Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for foreign relations for the government of Israel. The agency includes a Division of Public Affairs, which includes an information department that monitors and responds to news broadcasts from around the world. The information department needed a way to quickly distribute content from news broadcasts to members of the Israeli government, and to deliver audio and video responses to the news media. The agency deployed a solution to stream the broadcasts and responses using Microsoft® Windows Media® and CastUP Nile, a solution for encoding, managing, and distributing streaming media content. The ministry is now able to respond immediately to important news events.
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, located in Jerusalem, is responsible for worldwide foreign relations for Israel. The ministrys Division of Public Affairs includes an information department that monitors news broadcasts from the Arab and Western media in the Middle East, the United States, and Europe.
A staff of 15 people in Israel watches news broadcasts in shifts, 24 hours a day, accessing the broadcasts through a private satellite system. In addition, agencies all over the world monitor news broadcasts that cant be accessed in Israel. When a news item occurs that needs an official response from the Israeli government, the information department distributes the news content to the appropriate people so they can determine how to respond, and then the department issues a response.
In the past, the department distributed videotapes of the news broadcasts. "If something in the news was relevant, wed make five or six copies and have drivers go everywhere with the videotapes to try to find the people concerned," said Ilan Sztulman, the information departments production manager.
That process was slow. If the news was broadcast in the United States and the tape had to be mailed to Israel, the department would receive it two days after the broadcast. "The response would always be too late," Sztulman said. Satellite links are too expensive for the distribution process, and would reach only those people with satellite dishes, Sztulman said. The department tried other streaming media solutions, but they were difficult to use and often didnt work. The ministry needed a fast, easy way to distribute the content and respond to the broadcasts.
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The ministrys information department uses a Windows Media-based solution developed by CastUP, an Israel-based company founded by a team of streaming media experts. The CastUP Nile product is a comprehensive solution that makes it easy for users to encode, manage, and distribute streaming media content.
The solution uses Windows Media Services (included in Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server), and CastUP is in the process of upgrading the product to Windows Media 9 Series in Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The information department uploads news content for streaming through the CastUP Nile Web interface.
The CastUP Nile system encodes the content in Windows Media format and distributes it to a Windows Media server for streaming either on the intranet or Internet. Information department staff in Jerusalem uploads the content to the intranet and sends the streaming media links through e-mail to the appropriate government people.
Agencies in other countries also monitor news content that cant be accessed in Israel. They upload the content to a private server on the Internet and send the streaming media links through e-mail. Different e-mail distribution lists are used depending on the content. In addition, CastUPs Short Message Service is used to notify people when theyve been sent some new streaming content.
Sztulman said his staff and other government members watch the streaming media content both in Israel and other parts of the world. They can see it from wherever they arein the office, at home, or on the road. "We all see it at the same time," Sztulman said. "We talk on the telephone, sometimes we exchange e-mails about that, and then we can react immediately."
For the ministrys information department, CastUP also developed a special tool that stitches together pieces of different media broadcasts into one file to provide an overall view of the media on a certain topic or a certain day. This client-side application uses the Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility and two-pass encoding for on-demand delivery. "We say, we want a piece of this, a piece of that, and push the button," Sztulman said. "It stitches everything together, translates it into whatever language the computer wants to see, and uploads it to the system." The information department also streams lectures, press conferences, and informational films on its public Web site  .
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Streaming media has enabled the ministry to respond faster and easier to news broadcasts. "We can react within 5, 10, 15 minutes, "Sztulman said. "We wouldnt be able to dream of reacting this fast if we didnt use the Web."
Using streaming media on its public Web site, the ministry can also reach more people with its message. "We are one of the few countries in the world that actually have press conferences immediately uploaded onto the Web," Sztulman said. "Anybody can see it online, on the spot, which is very good for our public diplomacy efforts."
Windows Media works well with other Microsoft software which makes it easier for the ministry department to document news broadcasts. Staff can copy and paste streaming media links into a Word document or Excel spreadsheet to record which news stories were broadcast and when.
"You just click the link, and you see the content immediately," Sztulman said. "For us, thats very practical." Because the CastUP solution and Windows Media are also easy to use, users dont need special skills to stream or access the content. "Its very, very easy," Sztulman said. "People with no technical background at all can use it."
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