StreamUK announces that Steve Garvey has been appointed to the Board of Directors as Commercial Director with immediate effect.

Steve Garvey’s experience spans more than 25 years in television and online video. He was World Television’s CEO and Chairman and led the sale of the business to a Swiss-based investment group in December 2012. He is a non-executive director of the International Visual Communications Association.

Duncan Burbidge, CEO of StreamUK, commented: ‘We’re delighted to welcome Steve to StreamUK. Our business is expanding rapidly and he will help us to continue our growth in future. We have a lot to offer to corporate clients and Steve’s experience will position StreamUK at the heart of the corporate market.’

Steve Garvey added: ‘StreamUK has a great track record, both in its technology, its project management skills and its client list. I’m joining an excellent team who can take corporate video communications to a new level. I’ve believed for a long time that the role of video will grow fast in the corporate market and StreamUK has everything it takes to meet that demand.’

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

After winning the 2012 ‘Best Webcasting Platform’ award last year, StreamUK plans to attend this year’s Streaming Media Forum with a slightly different focus; exploring online video’s role in sports and displaying how StreamUK and its partners are working on enhancing the experience for the next season of sport.

This year, StreamUK’s CEO Duncan Burbidge will moderate ‘Watching Sport Online: Better than TV?’, a session on the second day of the 2013 Streaming Forum (19th June) – which has already been tipped as one of the ‘must see’ sessions by the Streaming Media Global Chairman, Eric Schumacher.

Joined by an influential panel including; Simon Banoub, Marketing Director, Opta Sports, Howard Kitto, Group CTO , Perform Group and Simon Nixon, Client Services Director for Aqueduct, the panel will discuss and debate the important role of data and viewer interaction to create truly immersive fan experiences.

Asked about the decision to choose the subject for this year’s session, Duncan Burbidge replied, “I’m discussing what it means to make online video preferred to traditional television. Although the boundaries are already blurred, the question brings into focus how additional information should be presented to the user.”

StreamUK will also be attending the event as award nominees in several categories. To vote for a StreamUK product or service, please click here.

To register for the 2013 Streaming Media Forum and to find out more information about the session, please visit http://www.streamingmediaglobal.com/conference/2013.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

Now happening twice a year and taking place at both ends of the country, the BVExpos are always a popular event amongst the broadcast, technology and online video industries.

This year, StreamUK’s Business Development Director Helen Kavanagh was asked to represent the media expert on a panel of streaming and video pioneers, to discuss how they use NewTek technology to deliver high quality projects for clients.

Labelled ‘Broadcast Minds’ the panel also included, Petro Mnych from Arsenal Broadband, Mark Tasker from Fruition, Sam Usher of Red Handed TV and Simon Sharpe from Trafford Centre TV.

Billed as the seminar where ‘industry experts discuss the future of TV’, the panel were tasked with exploring the new ways in which today’s content owners can develop, produce and distribute online video content successfully.

NewTek’s ‘Broadcast Minds’ is the community where creative media entrepreneurs examine the way people consume television content online, explore new ways to produce network-style television programs for the Web and share idea s.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

With the Virgin London Marathon quickly approaching, we ask whether London 2012 has truly set the standard for online video coverage and engagement?

Technology experts claimed that London 2012 was the first digital games, as the BBC delivered unprecedented coverage across multiple platforms and allowing audiences to watch every single event live.

Of course it wasn’t just the Olympics last year, the BBC and ITV succeeded in dusting off the country’s football aspirations once again, only to pack them away once more after a rather predictable penalty exit to the Euro 2012 runners up Italy. Nonetheless, there was a much needed national sporting confidence boost in Bradley Wiggins Tour de France victory just in time for the London 2012 Olympics, an event that was in the planning for 7 years.

Arguably, broadcasters had enough time to prepare for such a colossal event. There had been huge innovations in online and broadcast video as well as ground breaking integration of in-depth data that had enabled broadcasters to enhance their own personalisation and social features to encourage participation on a larger scale. The BBC iPlayer has been praised hugely for its leading innovations in on-demand services, but its ultimate test was ahead; broadcasting every Olympic sporting event live while the whole world is watching.

