Web-based Video Streaming Platform and Content Delivery for Department of Global Communications

1. It is anticipated that the Procurement Division of the United Nations will shortly be issuing a solicitation on the above subject. In this connection, the UN is requesting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from qualified firms to provide the United Nations with a cloud-based high-performance video streaming platform and content delivery on a large network infrastructure that could provide reliable, simultaneous live and on-demand streaming over the internet to end users all over the world. The service solution should fulfil the following requirements and provide these main functionalities, among other desirable ones: • Provide a 24/7/365 cloud based Content Delivery Network (CDN) cloud platform to deliver live and on-demand streaming video coverage to a global audience in a minimum of six languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian plus the Floor - the original languages of the speakers), of simultaneous United Nations meetings and events, held at various locations worldwide, including from the UN Headquarters in New York, the UN Office at Geneva, UN Office at Vienna, UN Office at Nairobi, UN Regional Offices as well as at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. • Make available live and on-demand streaming to a global audience on multiple formats through the UN Web TV website (https://webtv.un.org), Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (X) and other platforms including support for all dominant streaming media formats including SRT, RTMP, RTMPS, RTP-FEC and HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). The Vendor must be able to serve live and on-demand streams, images, and related content using an embedded player (HTML5 or higher version) via HTTP and HTTPS. • Provide live cloud transcoding to transcode a single video stream with multiple embedded audio tracks (seven or more languages) for adaptive delivery. The solution must allow for a minimum of 30 live simultaneous streams with the ability to increase the number if needed. The solution must allow for the continuous live multilingual streaming of long meetings (minimum 12 hours) as well as the live streaming of a 24 hour live channel. A user should be able to select the audio track (language) of their choice from a HTML5 embedded player. The label on the player of the audio tracks must be configurable. The embed code must allow for any audio track to be selected as the default on player loading. • Support the use of persistent stream keys for each input source, such that the encoders can be set up in advance with these keys, be run 24-7 or as needed and not have to update configuration, credentials or string keys. The system must allow for a backup feed in case the primary feed is interrupted. The system must allow for the streams to route via the closest routing point to minimise latency and syncing issues. These streams will be pushing a continuous video stream to different scheduled/ Live Events through the solution. The state of the asset should be set to scheduled prior to the recording start time. The solution will automatically start the recording and live streaming of the event per the encoder/recording start time and move the state to ‘live’. Access to schedule and live state metadata must be available to the United Nations by using APIs. • Provide a web-based cloud publishing platform that incorporates a video Content Management System (CMS) with the following: Dynamic APIs to search, sort, manage(update, create, delete) and organise the media library with ease; facilitate the entering of relevant metadata (including title, summary, description, dates fields for event start, end, embargo, publishing, featured as datetime (with timezone selectors), etc; provide a configurable hierarchy of categories; selection of multiple time points (cue points or chapters) within a video (speaker by speaker links); selection of audio languages; creation of custom Players - this includes the ability to add a bug/watermark on the stream, customised colours, controls, localization, etc. The platform should provide detailed analytics, including for live and on-demand views per video and by country/location as well the monthly usage in terms of storage and bandwith. • Provide a CMS which supports the localization of metadata - storing title, description, related links, custom fields, etc. in multiple languages on the same video record, including the support for all Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Cyrilic, Hindi and Urdu characters. • Allow for the scheduling of a live event with all metadata set in advance including screenshot, start time for the event, start time of the encoder, etc. Once this video ID is set for the scheduled event, it must carry through the entire workflow lifecycle of scheduled to live to on-demand. The recording of a live stream must then be immediately available on-demand under the same ID, or embeddable reference. Such live turned on-demand video must be able to be trimmed and retain the same ID. Live and on-demand videos must allow for highlights or clips to be cut in real-time and published as separate videos on the platform. If such live videos are a result of multilingual live streaming (multiple audio tracks), the on-demand video must also have multiple audio tracks on playback. If such videos have embedded closed captioning, the on-demand video must also have the closed captioning. • Provide integration with Content Management technologies, including Drupal. The platform must allow for automated creation, uploading and updating of a single video or bulk action using XML, HTTP, FTP, SFTP, or similar. The vendor must provide a Node.js, PHP and Java wrapper for the integration solution. The API must support the ability to retrieve all metadata,thumbnails,views, input source etc for each video or scheduled event, in a single API call and referenced by the unique ID defined above. 2. For this purpose, UNHQ will undertake a competitive bidding exercise shortly and issue accordingly a Request for Proposal (RFP) with detailed specifications, UN General Conditions of Contracts and other related documents to those companies who would express their interest and provide initial relevant information as to their ability to fulfill DPI's 3. The EOI should include a description of the company profile and details of relevant experience. However, such description shall be limited to 1-2 pages length. Please do not include copies of certifications at this stage. EOIs that do not contain the information requested for evaluation may be rejected. In addition, interested new vendors will be requested to complete Vendor Registration Form. To register, please go to https://www.ungm.org/ (see more information in p.4 of this posting). 4. Please note of the following: a) This EOI is not an invitation for submission of a bid. b) Procurement Division (PD), UNHQ reserves the right in selecting the invitees for the competitive bidding based on substantial and proven records of performance in the subject field of activities and mere expressing an interest would not automatically warrant for solicitation document. c) PD reserves the right to reject EOIs received after the closing date of EOI.