Tag Archives: Technology

Classy Digs in Old Town- Meet Firework!

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Are you looking for a workspace? A meeting place? Tired of trying to run your business from the dining room table? Welcome to Firework!

Firework is a collection of offices, workspaces, and meeting spaces located atop the Healy Building, home to the Siren’s Song in Old Town.  Go around to the left of the building to access the entrance. There is an ELEVATOR, relatively rare in Old Town, and the views from Firework are spectacular. If I were to rent there I would have to arrange my furniture so that I couldn’t see out the window because just in the short time I was there I got very involved  in watching the birds on the roof of the building opposite.

The space is simply beautiful- lots of light and polished floors.  There is a group workspace where several people can work independently at the same time, with headphones. There are cleverly designed  “phone booths”  where you can have a private conversation and there are two kitchens. They offer different levels of membership to suit your needs.  There is 24-hour access and if there’s a better location in Eureka, I haven’t seen it. 

Like many good ideas, Firework was born of necessity. Mark Sullivan, who owns Firework with his wife, Kiva, is a telecommuter who does marketing for a firm in Atlanta. Check out their gorgeous website and get ready to move, but hurry. Their spaces are about half occupied already.  Here’s a link to the Times-Standard coverage of their recent ribbon-cutting.

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We’re Baaaaack-from Internet Hell

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We got hacked. I guess it was inevitable. I didn’t even know it was happening until a friend (thanks Grace!) whom I hadn’t spoken to in years emailed me with those dreaded words: “Your site was hacked!” 

The hack was affecting everyone who accessed the site though Google, not the folks who were already on the mailing list. If you went through Google, you got redirected to a Russian porno site. What I saw of it was so unappetizing I now understand why the Russian population keeps dropping. I had noticed for awhile than a large number of the new signups were from Russia. I’ll be curious to see if that continues now that the hack is fixed. It was very, very stressful but the indispensable and extremely patient Bob Morse got us through it. 

Onward and upward!

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Streamguys Takes it Further

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The latest from our premiere internet player:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:
Brian Galante
Dimension PR
(207) 494-8428
brian@dimensionpronline.com

StreamGuys Turnkey Streaming Network Elevates Online Radio Presence for Cox Media Group

SaaS platform integrates multiple cloud-based products and services to support live and on-demand streaming, targeted ad delivery, audience metrics and more for 60 stations

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, February 1, 2016 — StreamGuys, a pioneering content delivery network and streaming media provider, has partnered with Cox Media Group to roll out a turnkey SaaS streaming platform for live ad-supported broadcasts, on-demand podcasts, and detailed business metrics and reporting across its entire radio network.

Now live across all 60 Cox Media Group radio stations in 11 markets, StreamGuys has built a rich toolset around its robust, reliable cloud-based content management and delivery network in alignment with the broadcaster’s goals. The company’s SaaS approach cleanly and cost-efficiently integrates several recent, innovative StreamGuys SGsuite products and services into the network that enrich streaming player data, accelerate podcast creation, enhance royalty reporting, and monetize streaming initiatives.

“In StreamGuys, we have found an ideal technology partner that understands the same opportunities we see to evolve our radio products,” said Tim Clarke, senior director of digital audience, Cox Media Group. “Their infrastructure and technology, along with competitive pricing and expertise in broadcasting, gives us incredible flexibility in the management and delivery of our network-wide streaming initiatives.”

Clarke emphasizes that Cox Media Group’s key goal is “ubiquity,” and StreamGuys’ open architecture assures delivery across all web and mobile platforms to support all listener preferences. The streaming experience is further bolstered through SGPlayer, an HTML5 multimedia player that is custom-skinned for each station. SGPlayer’s rich metadata support delivers the relevant information that online audiences seek along side the audio stream, including song/artist data, album art, recently played tracks and social media links for sharing the experience with other listeners. SGplayer is also an approved Nielsen SDK player, delivering client-side analytics that offer greater insight into online listener demographics than what was possible before.

