Wowza Empowers Live Dutch Webcast for Haiti Earthquake Relief, One Million Online Listeners Tune In
Donated Wowza Media Servers Help Power National Fundraising Broadcast that Raises €83 Million
Evergreen, CO, and Amsterdam, February 1, 2010 – A one-day national fundraising effort championed by a collection of Dutch radio and TV stations helped to raise a startling €83,448,252 for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Supporting the effort, U.S.-based Wowza Media Systems®, donated its media servers and the Dutch IS Internet Services in cooperation with Radio538 hosted the live webcast streams that reached more than one million online listeners.
Recognized for creating the first unified media server capable of simultaneously streaming to all major desktop, mobile device and IPTV player clients, Wowza Media Systems has been particularly embraced by radio and TV broadcasters worldwide looking to expand their audiences through the online channel.
The participating radio stations, including popular commercial stations Radio538, Q Music, SLAM FM, Radio Veronica, as well as public networks 3FM and Radio 2, broadcasted the fundraiser last Thursday, January 21 as Radio 555. The giro number 555 is used in the Netherlands for donations to charities such as Oxfam, Unicef, the Red Cross and others which fall under the Dutch national aid organization cooperative, Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties (SHO).
“We’ve been using Wowza Media Servers to stream our programming content online for some time now and we knew the technology was more than up to the task of supporting this kind of effort,” said Alexander Josiassen, Technology and Operations Manager of Radio538. “Without hesitation, Wowza donated the additional software to power the massive webcast and wildly surpassed our technical expectations by enabling streaming to 145,000 simultaneous online listeners and reaching more than one million people in total for the day.”
The broadcast fundraiser for Haiti mirrors efforts by the Dutch broadcasters who conducted a similar national relief effort for victims of the 2004 tsunami in Asia.
“The incredibly quick and effective response by these broadcasters, and the tremendous outpouring of support from the Dutch people themselves provides great deal of hope that we’ll be able to make a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by this tragedy,” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-founder of Wowza Media Systems. “We are humbled and proud to have been able to play a role in this humanitarian effort.”
About Wowza Media Systems
Wowza Media Systems is the media server software company that provides an industrial strength infrastructure for live video, video-on-demand, live recording and video chat. Wowza has a singular focus on delivering high performance media server software to service providers, media properties, enterprises, and other organizations serious about delivering video to any digital screen — computer, mobile phone, home TV. Wowza's media server software has been deployed by more than 30,000 global licensees in entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce. Wowza Media Systems is privately-held with headquarters in Evergreen, Colorado. For more information, visit Wowza Media Systems at www.wowza.com.
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