May 3: Press freedom webcast
DrikNews
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, DrikNews has organised a roundtable discussion and live webcast. In recognition of the globalised, interconnected nature of news media, and the growing international interest in Bangladesh issues, a big focus of the event is the live streaming of the event on the Internet. Presenters at the event will be Khaled Mohiuddin (bdnews24.com), Tipu Sultan (Prothom Alo), Munni Saha (ATN Bangla), Probir Sikdar (Samakal), Mainul Islam Khan (Reporters San Frontieres) and Afsan Chowdhury ("Media in Times of Crisis"). Shahidul Alam will moderate the event. The physical event will be held at Drik gallery, but for those inside and outside Bangladesh who cannot attend, a video stream of the event will be viewable (with a 10 second lag) on the Internet. 'Streaming video' is a key component of many live events today, but due to low and irregular bandwidth capacity in Bangladesh, it has not been popularised here. A key need for streaming video is high bandwidth over a certain period -- if too many people try to view a video stream at the same time, a low bandwidth network can shut off. The streaming capacity is provided by Givan Bela of Belgium based Okno -- the server itself will be in Belgium, but Bela will be monitoring it from Slovakia. Since the majority of the discussion will be in Bengla, there will also be simultaneous translation in a separate window, updated every ten seconds following the model of live, scrolling cricket scores made popular by websites like cricinfo.com. The technical aspect of the event was coordinated by Naeem Mohaiemen along with a team from Drik and DrikNews. The organisers cautioned that the live streaming might face technical hitches on the actual day. "We tested it on May 1, which was a holiday so a lot of people are not online. May 3, 4:30 pm is right in the middle of peak office hour, so if too many people are choking up the general bandwidth, the signal could break down." The actual one-to-many streaming is from the Belgium server, which has high capacity. But getting the signal from Dhaka to Brussels depends on local bandwidth. Shahidul Alam points out that if the webcast breaks down, the team will have learnt the local technical barriers and be able to do a better stream at the next event. Details of the webcast are at http://www.driknews.com and http://www.drik.net/webcast
|
Photo: Azizur Rahim Peu, DrikNews |