Beyond live streaming, Cox Media Group is managing its ever-growing stable of on-demand podcasts using StreamGuys’ SGrecast software. SGrecast empowers multiple operators to quickly turn linear broadcasts into Podcasts and side channels of any length, with near-immediate turnaround to consumers. Clarke notes SGrecast has been “a phenomenal success,” and is used for brief news, traffic and weather in every market; and 24/7 rebroadcasts of high-profile shows after initial airings.

StreamGuys’ advertising portfolio also allows Cox Media Group to intelligently strategize local and national online ad campaigns. In addition to local video and audio insertions, Cox Media Group integrates ads for out-of-market listeners using StreamGuys’ connectivity to AdWave, a leading ad marketplace warehouse.

“Our listeners want access to our content on demand and on the devices of their choosing; SGrecast allows us to extend the life of content beyond the live linear broadcast,” said Clarke. “We can now provide content such as news, traffic and weather in an on-demand audio format that is easily consumable in our apps and on our websites. Additionally, we can offer a more advanced level of targeting to our advertisers, giving them more meaningful opportunities to reach our collective listeners.”

The StreamGuys SaaS architecture also integrates the company’s leading business software platforms, including a custom package for enhanced royalty reporting. This allows Cox Media Group to deliver information to the RIAA and SoundExchange about when and where songs were played in an automated manner—eliminating the time-intensive manual data entry and paperwork previously associated with ensuring artists are fairly compensated. The business software package also includes SGreports for in-depth audience analytics and stream metrics; SGalerts for e-mail-based notification of performance issues network-wide; and detailed logging and reporting for ad playout and exposure.

“Cox Media Group has deployed a highly progressive streaming architecture that StreamGuys will continue to scale and evolve in partnership with their internal teams, ensuring they remain on the leading edge of digital media delivery for many years to come,” said Jason Osburn, executive vice president, StreamGuys. “We are elated to deliver a comprehensive SaaS service that, along with our turnkey support, will at once help Cox Media Group solve problems and generate new ideas to push online radio and podcasting forward.”

About StreamGuys, Inc.
In business since 2000, StreamGuys is an industry-leading service provider of live and on-demand streaming, podcasting delivery, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) toolsets for enterprise-level broadcast media organizations. The company brings together the industry’s best price-to-performance ratio, a robust and reliable network, and an infinitely scalable cloud-based platform for clients of any size to process, deliver, monetize and playout professional streaming content. StreamGuys supports many of the world’s largest Podcasts, global TV and radio broadcasters, video and audio production companies, houses of worship, retail and hospitality businesses, government organizations, medical and healthcare services, and live venues for sports and entertainment. The company excels in developing and deploying technologies for business growth and revenue generation, including dynamic ad insertion, mobile streaming and detailed business and data analytics.

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StreamGuys, Inc – info@streamguys.com – www.streamguys.com – 707.667.9479
P.O. Box 828 Arcata, California 95518 – fax 707.516.0009

 

StreamGuys Launches New Oceania Service

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:
Brian Galante
Dimension PR
(207) 494-8428
brian@dimensionpronline.com

StreamGuys Launches Oceania Service in Alignment with Regional Business Growth

Strategic move will reduce streaming costs and network congestion for consumers of local content from NZME and other broadcasters through a regional point-of-presence

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, October 22, 2015 — StreamGuys, a pioneering content delivery network and streaming media provider, has launched a new service to benefit its growing roster of broadcasters and their listeners across the Oceania region of the Asia-Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand and other surrounding islands. The new regional service will further strengthen StreamGuys’ overall Asia-Pacific strategy, which includes a Tokyo point of presence that services broadcasters in Japan, the Philippines and other northern Asia-Pacific countries.

Importantly, the Oceania service provides an overall better user experience for local residents, since the content is being consumed from a local point of presence (POP). Most Australia and New Zealand consumers are bound by metered accounts from ISPs, and international connectivity often becomes a bottleneck when consuming content delivered from overseas. This is a side effect of the higher expense of international bandwidth in comparison to local connectivity.

