Company Uses Adobe Live Flash Technology to Stream Freeskiing Event to Fans around the World
BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 8 2008 — Level 3 Communications’ Content Markets Group today announced that it delivered live coverage of Mountain Sports International’s U.S. Freeskiing Nationals event over the Internet. Streaming the event live with Adobe Flash, Level 3 enabled Mountain Sports International (MSI) to provide a high-quality live video experience to winter sports fans around the globe.
MSI develops and produces action and adventure sports events and programming. MSI owns and produces the U.S. Freeskiing Series, the U.S. Skiercross Series, and the Freeskiing World Tour. Using Level 3's Streaming services and the Adobe Flash Player, MSI enabled viewers around the world to instantly and easily access the live action of the U.S. Freeskiing competition, broadcast online from Snowbird, Utah, March 21 and 22. The event was an interactive media delivery experience, enabling action sports fans to access live competition instantly, view immediately uploaded highlight clips, and even get involved in the commentary through interactive chat boards as the events unfolded.
“Level 3 provided flawless delivery of MSI’s U.S. Freeskiing Nationals event,” said Adam Comey, president and co-founder of Mountain Sports International. “Their reliable, high quality streaming services enabled us to scale quickly to meet the demands of our global audience, and their proven support gave us the confidence to focus on the creative endeavors of our business.”.
“Until recently, fans of action winter sports who were unable to travel to remote mountain locations had to settle for static pictures or after-the-fact videos,” said Grant van Rooyen, president of Level 3's Content Markets Group. “As the demand for live online action sports accelerates, MSI is helping to define the action sports culture. Level 3 is proud to enable MSI’s efforts to expand live action sports from a niche crowd to a broad viewing audience all around the world.”
Level 3 is an Adobe Premier Authorized Flash Video Streaming Service Partner. Level 3’s service expands the options available for delivering Flash-enabled video for content publishers to deliver their video content. The integration of Flash technology into Level 3’s CDN services makes it possible for customers to leverage Level 3’s large IP network to effectively deliver Flash-enabled video around the world.
“Level 3’s high-performance, reliable network and CDN services are an ideal platform to deliver on-demand video with Adobe Flash Player,” said Bill Rusitzky, director for global media alliances at Adobe. “The combination of Level 3’s Streaming services and Adobe Flash technology provides customers access to a very effective way to deliver rich video applications to the largest possible audiences without the hassle of setting up and maintaining their own streaming server hardware and network.”
Level 3 has long been the leading distributor of sports backhaul content to the majority of professional sports venues in the U.S. with its Vyvx services portfolio. With its CDN and Streaming services, Level 3 has all aspects of the content delivery value chain for traditional and non-traditional distribution.
“Level 3 is driving innovation and bringing robust solutions to the creation-to-consumption value chain,” said van Rooyen. “Using technologies like Adobe Flash, we are able to better serve the diverse needs of our customers like MSI, who need to scale to reach their expanding online audiences quickly and reliably. Level 3's network serves as a foundation to connect people and information via the Internet, and our content delivery services were specifically designed for the tremendous amount of bandwidth required to deliver high-performance streaming of live sporting events.”
About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT), an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting 180 markets in 18 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite of services including: Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice and voice over IP services, and content delivery and media distribution services. These services provide the building blocks to enable Level 3’s customers to meet their growing demands for advanced communications solutions. The company’s Web address is www.Level3.com.
"Level 3 Communications,” "Level 3," the red 3D brackets and the Level 3 Communications logo are registered service marks of Level 3 Communications, LLC in the United States and/or other countries. Level 3 services are provided by wholly owned subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc. Any other service, product or company names recited herein may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements made in this press release are forward looking in nature. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Level 3’s control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. The most important factors that could prevent Level 3 from achieving its stated goals include, but are not limited to the company’s ability to: successfully integrate acquisitions; increase the volume of traffic on the network; defend intellectual property and proprietary rights; develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services; attract and retain qualified management and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and conditions of debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and other important factors can be found within Level 3’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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