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Granicus Leads Innovation in Government Transparency with Streaming Media

05 Sep 2007

by: Lauren Alexander

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Adopts Microsoft Silverlight to Expand Reach of Public Meeting Broadcasts with 100% Cross-Platform Compatibility

SAN FRANCISCO -- Granicus, Inc. today announced its adoption of Microsoft Silverlight to strengthen its industry-leading streaming media and public meeting management solutions for government. The adoption of Silverlight, including its cross-platform Web plug-in, will take Granicus’ current platform, previously based on Microsoft Windows Media, a significant step forward in the industry. Working with Silverlight, Granicus will be able to strengthen the reliability and performance of streaming broadcasts, provide even greater opportunities for its digitally enhanced online public record, and improve the transmission of public meeting broadcasts across IP networks by making them available to all constituents irrespective of computer platform.

Already streaming public meetings live and on-demand to more than 1 million citizens every month, Granicus is hosting nearly 70,000 such meetings and other public functions for more than 300 governments spanning 30 states. Granicus’ award-winning solutions are now the only streaming media platform for government to offer Apple and Microsoft Windows compatibility to end-users with a single media format. Providing access through a cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in tremendously improves the capacity for municipal, county, state and federal government to reach their constituents online. This will also enable education districts—where Apple-based systems are very common—to engage constituents with identical functionality.

“Adopting Microsoft Silverlight strengthens the momentum behind our drive to bring one million public meetings online,” said Tom Spengler, chief executive officer of Granicus. “With Silverlight, we have strong reliability, the best streaming performance in the industry, and tremendous capacity for facilitating a transparent, democratic process. It is fundamentally critical in government more than in any other industry to provide a format for public access that is available to every citizen on every platform. With no platform barriers between PCs and Macs, we can now bring the public together while also delivering a platform that enables government to be closer than ever to its constituents.”

“We are pleased to work with Granicus to bring rich online experiences to the public to enable better communication between the government and its citizens,” said Steve Sklepowich, group product manager in the UX Platform and Tools team at Microsoft Corp.

Granicus’ fully hosted infrastructure provides governments unlimited bandwidth for delivering streaming broadcasts of public meetings and other public functions from all government departments. This significant, competitively unique innovation in streaming video provides governments with the greatest capacity to more effectively, reliably and transparently reach all their citizens online.

About Granicus
Founded in 1999, San Francisco-based Granicus, Inc. helps government reach staff and constituents without barriers. Public agencies trust our webcasting solutions to enable vital improvements to public access, staff efficiency, and government accountability. In addition, the combination of webcasting with public meeting management technology into a single workflow decreases administrative costs and simplifies public recordkeeping tasks. Granicus serves more than 400 governing bodies in 44 states, building close connections with more than 30% of the American population.

Contact
Lauren Alexander
Corporate Communications Manager
415-357-3618 x1788

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For Additional Information Contact:

Granicus, Inc.
Lauren Alexander
Public Relations Manager
email: lauren@granicus.com
Phone: 415-357-3618


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