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Grammy.com Streams Footage from Previous Telecasts
02/10/2005 8:20 PM, Reuters
Chris Marlowe
The Recording Academy is
hosting flashbacks to previous years' Grammy Awards ceremonies,
letting music fans relive the event in three-minute montages.
The shorts are among the expanded features on
http://www.Grammy.com, the official home of Sunday's event.
Grammy.com is designed to be a complement to the 47th
annual Grammy Awards, airing live on CBS at 5:30 p.m. EST
(tape-delayed for West Coast). It will be streaming exclusive
red carpet interviews, backstage moments and other video, along
with providing a wealth of background and statistical
information, all of which is created in-house by the Recording
Academy.
"The Grammy telecast brings in a lot of people who don't
normally visit our site," Recording Academy senior director
information technology Megan Clarke said. "We have a lot of
information, and we are constantly looking to see how we can
share it with the people who want it. We want to be a
year-round resource for everyone."
Clarke said that next year she would like to add video from
the part of the ceremony that isn't televised, where most of
the hundred-plus awards are handed out.
"It takes place the same day, about four hours before the 3
1/2-hour telecast," she said. "There are performances, awards
and speeches, and it would be very interesting to show that."
Grammy.com offers printable lists of the nominees, an
absorbing database of previous winners, and other background
and statistical information. Fleshing this out are "roundups"
-- essays taking an overview of key genres including film and
television, R&B/rap, production, jazz and more. There's also a
showcase of photos from the most recent ceremony provided in
partnership People magazine, and links to get Grammy-related
mobile text message alerts and ring tones from Verizon.
The Recording Academy also entered a relationship with
Apple this year. Clarke said that voting members were able to
hear all five of the best song nominees using iTunes. Each
member was assigned a unique identifier and could download and
burn the songs under consideration.
In addition, viewers will be able to go directly to the
iTunes Music Store to purchase a download of the live
performance of John Lennon and Paul McCartney 's "Across the
Universe" for 99 cents with the proceeds being donated to
ongoing tsunami relief efforts. Artists participating include
Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones , Alicia Keys, Slash, Velvet
Revolver, Tim McGraw, and Brian Wilson .
"Apple has the goal of making that available within an hour
or two," Clarke said. "This is the first time something like
that has been done, and we love it."
On the technical side, Clarke has a strategy for coping
with the sudden surge of visitors. "Historically the academy
had partnerships with companies that did hosting during the
telecast," she said. "This year, we have solidified
partnerships so that we can outsource what we need while
maintaining control and responsibility."
This arrangement makes it possible for her team to do
frequent updates and to post them as they happen, she said,
without sacrificing the ability to handle crowds. "Last year we
were streaming 183 megabits per second of data, and that was
really exciting because we had never been able to do that
before," Clarke said.
RIS Technology provides the Recording Academy with the
technology it needs to achieve its online goals. "RIS utilizes
state-of-the-art technology and best in class service
providers, like Mirror Image, to dynamically scale the
Grammy.com Web site so that it performs optimally through a
nearly 1,000 times increase in visitors," RIS Technology chief
technology officer Nate Johnson said. He added that his company
has a specialized event hosting technology that also is used by
the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. for the Golden Globes, among
other clients.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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