The BBC claimed to give audiences more choice than ever before by giving access to every event, sport and venue live, on-demand and interactive across the bbc.co.uk/sport site. The real challenge however was in the broadcaster’s ability to offer detailed access to real-time updated Olympics data, statistics and news amongst the high quality coverage. The enhanced social features promised to enable audiences to follow and “favourite” every athlete, sport, event and country through tailored updates, using Twitter visualisations and social media commentary to create more of a buzz within online communities.

The truth is that when it comes to global events such as the Olympic Games, social features and online interactions are the best the way to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Recent statistics show that a lot of us spend just as much time watching the Twitter feed as we do watching the sporting event. The comments of others and social interaction not only made events more exciting, but it also gives people the platform to share this excitement with others. Of course we are all watching from home, but digitally we are all watching together.

It is essentially social media integration that is driving the success of online video platforms amongst sports audiences. Last year StreamMP, the online platform created by StreamUK and used by sports clubs including Liverpool FC, made a huge development by making social media functionality one of its most fundamental components. StreamUK built a ‘time capture share feature’, where online sports fans were able to pin-point content second-by-second and share it with friends and communities online. The feature first grew in popularity during an annual marathon in Madrid, where participants were able to watch the race after and share their finishing time with others via social media.

The trending focus amongst social media video sharing experts is to make the actual sharing process as quick and efficient as possible, which ultimately encourages people to share their favourite video moments more freely with others. The London 2012 Olympic Games reached the pinnacle of social video sharing, as unrivalled streaming of multiple events reaches multiple countries through multiple platforms.

Twitter integration within online video has become an incredibly useful tool for the niche sports as well. Typically most will be interested in the 100m (and possibly the women’s volleyball), but there are still millions worldwide anxiously awaiting events such as the archery, fencing and canoe sprint. Twitter enables these fans to topic search and start communicating with similar online followers, combined with the live action unfolding in front of their eyes.

It’s hard to think of a broader and all compassing event than the Olympics, although it seems that perhaps online video is the only medium to do the event justice. Although we’ll have dedicated channels and high quality broadcasting, only online video can offer a sustainable on-demand service, giving audiences the control to browse and enjoy the official Olympic experience through multiple mobile devices. But now with enhanced social media sharing, global audiences will have the share power not only to distribute full content, but share the best bits for others to enjoy time and time again.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

Last week StreamUK blogged about how it thought it had faired during the 2012/13 season and whether it would be doing as well (or possibly better) than some of its football club clients. So how fitting it is to announce this week that StreamUK has been nominated for four Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards, where the winners will be announced at the Streaming Media Forum, 18-19th June 2013.

After winning the highly acclaimed ‘Best Webcasting Platform’ award in 2012, StreamUK is proud to be nominated once again, as well as be in the running to win an award for ‘Best Streaming Services Provider’, ‘Best Online Video Platform’ and ‘Best Media Asset Management Solution’.

Picking up the same number of streaming media nominations as last year, StreamUK was also nominated for three Football Business Awards and was proud to hear that two of its UK team (Duncan Burbidge & Matthew Quinn) had been listed in VOD Professional Magazine’s Top 50 Most Influential People in VOD.

Looking forward to Streaming Media Forum this year, StreamUK’s spokesman claims another proud year for the online media expert; “StreamUK attains nominations and awards each year with fresh case studies, so although it’s a testament for all the handwork across StreamUK departments, it also reflects the huge breadth of variety in briefs from StreamUK customers”.

To attend this year’s Streaming  Forum, please visit: http://www.streamingmediaglobal.com/conference/2013.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

This time last year, StreamUK’s CEO Duncan Burbidge took to the stage at the 2012 Soccerex European Forum to explore the working relationship between the digital media expert and one of Europe’s biggest clubs, Liverpool FC.

Hosted by the Editor of FC Business magazine and now Stockport County CEO Ryan Mcknight, the panel discussed how Liverpool’s revamped online video offering was setting the standard for online video and fan engagement on a global scale, soon after claiming to be the most successful online video subscription service of any football club in the world.

Due to the close working relationship with Liverpool and a development pipeline scheduled for the year, StreamUK expanded its operations not only in its London office, but also through establishing key partnerships in Europe, such as Sweden, France and Germany, seeing the European sports market as a fundamental part of StreamMP’s future.

StreamMP was developed to become a multi-sport product, using a suite of functionality known as Tribal Technology.The award winning platform was quickly positioned as a fully integrated online video sports solution, with a difference, as it offered unrivalled UK-based technical support.

