May 24, 2017
One of Polar Design’s core specialties, Community Access / PEG TV station websites, has led it to innovate new functionality specifically tailored to these organization’s online communication needs. Foremost among these innovations is our Community Media Platform (CMP) Software as a Service (SaaS) product that integrates Community Access websites’ content management solutions with their video playout systems. This allows Community Media centers and PEG TV stations the ability to effortless publish programming and scheduling information from their broadcast systems without duplicative manual entry allowing automation of schedule and video on demand (VOD). Recognizing this, the Horizon Interactive Awards gave its Bronze for Innovation in Experimental / New Technology category.
This win reflects the innovation behind the deep integration between the Lower Cape TV website and the upgraded Tightrope Cablecast system. CMP makes this possible with a number of features such as its own REST API and its normalized video on demand data model that allows Community Access websites the ability to easily connect to their video playout systems without major custom development.
The new LowerCape TV website features tight integration with Tightrope’s version 6.x API that allows us to publish the full VOD catalogue and related information (e.g., image thumbnails, genres) as well as its program schedule to its custom designed website. Unlike other VOD catalogues or schedules that are linked off site or provided in a single iframe, this method means that LowerCapeTV publishes out hundreds of VOD and schedule items monthly to individual pages within its custom website without manual effort.
Publishing out to its own pages under its domain name delivers substantial promotional and visibility benefits, including improved SEO, social media sharing, and the ability for web sites visitors to locate schedule or VOD content using on-site search. All of that translates into greater visibility of LowerCapeTV’s content in online searches and social media which yields more community engagement.
Unlike previous custom integrations we have performed for other community access websites, the LowerCapeTV website utilizes our Community Media Platform SaaS solution which connects with every major video playout provider’s API or RSS feed, normalizes the VOD data and provides that data in our own REST API. This ensures a stable API for community media websites if anything changes with your playout system, and it also permits integration with a growing array of interfaces – no longer just SilverStripe CMSes, but WordPress CMSes and mobile applications as well.
Please contact us to learn more about LowerCape TV project or to see a demo!