City Keeps Residents Up to Date with MediaXtreme

A suburban St. Louis community uses the Keywest Technology MediaXtreme media server to create and schedule content for playback on its cable TV community channel.

Since 2004, residents of Maplewood, MO, have tuned to a city channel for the latest information on community activities, civic events and even time and temperature thanks to city mayor Mark Langston, Charter Communications and the Keywest Technology MediaXtreme media server .

Like many towns, Maplewood must balance the need to keep its residents up to date with budget demands that stretch resources thin. Fortunately, cable franchise holder Charter Communications had the solution: a matching grant to pay for the hardware that was needed. Choosing the MediaXtreme was simple, said Langston. “We found that the MediaXtreme was the most versatile of the systems we studied and one that we could add to as our budget grows.”

Built around a powerful CG (character generator) program called MediaCreator, the MediaXtreme is easy-to-learn and use. In fact, Langston a self-proclaimed computer novice, found the system “very easy to learn.”

MediaCreator, which runs on any Windows™-based computer (XP), lets users create text, import graphics or select graphic elements and backgrounds from the Digital Juice™ library to create pages that look every bit as good as network TV.

Once created, pages can be previewed for accuracy and scheduled for automated playback 24/7 along with MPEG video, sound, text crawls and video picture-in-picture insertion.

After the playback schedule is downloaded to the MediaXtreme, the process is complete. If scheduling or content changes are necessary, they can be loaded onto the MediaXtreme even when it is playing back previously scheduled information, assuring an uninterrupted flow of media.

Since its launch, Maplewood’s community channel has won high praise from residents. “We have regular viewers,” said Langston, “and they call on a regular basis in response to what we’ve put up from the first day we went on the cable system. It’s been very gratifying.”