Media in the Real World

Additionally, the company had recently adopted Cisco’s Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) enterprise content delivery network product line as its intranet streaming infrastructure. When deploying an ECDN, one of the thorniest issues is how many servers to buy, where to put them, and how to use them.

Most streaming quality of service (QoS) products perform a periodic check on a small portion of a single test file from sampling sites around the network. In contrast, thePlatform offers a unique tool set that silently monitors virtually every stream and provides detailed statistics on usage and QoS—including how long viewers watched each video.

Thanks to thePlatform, Ken Herr’s group can view data on how much of each video is watched. If a video isn’t keeping users engaged, thePlatform’s reports help diagnose whether the problem is the content or the infrastructure. "Whether it is knowing that a particular piece of content missed the mark, or that we could repurpose a caching server rather than purchasing a new one, thePlatform lets us utilize our resources more effectively—and that translates into cost savings that go right to the bottom line."

Putting Your Best Foot Forward
The next phase was to update the company’s public web site with a searchable archive of digital media content. For this new application, thePlatform provided both content management and a turnkey brandable media portal.

"For the back end, we needed a Web-based workflow that let non-technical users upload, preview, and approve various media for our Web site’s video library," says Steve Cameron. thePlatform allows media managers located anywhere to log in, upload any media format—from digital video to PDFs—publish the files to the delivery server, preview the final result, and approve it—all with just a few clicks. This easy-to-use, off-the-shelf toolset means that both initial training and the ongoing human cost of content management is kept to a minimum.

For the front end, Air Products also turned to thePlatform.

Like most companies, Air Products has a carefully crafted look and feel to their Web site, and making media an integrated part of that look and feel was crucial. "We didn’t want a new portal—we already have a portal, and we already have a design," Cameron recalls. "Media needed to fit seamlessly into that framework."

Customizing thePlatform’s built-in media portal technology to fit in the overall site design took only a few hours (see http://www.airproducts.com/AboutUs/VideoLibrary/), and users flow seamlessly back and forth between the company’s portal and the media pages. Of course, the same QoS reporting is available for media monitoring on the public site.

Fitting In, and Standing Out
Working exclusively on the Internet or the intranet is one thing, but today critical business processes happen via secure extranets that tie companies and their customers and vendors together, and Air Products is no exception. The company’s Air Products Direct (APDirect®) Customer Portal provides secure access to a host of features, but online access to Air Products’ rich library of multimedia product information, training, and safety materials was missing from the mix. Making this material more readily available not only helps the bottom line, but sometimes literally can save lives.