Up until recently, consumers streaming content from broadcasters in the Oceania region, including New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), were served by StreamGuys’ data centers in Tokyo, Amsterdam or Chicago.

“Having the ability to serve content from within New Zealand greatly improves the end user experience, as consumers don’t have to use international transit to consume streaming content,” said Eduardo Martinez, director of technology, StreamGuys. “This move ensures that local listeners are not penalized for consuming content over congested international links, while getting the same exceptional quality of service from StreamGuys at a much closer point-of-presence.”

Wayne Sleeman, iHeartRadio NZ technical lead for NZME, adds that his online audiences get a great user experience as a result of the streams being delivered from the regional StreamGuys point-of-presence. StreamGuys is the exclusive content delivery network for NZME’s mobile streaming, and supports 74 online and mobile streams today.

“StreamGuys has supported our needs as a broadcaster moving beyond terrestrial-only deliver for the past several years, and continues to add new services and capacity to grow with us,” said Sleeman. “The establishment of a local point-of-presence confirms their commitment to our business model by helping us keep costs low for our regional online and mobile listeners.”

The new service, available today, offers plenty of capacity for other broadcasters in the region, and integrates the latest high-end, cloud-based streaming equipment. This includes virtualized servers to minimize hardware and maintenance; and software-defined transcoding equipment to accommodate multiple streaming formats. The flexible infrastructure offers high availability for quick deployments, and scalable streaming options based on changing broadcast dynamics.

About StreamGuys, Inc.
In business since 2000, StreamGuys is an industry-leading service provider of live and on-demand streaming, podcasting delivery, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) toolsets for enterprise-level broadcast media organizations. The company brings together the industry’s best price-to-performance ratio, a robust and reliable network, and an infinitely scalable cloud-based platform for clients of any size to process, deliver, monetize and playout professional streaming content. StreamGuys supports many of the world’s largest Podcasts, global TV and radio broadcasters, video and audio production companies, houses of worship, retail and hospitality businesses, government organizations, medical and healthcare services, and live venues for sports and entertainment. The company excels in developing and deploying technologies for business growth and revenue generation, including dynamic ad insertion, mobile streaming and detailed business and data analytics.

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NEW FUND AT HAF ESTABLISHED TO AID WOMEN IN TECH

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From the Humboldt Area Foundation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2015
Contact: Courtney Haraldson
Humboldt Area Foundation
(707) 442-2993
courtneyh@hafoundation.org

New Fund Established at Humboldt Area Foundation to Support Women in Technology

BAYSIDE,CA- StreamGuys, a leading international streaming media company based in Bayside, CA has established a new fund with Humboldt Area Foundation. The Women in Technology Fund was created to encourage young women in high school to pursue online training in the field of computer technology.

The mission of the fund is to engage and encourage stronger diversification in the field of computer technologies, and to focus young minds on the current and future job demand of many companies in the Humboldt County area. Jonathan Speaker, Jason Osburn and Kiriki Delany have made it a priority to help establish and grow the technology field in the local area to bring higher paying jobs, family and home ownership to the community. Their hope is to expand this fund in the future in response to need.

This is an annual award for students in grades 9-12 and nominations can be made by high school teachers and staff through the Humboldt Area Foundation. Recipients of this award will be encouraged to use the funding to take additional online courses in technology.

For more information about the Humboldt Area Foundation or this particular fund please visit the Humboldt Area Foundation online at hafoundation.org or call (707) 442-2993.

Humboldt Area Foundation is the community foundation of and for the citizens of the Redwood, Trinity, and Wild Rivers Region. Vera Vietor established the Humboldt Area Foundation in 1972 with $2.4 million. Since then, more than $67 million in grants and scholarships have been awarded. Humboldt Area Foundation promotes and encourages generosity, leadership and inclusion to strengthen our communities.

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Courtney Haraldson
Communications Manager
Humboldt Area Foundation
363 Indianola Rd. Bayside, CA 95524
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T | 707.267.9911
F | 707.442.9702
W | hafoundation.org

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