Video streaming offers senior leaders another way to convey messages

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  A program office here recently provided live video streaming capabilities to support high-level Air Force events to enable senior leaders to communicate directly with their desired audiences.

The Global Combat Support Systems-Air Force office worked with multiple other organizations to enable a live feed for presentations of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief Master Sergeant from the Air Force Association 2012 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition in September. The feed was accessible to anyone with access to the Air Force portal.

"Previously events like this would be taped," said Danielle Dunn, GCSS-AF Portal Service Area lead. "Having the live environment allows the leaders to speak instantaneously and provide a focused message."

Another event the group recently supported was the retirement and appointment ceremonies for the Air Force chief of staff transition.

"General Welsh said he wanted to speak to Airmen directly and therefore wanted the ceremony carried in as many mediums as possible," said Dunn. "It was a resounding success and was the second-highest live streaming event in the history of the Pentagon Channel."

The streaming is accomplished by using a content delivery system. Some of the organizations the team here works with to accomplish these events include: GCSS-AF Portal, along with the Air Force Public Affairs Agency, Defense Media Activity, Akamai, Air Force Space Command Cyberspace Support Squadron, SAF Office of Administrative Assistant and the Pentagon Channel.

"Although the events we have done have been at the Air Force-level, this could also be a tool for commanders of major commands to speak with their workforce," said Dan Cronin, GCSS-AF Content Delivery Service lead. "We could tailor it to their level. This would be especially important for those with personnel at geographically separated locations."
 
Cronin also said the capability is not limited to just .mil addresses.

"We want to ensure leaders can reach as many diverse locations as they need to," he said. "Having the dot-.com addresses is important to reach personnel who might be in the Guard or Reserve to ensure they can get the message at whatever location they are at."

The streaming tool is available for use by all Air Force senior leadership.

"We've had two successful events where the streaming allowed our leaders to reach the largest possible target audience," said Dunn. "The system is designed to reliably handle these on-line events and can be scaled to support thousands of simultaneous viewers."

She sees another possible use of the streaming is for a senior leader to provide updates on a continual basis.

"Maybe they want to do a video to their workforce once a month," Dunn said. "This gives them another tool."

This capability can also help save money. Rather than having multiple personnel travel to a location, a senior leader can provide a message out to those personnel.

"This is especially important as budgets get tighter and travel funds dwindle," said Cronin.

To learn more about the GCSS-AF portal content delivery system and the capability for live video streaming, contact Danielle Dunn at DSN 845-6788, commercial 781-225-6788 or danielle.dunn@hanscom.af.mil. The team prefers to have at least three weeks notice before an event.

"As video distribution on the network is becoming more pervasive, GCSS-AF stands by to support leadership needs," said Michael Clark, GCSS-AF program director. "We want to provide an end-to-end performance that is secure and reliable."