COPE
COPE AM y FM, like Rock & Gol and Cadena 100 all broadcast their programs live at 32 Kbps and 64 kbps, while the television network Popular TV broadcasts at 348 Kbps.
The Cadena Ondas Populares de España network (COPE), a subsidiary of Radio Popular, S.A., is one of the main Spanish radio broadcasting companies. It was founded in the early 1960's in partnership with the Episcopal Conference, as well various dioceses and religious orders such as the Jesuits and Dominicans. These parties are still the majority shareholders. Although it broadcasts religious shows on specific dates COPE is a general interest radio station with diverse programming. According to the General Media Study (EGM), it has over 2.100.000 listeners and is second only to Cadena SER in Spain. This group also owns the commercial radio stations Cadena 100, new Rock & Gol a music and sports station, and Popular TV a local television network.
The challenge
Although they were able to broadcast using Windows Media Audio at a decent quality, they wanted to expand their audience to reach 100% of end users. They chose the Internet’s leading format, MP3, to help them reach this goal. They needed a solution that could be integrated into their own pipeline and was located in their own offices. They also needed something that transparent and that could guarantee a reliable quality broadcast. In terms of podcasting, COPE needed a cost effective solution to create an audio library.
Finally, for their Popular TV web video portal, they needed a solution that allowed them to show content that was compatible with 100% of users at an optimum quality.
Macromedia/Adobe Flash is the Internet's leading audiovisual format. The Flash player is now available in 99% of end user’s computers, no matter what operating system or web browser they use. This is why COPE wanted a provider that would allowed them to broadcast in Flash Live at at least 350 Kbps.
COPE's most recent challenge was to offer more online content for broadcasts from its local stations. COPE relies on Flumotion’s encoders for its radio station network's signal acquisition.
Why Flumotion?
The platform advanced features and the capacity to understand the production processes in a radio station have been the key factor in the COPE group's decision to work with Flumotion. Fernando Ruiz Antón, Content Manager, says: "First of all, we realised Flumotion’s understanding of the issues we deal with: we are a radio company which has to broadcast through the airwaves, internet and mobile platforms... Flumotion has facilitated our streaming broadcast reducing it to a single process". "We also appreciate the fact that Flumotion is transparent, agile and proactive when communicating with its clients", he adds.
ADN
This free newspaper published by Planeta enters into a new phase with more audiovisual content and user participation
Free newspapers play an important role in the European media. More than 24 million free newspapers are published in Europe making up for 20 % of the total press. In Spain alone, free newspapers are at a close margin with regular papers with 3.6 million free papers compared to 4.3 million traditional papers. ADN, published by the Planeta Group, has one of the country's top ten most read headlines and has been the largest expanding free newspaper in recent months.
The Internet is the biggest challenge that faces free newspapers. Aware of its importance and of the progressive migration of readers to the web ADN has created a new version of their website. According to its former Director Juan Varela, their site aims to "not only be a medium but also a place to experience and manage content…as well as an informative community for people who are interested in current events and who are dissatisfied with being only passive news recipients". All of this uses a platform built with Flumotion technology and free open source software.
The challenge
Video has become one of the most important forms of online content. The new version of ADN is well aware of this reality and features a whole section dedicated to audiovisual information called ADN.tv. This online medium includes news from agencies, as well as its own newscast in VoD format.
To publish these videos, the newspaper needed a swift and dependable solution that allowed them to centralize their content. They also needed to provide the user with the highest quality broadcast, regardless of the original files and in a format compatible with most browsers, such as Flash Video.
Why Flumotion?
The different platform functionalities along with the cost savings were key factors in ADN's decision to work with Flumotion. Alejandro García Morales, Technical Director of Planeta Medios Digitales, S.L., ADN's publishing company, puts it this way: "We chose Flumotion because of their price-quality ratio. This was the first reason, but we also think their platform's versatility is unique and we share the company's idea to move in the of direction of free software. We have not had any trouble using the platform for as long as we have had it. As a matter of fact, we are going to hire Flumotion for more services".
ANTENA 3
Spain's second most viewed television channel has chosen Flumotion to broadcast programs and series over the internet.
Antena 3 Television has become the second most viewed television channel in Spain with an 20,2% average share of the audience (May 2008). Since June 2003, Grupo Planeta along with De Agostini is the main shareholder. The company has been quoted on the stock exchange since October 2003.
The station based in San Sebastian de los Reyes is convinced that the new scenario set by information technology (IT) will generate greater opportunities and that's why they're moving towards online content. They've opened up a channel on the popular site YouTube and they're streaming the programs of their main channel as well as those included in TDT channels Neox and Nova. They also offer video-on-demand TV series, which is their most popular product.
The challenge
Television over IP presents an important challenge for today’s television stations. Antena 3 Television wanted to lead this revolution in Spain, and was looking for an end-to-end solution that would offer a no risk quality broadcasting with low distribution cost.
Flumotion has developed a multi-format streaming platform using its own technology and has made it available to Antena 3 Television. This has allowed them to transmit their main channel’s content, as well as that of TDT channels Neox and Nova (Live) and their popular TV series , 'El Internado' (VoD), in a simple, efficient and cost-effective way. In addition they offer the live broadcast of Europa FM, a music radio station belonging to the Antena 3TV group, over the Internet.
Why Flumotion?
The deciding factor in the channel’s decision to work with Flumotion was that they could offer services that the current provider couldn’t, at a low cost and with a quick turn around time for production. Flumotion isn’t just a company that speaks in tech talk; it’s also a company that understands the language and market of its clients.
"For us, the most important thing, in addition to having a highly-reliable solution, is to know that there’s someone on the other end who is attentive to our needs—someone who allows us to manage our broadcasts in a dynamic way, seeking solutions for each instance", says Jesús Moreno, Marketing and Content Manager for Antena 3 Multimedia. "In this sense, we are very comfortable working with Flumotion", he adds
