Saturday, January 17, 2009

Silverlight Selected by Presidential Inaugural Committee to Enable Online Video Streaming of Inauguration Events

Following up our efforts from the Democratic National Convention we have been asked to participate in streaming live the Inauguration of our 44th president. No matter what side of the political spectrum you sit, this is unarguably going to be one of the most historic events in our country's political process and we are proud to be a part of it. I have included our press release below and want to say thank you to one of our premier partners IStreamplanet for their support and efforts to bring you this historic event. You can check out the committee's website for more information. http://www.pic2009.org/.

Scott Barnes on our marketing team has also posted a great list of other area's where Silverlight is being used for this inaguration. Companies like CNN, CBS are using our technology to deliver even more information on this historic event.

http://blogs.msdn.com/msmossyblog/archive/2009/01/17/silverlight-is-all-over-the-moment.aspx

Press Release Start
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jan09/01-16PICMSSilverlightPR.mspx

Microsoft Silverlight Selected by Presidential Inaugural Committee to Enable Online Video Streaming of Inauguration Events

Official swearing in, President-elect Obama’s Whistle Stop Tour event to be streamed online.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jan. 16, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) has selected the company’s Silverlight technology to enable live and on-demand video streaming of the official inauguration swearing-in ceremony on the PIC Web site at http://www.pic2009.org/. As part of its efforts to hold the most open and accessible inauguration in history, on Saturday, Jan. 17, the PIC will also stream video of a Baltimore event on the Whistle Stop Tour that will take President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia.

“Microsoft is proud to be part of this event by helping to bring the inauguration activities online,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel. “Just as during the campaign itself, Internet technology is enabling people around the world to participate more directly in historic events in new and exciting ways.”

In August the 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) used Microsoft Silverlight to stream convention proceedings, including President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech.

Microsoft collaborated with iStreamPlanet Co. to develop and implement the rich media player experience powered by Microsoft Silverlight. “We welcome the opportunity to work with Microsoft again to demonstrate our expertise and ability to meet the challenges involved in such a watershed event in the history of webcasting,” said Mio Babic, CEO of iStreamPlanet.

“Microsoft Silverlight was built to enable people to consume online content in unique and engaging ways,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. “This will be a truly historic event, and we are honored to enable online viewers to participate and create really meaningful experiences.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NasdaqMSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

2 comments:

Silverlight for Business said...

This is fantasic news for the wider acceptance of Silverlight and a great coup for Microsoft.

It is good to see Silverlight's reach growing, though I still find it frustrating the amount of Flash I see on Microsoft assets. Still that can only change over time.

Congratulations once again!

Cheers

Ian Blackburn
http://silverlightforbusiness.net

ccarper said...

Thanks Ian for the comments. Yes you will see the use of flash diminish over time on our properties. Our largest properties are using Silverlight today, as is evidence by Microsoft.com which is using Silverlight in many ways from Advertising, to applications (like the download center) and we continue to work with many of the internal groups to build applications that will use Silverlight. I am always in favor of more and more :) and we are working close with our internal teams to make sure that's a reality.