BROOMFIELD, Colo., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced that the company has completed final testing of its video streaming services in preparation for the last night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field on August 28. Final preparations included camera tests at the stadium with images encoded and cached over the Level 3 Content Delivery Network (CDN) — a key behind-the-scenes step in delivering live video streaming throughout the four-day event at http://www.DemConvention.com.

Continuing its efforts to establish a thriving reseller market for rich media, content distribution network Highwinds Network Group today is expected to announce new partnerships with four firms, including VirtuPoint, i5labs, One Pica and 9mmedia.

Highwinds operates a content delivery infrastructure dubbed RollingThunder, which allows clients to quickly access high-bandwidth content such as animation, streaming audio and video. More recently, Highwinds has branched out into the rich media design market, as an increasing number of marketing agencies have taken part in the reselling of Highwinds’ content delivery services to their own customers.

In addition to offering direct access to their CDN technologies, Highwinds’ lets its channel partners control their own billing and pricing structures, and provision new customer accounts quickly. “We started to see some trends, which we thought would support a resellers market,” said Mark Hayes, vice president of marketing and business development for Highwinds. “The common thread we saw among rich media design companies was their ability to call the shots when it comes to their own customers.”

Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=89182

Los Angeles-based content delivery network firm EdgeCast Networks has signed on social media news site Mashable as a customer, the firm said Tuesday afternoon. Financial impact of the deal was not disclosed, however EdgCast said that Mashable will use its CDN services for distributing its blog posts. EdgeCast provides digital media content delivery services; Mashable operates an online blog focused on Web 2.0 and social networking news.

Source: http://www.socaltech.com/edgecast_signs_mashable/s-0017087.html

Internap’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Managed Server Solutions to Power Slingpage’s Growing Social Web Community

ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, announced today its Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Managed Server solutions are helping to scale the rising demand of social Web collaboration and interactivity by powering Slingpage, Inc., a free social browsing platform. Currently in open beta for the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® and Mozilla® Firefox® Web browsers, Slingpage relies on Internap to deliver robust, scalable and reliable network and hosting services.

Launched in June 2008, Slingpage is a free social browsing application that helps people discover and share the Web instantly. With one click from the browser, Slingers can share Web pages with a single friend or thousands of followers – direct to the desktop. Slingers can also follow like-minded individuals and browse popular Web pages shared by others. Slingpage represents a portable social graph where users interact with friends and followers as they browse and enjoy real-time access to a personalized social discovery feed.

Source: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080826005413&newsLang=en

On the same day rumors circulated that Microsoft is seeking to offload Agency Avenue A Razorfish to WPP, they announced a strategic investment with Move Networks. Both of these are very good moves.

Say you’re Microsoft, the former king of the software biz which is trying to stay relevant as digital invades and transforms media. Old enemy Apple is encroaching on core businesses, won by focusing on usability. Google has beaten them by aggregating global audiences and changing how ads are sold.

What Microsoft lacks focus, they make up for in talent and critical core competencies like scale, global reach and relationships with multi-billion dollar corporations. Microsoft must reassert itself by positioning Silverlight and other key products as the technologies used by mainstream media and major corporations.

By investing in Move, Microsoft gets a partner with which to push their NextGen video technology to major media. Among its partners Move counts ABC FOX, and a growing number of international broadcasters. While currently most Move partners use ON2’s VP7 codec, there’s no reason they couldn’t switch to Silverlight and VC-1 at any time.

Source: http://www.onlinevideowatch.com/microsoft-buys-into-move-tries-to-exit-avenue-a/

“Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) such as Akamai and Mirror Image place web server clusters in numerous geographical locations to improve the responsiveness and locality of the content it hosts for end-users. However, their services are priced out of reach for all but the largest enterprise customers. An alternative approach to content delivery could be achieved by leveraging existing infrastructure provided by ‘Storage Cloud’ providers, at a fraction of the cost. In this paper, we introduce MetaCDN, a system that exploits ‘Storage Cloud’ resources, creating an integrated overlay network that provides a low cost, high performance CDN for content creators. MetaCDN removes the complexity of dealing with multiple storage providers, by intelligently matching and placing users’ content onto one or many storage providers based on their quality of service, coverage and budget preferences. We then demonstrate the utility of this new approach to content delivery by showing that the participating ‘Storage Clouds’ used by MetaCDN provide high performance (in terms of throughput and response time) and reliable content delivery for content consumers.”

Source: http://elasticvapor.com/2008/08/metacdn-cloud-based-content-delivery.html

Panther Express, a leading global provider of content delivery services, announced recently the completion of a $15.75 million Series B round of venture financing. The financing was led by Index Ventures. Gold Hill Capital and existing investor Greylock Partners also participated. Panther will use the funds for international expansion and further infrastructure investment to support its growing list of customers.

Source: http://www.g8iq.com/2008/08/25/panther-express-secures-1575-million-in-series-b-venture-capital-financing/

IPTV subscriber numbers are growing steadily, but widespread uptake of services is yet to reach its full promise. As telcos, service providers and content and technology vendors prepare to gather in Amsterdam for one of the industry’s larger events, BitBand refutes some of the most prevalent myths that deter potential players from entering this booming market.

Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/bitband-dispels-iptv-deterrents-on-r771138.htm

Crawford Communications, Inc. has chosen the Genesis Networks fiber infrastructure as a key component in the launch of a new high-definition service offering for World Fishing Network (WFN). The Genesis Networks fiber network provides a seamless, fully managed terrestrial link for WFN to deliver the HD feed from its Toronto, Ontario, headquarters to Crawford’s distribution hub in Atlanta. From there, Crawford uplinks the signal to SES AMERICOM’s AMC-10 satellite, for distribution by DISH Network to fishing enthusiasts throughout North America.

Source: http://www.sportsvideo.org/portal/artman/publish/article_12222.shtml

Content-delivery network (CDN) vendor Level 3 Communications, on the other hand, has been given the task of delivering the DNC to everyone who wants to watch the convention live over the Internet. To provide live streaming video of the DNC over the Web sites of major television networks and the Democratic National Convention Committee, Level 3 is deploying its transport equipment to aggregate fiber and connect it to the company’s POP in Denver, then distribute video over its CDN to streaming locations. Level 3 also will cache all content from the DNC and make it available on-demand for anyone who wants to watch events they may have missed.

Source: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/08/19/networks-supersized-democratic-national-convention