Streaming Perspective 3.0 Simplifies Performance Management of Streaming Media and Provides Real End User View of Streams
Santa Clara, Calif., October 14, 2003 — Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), the global leader in Web performance measurement and management services, today announced Streaming Perspective® 3.0, the industry’s most advanced service for measuring, managing and improving the performance and availability of streaming media. Streaming Perspective 3.0 now provides global coverage for measurements of streaming media delivery from nine U.S. and five international locations- New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Paris, Frankfurt.
Streaming Perspective 3.0 simulates the behavior of end-users from Keynote’s globally distributed infrastructure of measurement computers allowing customers with Web sites offering streaming and third party streaming providers the ability to understand and optimize the quality of experience (QOE) their viewing and listening audience receives.
Streaming Perspective 3.0 is a world class streaming measurement service featuring a real-time Web interface that organizes streaming data so users can quickly understand daily or weekly trends, spot common problems with streaming infrastructure, start and stop tests on demand for powerful diagnostic work and drill down to view packet statistics, trace routes and error codes for each individual measurement.
Using Streaming Perspective, customers can validate their stream quality, ensure the performance of the media server from the end user perspective during a live event and meet service level agreements (SLA) and other service requirements for performance. Customers can also test and compare the performance of streaming service providers or players and diagnose performance problems before they impact end users.
According to a recent joint study conducted by Arbitron and Edison Media Research, more than one in five Americans, representing 50 million consumers, have listened to or viewed online broadcasts within the month prior to the survey and 30 million U.S. Internet broadcasts weekly.
“Fueled by increasing broadband penetration, Internet broadcasting is rapidly approaching mainstream status among Americans,” said Bill Rose, vice president and general manager, Arbitron Internet Broadcast Services. “The growth in regular usage of Internet audio and video is compelling evidence that Internet broadcasting is becoming more of a regular habit. As such, marketers should consider including Internet broadcasting in their media mix since frequent users of Internet audio and video are very likely to try new products and services, make purchases online and consume new forms of audio and video entertainment.”
Streaming Perspective 3.0 features the latest versions of RealPlayer and Windows Media Player and simplifies performance management of streaming media providing truly global coverage and quality measurements of streaming media delivery by simulating the behavior of end-users in cities around the world. It is the official source of measurement behind the Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series Certification Program making it the industry leader, building measurement services for the latest digital media technology.
“Keynote is the established leader for benchmarking the performance of Internet applications. The introduction of Streaming Perspective 3.0 continues our commitment to providing ‘Total Performance Management’ to our customers as new technologies are adopted by the marketplace,” said Shai Berger, general manager of the streaming division at Keynote. “As the enterprise increasingly looks to online technologies to tap new markets and save costs, streaming video and audio are becoming part of that integrated strategy. By providing end-to-end measurement and monitoring solutions for streaming media, Streaming Perspective helps our customers deliver their message with consistent quality and reliability.”
About Keynote Streaming Perspective 3.0
Streaming Perspective is an automated service that measures the quality and reliability of streaming media delivery from an end-user perspective. It offers real-time email alerts so customers can be notified of performance problems before they impact end-users. Also available are customizable daily and weekly reports which allow tracking of streaming performance over time.
Content owners use Streaming Perspective to ensure that service providers are delivering on expectations while streaming service providers use it to demonstrate their quality to potential customers and advertisers.
Streaming Perspective also offers a self provisioned Diagnostic Service that allows the user to control testing through a web interface. Self-provisioning puts a powerful tool in the hands of customers who need to diagnose complex streaming installations or compare service providers.
For short duration live events, Streaming Perspective offers a Live Event Service that measures streams with higher checking frequencies.
How Streaming Perspective Works
Keynote’s Streaming Perspective service measures on-demand content ten times per hour for one minute from each location, but rate and length of measurement interval can be increased. Live or event-based measurements can be taken for the duration of the event. Keynote’s network of streaming measurement computers connects to streaming sites over T1 lines.
Keynote measures relevant statistics about streaming performance for both on-demand and live events, from user log-on to the site through streaming download. These statistics include: connection success rate (CSR), average bit rate (ABR) and StreamQ™, a proprietary metric which provides an accurate measurement of overall stream quality based on connect time, buffer time, and rebuffer time.
StreamQ is displayed as letter grades from A+ down to F that indicate the amount of time a user had to wait or experience interruptions ("Frustration Time") versus the time actually spent enjoying the content. In this way customers can rank the end user experience quantitatively.
CSR indicates the percentage of checks where scanners were successfully able to play the stream. ABR and StreamQ are based only on checks that managed to connect - failed checks are ignored for the purpose of calculating these quantities.
Subscribers provide Keynote with the stream’s URL and desired measurement rate, and then view graphical results through any Web browser. Results are also delivered via daily email reports. If performance degrades below user-defined thresholds of ‘acceptable performance,’ the service sends automatic email and pager alarms to provide immediate notification.
Availability and pricing
Streaming Perspective 3.0 is available immediately.
The Monitoring service starts at $250 per month per URL. The Diagnostic service starts at $650 per month per channel. Live Event service is sold in 1-week blocks that range from $62.50 to $1237.50 depending on the bit-rate and frequency of measurements. There is a $500 minimum.
About Total Performance Management
In today’s tight economy Keynote’s services provide enterprise customers with ‘Total Performance Management’ solutions that increase return on investment and save money. ‘Total Performance Management’ is comprised of Keynote’s cost-effective and easy-to-use Web performance measurement, monitoring, management, diagnostic, load, content and usability testing services. Keynote’s overarching goal is to enable enterprise customers to leverage existing management software, increase the number of satisfied customers, reduce unnecessary capital expenditures, provide competitive advantage and deliver an optimal quality of experience to end users.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the worldwide leader in Web performance measurement and management services that improve the quality of e-business. Keynote’s services enable corporate enterprises to benchmark, diagnose, test and monitor their e-business systems both inside and outside the firewall. Approximately 2,300 corporate IT departments and 15,400 individual subscribers rely on the company`s easy-to-use and cost-effective services to optimize revenues and reduce downtime costs without requiring additional complex and costly software implementations.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
© 2003 Keynote Systems, Inc. Keynote and The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Public Relations Contact:
Della Lowe
Keynote Systems Inc.
(650) 403-3323
dlowe@keynote.com
Dan Berkowitz
Keynote Systems Inc.
(650) 403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
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