Streaming media and content delivery provider StreamGuys provided the Internet broadcast services for the 54th Monterey Jazz Festival. Evening performances from the Night Club/Bill Berry Stage were hosted live over the websites of the Monterey Jazz Festival and Santa Cruz-based NPR member station KUSP-FM. Popular NPR jazz music blog 'A Blog Supreme' also hosted the performances.
StreamGuys delivered H.264 video and AAC+ audio at varying bit rates to support an array of user speeds and media players. The company used its highly scalable, virtualized streaming infrastructure to deliver live, synchronized video and audio streams to desktops, laptops and mobile devices.
StreamGuys provided embedded media players to all three websites to give viewers direct, simple and free access to the live streams.
Timothy Orr, marketing associate for Monterey Jazz Festival, noted that streaming media offers a great opportunity to introduce jazz to new audiences. The webcast recorded more than 3,000 visitors from 59 countries, and expects that to grow in the coming years with more advance promotion.
"It's about reaching more people," said Orr. "We want to increase our audiences and put something out there that inspires people to come to the festival. Jazz needs to grow as a genre, and using technology in a forward-thinking manner is an ideal way to engage a younger demographic while gaining more exposure for the festival and the artists."
(Jim Evans)
