Web-based Video Streaming Platform and Content Delivery for Department of Public Information

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 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) platform to deliver adaptive live and on-demand Webcast video coverage to a global audience in six languages plus original/floor, of simultaneous United Nations meetings and events, such as General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Council, Press Briefings, Media Stakeouts, Conferences and other meetings and events held in locations around the world such as UN Headquarters in New York, the UN Office at Geneva, UN Regional Offices, Peacekeeping and Poilical Missions, International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague and at UN Conferences held at various locations worldwide; • make available live and on-demand streaming to a global audience on multiple formats through the UN Web TV website (http://webtv.un.org), Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms including H.264, Flash RTMP and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video formats; • provide on-demand streaming of a single video with multiple embedded audio tracks (six or more languages) to play through an HTML5 and Flash-based Player. A user should be able to select the audio track (language) of his/her choice; • provide a choice of the format for uploading videos (including .MP4 and .MOV formats) to the vendor’s storage and/or to a remote external storage for playback. Videos should be transcoded and served adaptively to desktop, mobile, and OTT devices. Transcoding profiles should be configurable and allow for multiple active profiles. The video platform should provide advanced search functionality, detailed statistical reports and authorized remote user access; • provide integrate with Social Media platforms (including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) and allow easy sharing and embedding of videos and metadata into those platforms and other web pages based on configurable criteria; • provide a web-based cloud publishing platform accessible via any standard desktop or mobile browser that incorporates a video Content Management System (CMS) with dynamic APIs. It should facilitate the entering of relevant metadata (including title, description and tags), creation of categories and custom fields, creation of video thumbnails, smart and dynamic playlists, selection of multiple time points within a video (speaker by speaker links), selection of languages and creation of custom Players. The CMS should allow the localization of all metadata fields into the 6 official UN languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian; • provide integration with content management and search technologies, including Drupal, WordPress, and Apache Solr. The platform should allow for automated uploading and updating of a single video or bulk action using XML, HTTP, FTP, SFTP, or similar. 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.