In 2012, some of the platform’s prime case studies generated three Football Business Award Nominations, as well as winning a Streaming Media Europe Readers’ choice award for best platform, considered the Champions League of the streaming media industry.

The January transfer window, which is often considered the most important part of the season for most football clubs, brought two huge wins for StreamUK within the Barclay’s Premier League, making StreamMP the preferred choice for some of the biggest clubs in the world, as well as a contender for the online video solutions provider top spot.

But it wasn’t just MP that was reporting success from clubs across the country. StreamUK’s online video streaming and Google Hangout production services were also in high demand, showing an increase of 150% in enquires, many of which including some of the UK’s top clubs.

As a tool that drives engagement and offers fans exclusive access to their favourite players, StreamUK’s premium Google Hangout management and production services were also called upon from a variety of sports clubs and events, including the Rugby League World Cup.

This season StreamUK’s approach to facilitating online video for football clubs has become less of a sole-product-solution and more of a service that benefits from partnerships and internal developments that meet the needs of wider digital strategies:

• StreamUK has worked hard this year to ensure that it’s video is fully integrated with the Sitecore framework, being part of the latest in digital marketing systems and being able to work cohesively with intelligent websites that learn more about the viewer and strengthen the digital relationship with content owners.
• A new paywall and monetisation partnership has ensured that StreamUK’s clients have access to reliable, advanced but also simple online video payment solutions that make the process easy for the viewer.

If you’d like to arrange a meeting with StreamUK at the 2013 Soccerex European Forum, please contact sales@streamuk.com or alternatively call us on 0207 419 2027.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

StreamUK’s work in providing high quality production for Google Hangouts has been in high-demand in 2013, as brands, sports clubs and organisations use the platform to interact with fans and followers.

Providing Hangout management and premium production services, StreamUK is able to produce Google Hangouts with high production value, standing out from crowd and offering a superior viewing experience.

Since working on the Rugby League World Cup conference, StreamUK managed the BBC Good Food cocktail making Hangouts, now generating over 28,000 views.

Before his highly anticipated show at the O2, Peter Andre used a StreamUK produced Google Hangout to interact with his fans and take questions about the tour. A single hangout which has generated over 150,00 views to date.

Also keeping in trend with StreamUK’s increasing digital solutions in the sports industry, one large football sponsor called on StreamUK to provide a one-off Hangout for one of the Premiership’s top sides, currently clocking over 100,000 YouTube views. Proving to not just be a popular LIVE event, but also a sustainable video asset that’s still capturing the attention of fans all over the globe.

As well as managing a series of other successful Google Hangouts, StreamUK managed projects are now approaching half a million views, showing the sheer popularity of online video interaction as well as crediting the production quality and management of the StreamUK production team.

Now that the StreamUK studio build is complete at the company’s London HQ, Production Manager Mike Grimley anticipates a rapid growth in Hangout enquiries as well as use of the new facility;

“We were often asked whether we had our own studio, so it was only a matter of time until we built our own in house. The great thing about having this facility is the freedom to create a bespoke environment that best suites our clients, as well as the ability to offer a complete end-to-end webcasting service from one location.”

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

Dubbed as the ‘People’s Final’ the Capital One Cup was won in explosive style yesterday as Premier League Swansea beat League 2 Bradford City 5-0 at Wembley.

Bradford City’s journey was truly remarkable as the lower-league side beat Arsenal and Aston Villa to progress to the final stage, but Swansea’s victory was also seen as an extraordinary achievement – as the Welsh side lifted the League Cup just 10 years after they saved themselves from dropping out of the football league all together.

Covering the cup’s developments since the beginning of the campaign in 2012, the Capital One Cup coverage, highlights and interviews have been hosted on the StreamMP platform on the Capital One Cup site.

In a video interview available on the Capital One Cup website, Swansea Manager Michael Laudrup describes the club’s success, “The players did great, played with a lot of confidence and patience – winning was the most important thing, but the way we did it was a great performance.”

Speaking of his opposition’s cup progress, Laudrup added; “This final and the competition this season will be remembered for what Bradford has achieved and a bit for what we have done”.

