New Flash-based player from Cypress powers Livewire online news for teens

SEATTLE, WA USA (October 2, 2006) -- A new Flash-based broadband distribution system developed by Cypress Consulting is a key technology underlying Channel One's groundbreaking Livewire digital video for teens. Livewire is the latest offering from Peabody Award-winning Channel One News, the world's leading public affairs and news content provider for the teen audience.

The LiveWire digital video channel, which debuted Aug. 16, lets students get breaking news and public affairs content online, build video playlists, rate content, and share it with friends. With the launch of Livewire and the Flash-based video streaming capability, traffic to the ChannelOne.com website has increased dramatically, with the volume of video streams reaching 32,000 a day during the site's 9/11 anniversary coverage.

The new Flash-based player created by Cypress gives Channel One the ability to build "a video encyclopedia," making coverage of major news events available to students through a searchable online site, according to Beth Mayall, Channel One's senior VP of creative development. "Cypress has harnessed ground-breaking technologies that allow us to better showcase and deliver our content," Mayall said.

In creating the Livewire system, Cypress worked closely with thePlatform, whose best-of-breed Media Publishing System (MPS) manages ChannelOne's web content. The project included development of both a sophisticated back-end system to manage ChannelOne.com's daily video assets and advertising media, and an intuitive and user-friendly front-end interface to deliver this content.

"The Flash-based player we created for Livewire takes advantage of a widely accepted technology, making it possible for ChannelOne.com to deliver digital video to students across a wide variety of school computer systems," said Nate Thompson, Principal of Cypress. "The player is also perfect for serving up the interactive experience to ChannelOne's web-savvy teens have come to expect both in the classroom and beyond."

"With Livewire, Channel One is rapidly expanding the audience for their content," Thompson said. "It was exciting for us to help them take their core business online."