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kfriday@neighborhood.com

What's app-ening? LSI update

By Kevin Colligan —
Local Streaming Initiative dev Roku channels
Dev Roku channels are now live for a half-dozen Local Streaming Initiative stations (Roku screenshot)

Greetings from the Local Streaming Initiative.

We've been quiet, lately, heads-down working to bring our local streaming platform from the drawing board into reality.

Now that we've released our first dev apps 🎉🎉🎉, I'm back to share some updates.

Want more information?

The LSI will be ready to bring on more partner stations this summer, so we'd love to answer any questions you might have.

Reach out to Kevin to schedule a 1:1 discussion.

Onto the updates ...

Admin launched

We launched our shared admin last month. Back-ends don't usually get the spotlight, but this truly is the LSI's "secret sauce".

Our back-end starts with a proprietary Content Management System designed specifically for local public media after more than two years of in-depth conversations with member stations of all sizes.

This system (1) pulls down all programming from PBS APIs (including Passport), (2) wraps it in a rich layer of metadata managed by The Programming Service, and (3) gives local stations full control of their programming presentation and user messaging.

LSI Keyword Carousel builder
Keyword Carousels update automatically as programming is released or removed (LSI admin screenshot)

Station partners are now learning the ropes, setting their content lineups, and providing feedback to our rapid-response team – which is squashing bugs and smoothing rough-edges as they surface.

If you'd like to see how the CMS works, contact me to arrange a test drive.

If there's an appetite for deep dive on the tech side of things, we can schedule an engineering walk-through with our Cascade PBS tech lead Chris Wells and our back-end partner/vendor Phase 2 Technologies.

Dev Roku channels launched

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A quick tour of the Cascade PBS dev Roku channel, narrated by Product Manager Kyle Pace

We've released our first batch of dev Roku channels.

Local apps are now up for Cascade PBS, PBS Charlotte, Rocky Mountain PBS, WETA, WHRO and WHYY.

We have KPBS, KVIE, Nashville Public Television and WTCE on-deck. (Some may be launched by the time you're reading this).

These are dev channels, not yet available to the public.

We'll be fine-tuning for a bit, but are closing in on launch-ready apps. Stay tuned for launch announcements.

Cross-platform expansion set to begin

Viewers cannot stream by Roku alone, of course. So we'll kick-off our cross-platform build the first week of June.

Within four and a half months, we'll be across:

  • Roku
  • FireTV
  • Apple TV
  • Google TV
  • web (video portal)
  • LG smart TVs
  • Samsung smart TVs

That's pretty fast. We can move so swiftly because we're using React Native to build one codebase to serve all platforms (aside from Roku.)

This streamlined approach will pay long-term dividends, allowing us to rapidly and consistently develop new features across all platforms.

Our tech partner Oxagile will take the lead on the cross-platform build-out. Their core business is white-label OTT apps, and they've been working with streaming video for 20+ years, so we're thrilled to pair their proven front-end prowess with our "secret sauce" admin.

Full website product coming early Fall

LSI subscribers get a video web portal as part of their subscription.

But in the early Fall, Cascade PBS will also offer a full website which offers full LSI integration, as well as:

  • News
  • Events
  • Podcasts
  • Informational pages
  • (And, possibly NPR integration in the future, to serve dual-licensees)

We're building atop the popular Ghost CMS (used by The Atlantic, SFist and 404 Media), primarily due to its slick, integrated member conversion tools, and bulletproof (inexpensive) hosting.

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This is Ghost's out-of-the-box membership management screen. We'll modify for our nonprofit model (with assistance from the Ghost team) and can pipe data out to your CRM of choice.

This isn't a full CRM replacement (yet?). But will give front-line website managers real-time data directly in the admin, with the option to pipe data out to your CRM of choice.

Look for a new CascadePBS.org on the platform by the end of August.

Pricing information coming soon.

Long term roadmap

Once we've completed our initial launches and platform expansion, we'll work with our partners on prioritizing features in our roadmap.

We plan to release small improvements every two weeks year round. And will schedule two major release cycles per year, for large features (eg: FAST channels, film-festival integration, digital pledge, etc.)

We love to collaborate, so if you have any great ideas we should consider, please let us know.

Thanks for keeping tabs on our journey.

Stay tuned for more ...

Cheers,
Kevin Colligan, LSI project lead

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