Highwinds Streams Live Coverage of Earth Day On The National Mall

Highwinds Streams Live Coverage of Earth Day On The National Mall

Veteran Director and Producer Marc Scarpa Reunites Winning Webcasting Team of Highwinds, Arqiva and Ooyala to Bring "Earth Day On The National Mall" to Worldwide Audiences

WINTER PARK, Fla., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Highwinds Network Group, Inc., a multi-platform IP services and content distribution provider, today announced that their content delivery network (CDN) streamed live online coverage of Earth Day On The National Mall on Sunday, April 19th in Washington, DC. The live stream was available to online viewers for seven hours on Sunday afternoon at www.myspace.com/greenapplefestival and www.greenapplefestival.com. Earth Day On The National Mall was hosted by Earth Day Network and produced by the Green Apple Festival. The event drew approximately 100,000 people to the National Mall to witness the launch of Earth Day Network's "Green Generation" campaign. The flagship celebration was emceed by actor Chevy Chase, headlined by The Flaming Lips, and featured an eclectic lineup of music and speakers, while, across the country, Green Apple Festival brought together volunteers in coordinated, simultaneous activities in Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.

Green Apple Festival brought in Marc Scarpa, renowned director and producer of live interactive media, to produce the live webcast of Earth Day On The National Mall, and all live streams from the MySpace, Green Apple Festival and other web sites were delivered over the Highwinds CDN. Highwinds and Scarpa previously worked together to successfully produce and stream a celebrity Oscar Night event in February. Arqiva and Ooyala were also instrumental in making both high-profile live events available to global online audiences, providing video prep and video player technologies and services, respectively.

"Based on the success of our previous webcast partnership, it was only natural for us to assemble the same expert team to achieve the same flawless results for the live webcast of Earth Day On The National Mall," said Marc Scarpa, director and producer. "We were very pleased with our partners' support to produce and stream this major Earth Day celebration to online audiences."

The partners all played a pivotal role in the live online streaming of Earth Day On The National Mall. Marc Scarpa directed and produced the webcast. Highwinds provided the technology and bandwidth needed to successfully stream live coverage of the event to online viewers over its CDN, which was built to support high-profile events of this nature. Arqiva, known for its ability to quickly and effectively prep live video for distribution, provided satellite newsgathering trucks, transponder time, teleport services and live encoding services - essentially serving as the bridge between Scarpa's production unit and the Highwinds CDN. Ooyala, a provider of video syndication and monetization technologies, supported the event with its video player technology and video management platform, which simplifies the process of managing multiple online videos. The post-event on-demand videos are also being delivered over the Highwinds CDN.

"We are honored to have been selected by Green Apple Festival and Marc Scarpa to support this remarkable event with live streaming over our CDN," said Steve Miller, president and CEO of Highwinds. "Today, more than ever before, the call to all Americans to support green initiatives, consider the impact of their actions on the environment, and serve their individual communities through environmental volunteerism is resoundingly clear. The entire team at Highwinds was pleased to play a part in delivering the Earth Day message and enthusiasm to global audiences."

Green Apple Festival, now in its fourth year, is the nation's largest coordinated and interactive festival dedicated to observing and preserving the environment. It involves civic leaders and environmentally minded Americans in a weekend for volunteers to participate in meaningful actions, give back to communities, and restore and renew the Earth. Attended by hundreds of thousands of people, the festival emphasizes environmental volunteerism in solidarity with the new administration's "call to service." National sponsorship from Disneynature, Timberland, Motorola and Clear2GO; media partners Planet Green and USA Today; and associate sponsors FedEx and Zumbox and others, allows Americans to participate for free in all volunteer events.

Green Apple Festival's Earth Day 2009 events were a kickoff to the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, which will culminate in April 2010 with Global Days of Service; a Global Day of Action, when participants will ask their governments to take specific environmental action; and a Global Day of Celebration, marked by 40 simultaneous music and rally events across the world with the theme of "The Green Generation." The Green Generation campaign, spearheaded by Earth Day Network, focuses on renewable energy, green jobs and a new green economy.

About Highwinds Network Group, Inc.

Highwinds is a leader in multi-platform IP services, file replication, and content delivery software and services. Since 2002, Highwinds has provided for the advancement of a variety of technologies - including messaging bus architecture, network management, distributed file systems and content routing methods. The Highwinds CDN leverages the company's high-performance RollingThunder(R) network and user-friendly StrikeTracker(R) media manager and reporting dashboard to globally deliver content, videos, live events and other media. It sets the pace among content delivery networks by offering advantages in data center peering, real-time analytics, instant account provisioning, complete content control and massive scalability. Highwinds is headquartered in Winter Park, Fla., and maintains 30 data centers throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.highwinds.com.

RollingThunder and StrikeTracker are registered trademarks of Highwinds Network Group, Inc.

Source: Highwinds Network Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Deborah Hamilton, for Highwinds Network Group, Inc.,
+1-303-682-9439, or +1-877-867-1215, or deborah@mediamondeinc.com

Web Site: http://www.highwinds.com/
http://www.greenapplefestival.com/
http://www.myspace.com/greenapplefestival

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