit http://www.sonicfoundry.com/solutions/widot.html. A condensed, on-demand version also will be available.
?This is a proud moment for WisDOT, and we?re excited that Mediasite Live allows us to share it with state and local residents, as well as other state DOTs,? said Gary Snyder, bridge project leader, WisDOT. ?Not only is the Webcast a valuable real-time communications tool, but the archive will serve as both an educational and historical rich media resource for years to come.?
Mediasite Live is used by more than 70 organizations within the education, corporate, government and healthcare markets for a variety of applications, including Web-based distance education, corporate communications, Webcasting, product marketing and online training. By automating the capture, encoding, synchronization and streaming of audio, video and any type of graphical content in real time, the award-winning system is quickly becoming the new standard upon which rich media Web communications are compared. Its unique dual-channel, real-time processor captures and encodes all RGB-source graphics, maximizing the value of AV infrastructure investments while eliminating all the complicated and time-consuming pre- and post-production requirements typically associated with high-quality interactive Web content.
?It is a testament to Mediasite Live?s unmatched capabilities that WisDOT trusts it to record and Webcast an event of this magnitude where there will be no rehearsals and no second chances to get it right,? said Joe Plasterer, director of government solutions for Sonic Foundry. ?The engineering community now has a powerful tool that integrates video with a variety of real-time visuals for documentation, training and analysis. This event is a superb example of how rich media can be applied to create and share case information in real-time from the field.?
The new two-lane bridge represents an estimated $40 million investment in Wisconsin's transportation system and will provide better access to downtown La Crosse and into Minnesota, while accommodating current and future roadway traffic volumes. The project will create a four-lane highway (US 14/61/WIS 16) with the new bridge carrying eastbound traffic and the existing Cass Street Bridge carrying westbound traffic.
About Sonic Foundry?, Inc.
Founded in 1991, Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO) is a provider of rich media communications technology for the enterprise. The company's high-performance Webcasting and Web presentation solutions are trusted by Fortune 500 companies, education institutions and government agencies for a variety of critical communication needs. Sonic Foundry is based in Madison, Wis. For more information about Sonic Foundry, visit the company's Web site at www.sonicfoundry.com