BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, November 5, 2008 – StreamGuys, Inc., a streaming media and content delivery provider based in northern California, today announced that it is now hosting video streams for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI), an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Texas film heritage. Popular collections include Texas House Speakers, The Texas Film Sampler and the films of itinerant film maker Melton Barker, all of which feature multiple videos that are dedicated to the preservation, study and exhibition of moving images specifically related to Texas. TAMI offers a unique searchable video library accessible at http://www.texasarchive.org/library that preserves Texas related moving images, such as home movies, advertisements, corporate film and video, television programs and amateur films. StreamGuys provides the robust server architecture to support the on-demand video streams and archival storage, with TAMI recently migrating from QuickTime to Wowza-enabled Flash Video to reduce monthly costs and enable the searchable library feature.
According to Megan Peck, Senior Archivist for TAMI, StreamGuys offered the most flexible pricing for storage and streaming support of any CDN she approached. StreamGuys also consulted on the best practices and solutions for the organization at no additional fee, including which encoders to use for preparing online content and the appropriate bit rates required to produce the desired video quality and viewing experience. The consultation included the switch to Flash video to support the searchable video aspect, which Peck said allows users to tag and index videos and create instant, direct links.
“Too many content delivery networks are inflexible with packages. Most require a purchase of a certain amount of bandwidth and storage for a fixed price, which was usually far beyond what we needed or could afford as a non-profit organization,” said Peck. “StreamGuys was the first CDN willing to customize a package, and allow us to incrementally add more storage and bandwidth as we grow. The flexible pricing allowed us to get our first 30 videos online, and that played a huge role in our growth. Two years ago we were a fledgling non-profit with few resources and no money. Without the ability to host those first videos we would never have gotten the backing for what we are doing today, which is to preserve these film assets valuable to Texas state history.”
TAMI is currently encoding the video at 512 kbps in order to serve all broadband speeds from 786 kbps and up. Future plans include a collaborative effort with school teachers across Texas to promote TAMI as a valuable educational resource for the student curriculum. The goal, according to Peck, is to promote the website and its vast online video library as a companion to the K-12 educational curriculum in public and private schools throughout the state, and provide students with useful reference material for various educational projects.
StreamGuys employs the Wowza Media Server Pro for TAMI and other customers utilizing Flash video for online streaming. The Wowza platform offers an economical alternative to other leading Flash servers — reducing costs by up to 75 percent for the end customer — while also offering a scalable, interactive streaming solution with secure content protection.