Featuring advanced social media share options and multi-bitrate streaming to iPhone, Android, Web and Mobile, the use of MP has ensured that the cup’s online coverage rivals the quality of TV coverage throughout the season, giving fans access to exclusive cup content for free.

The Capital One Cup online video solution marks the first time StreamUK has worked with the Football League. StreamUK CEO, Duncan Burbidge, claims that features such as social media sharing are becoming almost mandatory amongst the demands of online sports fans.

“Delivery of sports video needs to be done correctly – the fans are passionate and know their stuff – but ultimately it’s an exciting competition that can really make the most out of MP,” Duncan explained.

The most successful club in the history of the Capital One Cup are Liverpool FC, who have won the competition on 8 occasions, including most recently in February 2011. In September of the same year, LFC chose MP as its own online video solution for its award winning LFCTVOnline WebTV service.

Highlights of all the cup’s fixtures and exclusive interviews can be found on the official Capital One Cup website.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

StreamUK’s online video and streaming solutions has increased its presence in Europe with a new Swedish partnership that has established the company StreamSweden.

Since 2004, ‘StreamCode’ has been operating as a Swedish streaming media solutions provider which became a StreamUK customer for the online video platform StreamMP in 2008. For the last five years, the Swedish company was a StreamUK product reseller and started partnership talks with StreamUK in 2012, becoming part of the StreamUK European Group early this year.

Talking about the launch of StreamSweden, Company MD Lennart Trapp said; “We are proud to finally be apart of the StreamUK Group. For years we have trusted StreamUK’s products, so it’s great to be operating under the same name and sharing its resources to provide a more comprehensive online video service – and offer more stability and responsive customer support”.

Trapp also commented on the company’s shared objectives and how sports is becoming a heavy focus for StreamSweden, “StreamUK’s work with Liverpool FC has set a certain standard amongst football online video, but more importantly, it’s displayed how sports content owners and businesses can make the most out of online video – our goal is to offer the same OVP service to sports clubs based in Sweden”

StreamSweden’s work with domestic champions IF Elfsborg is already looking promising as the company looks to replicate previous successes with national football, basketball, handball and horse racing clients.

Identifying challenges in the future, Trapp said, “We aim to offer Swedish online video customers and content owners the same top rated professional service that StreamUK provides for its other European offices – as the newcomer, we’re going to be busy ensuring that our offering equals the StreamUK standard and that Stockholm is quickly put on the map as the Northern Europe HQ for StreamUK.”

StreamSweden insists that although sports is key for the StreamMP product, the company continues to invest a lot of energy in aligning the webcasting administration tool StreamConnect with Swedish corporations, education groups and businesses that are looking for a cost-effective, green and technically advanced corporate communication tool.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence

Last year StreamUK helped the World Book Day live up to its name as it streamed the event to children and school classes all over the country.

The World Book Day event takes place every year and features some of the world’s most popular children’s authors, filmed live in London and broadcast online to thousands of viewers.

The 2012 WBD webcast claimed to be the biggest ever European children’s webcast with over 750,000 school children tuning in. High numbers of schools throughout the UK and Ireland scheduled the event into the school diary as they assembled school classes into halls and gyms to watch the stream in large numbers.

Fiona Uebergang, a teacher at Scole Primary School in Norfolk said, “We had children from years 3-6 watching the web broadcast to engage them with the authors they love – this inspired them to go and find out more about them and research the books for school”.

StreamUK provided telephone and email technical support for viewers as they tested bandwidth and connectivity ahead of the live broadcast, guaranteeing the best streaming quality. Teachers were also able to submit questions on behalf of the children to the Authors to find out more about their favourite books.

“All the Authors held the children’s focus. We had three classes squeezed in (approx 90 pupils) and that added to the atmosphere. They were waving and answering the authors’ questions which was amusing in itself!” – Teacher, Wendy Morgan.

StreamUK is already preparing for the technical support, production and streaming of the 2013 Biggest Book Show On Earth, which hopes to break another record this year.

As well as streaming the event live on it’s online video platform (StreamMP), StreamUK will also use its satellite truck to beam a live feed to a selected number of Picture House theatres that will also be showing the event.

Taking place between 11am and midday on Thursday 7th March, the WBD event will be free to view on the WBD website (REGISTER HERE) – with tickets on sale for local cinemas for £2.50 per student.

StreamUK - Webcasting, Online Video, Digital Media Excellence