Posted by bollinsl on 13 October 2008
A new broadband Flash Webcasting service of Dáil Éireann is now available on the Houses of the Oireachtas Web site.
This is in addition to the Oireachtas Live Windows Media Player, MPEG2 and MPEG4 services already available.
This service will be available for the Budget Debate on Tuesday 13 October 2008.
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Posted by bollinsl on 28 August 2008
The Dail and Seanad are Webcast live, and the recordings since 26 January 2008 are archived on two on-line video archive servers.
A simple on-line tool is available which generates XML links to the video segments based on the following inputs:
Links can be generated to any part of the debates using this tool.
For example:
Examples are available on the
pages. The archive may be played embedded in the page, or as a stand alone player.
It is also possible to download the complete wmv video files, but they are around 6 GB for a days sitting.
The Oireachtas has two 5.5 TB servers (one is a backup), and given that there are 100 sitting days for each house a year, the storage requirement amounts to: 6 GB * 100 days * 2 houses = 1.6 TB per annum, or in other words, we have enough storage for over four years.
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Posted by bollinsl on 11 August 2008
Oireachtas TV is available on the Internet and on educational networks as MPEG2 IPTV.
The television service is available as IPTV MPEG2 at 4 MBit/sec per channel, which gives a very good quality 16:9 wide screen feed.
The SDI feed from the Broadcasting Unit is encoded as MPEG2. The following live feeds are available on the Internet (instructions for a VLC media player):
Users may receive these channels free of charge once they are connected to a network which is peered with HEAnet, and has a 10 MBit/sec or faster connection, provided by a carrier which is capable to carrying multicast traffic. In Ireland, one commercial Internet service provider, Magnet Networks, is peered with HEAnet, and access to the Oireachtas multicast IPTV service was successfully implemented in a Government Department using a connection to Magnet Networks.
Multicasting IP is used, so there is no impact on the bandwidth of users networks or Internet connections no matter how many users are watching the channels.
The office may supply the proposed parliamentary channel, a playback channel, and a multiscreen channel showing the Dáil, Seanad and four committee rooms on one screen, as additional channels.
Users can watch the television feeds using a standard television via a set top box and a SCART cable, or on a PC.
The Oireachtas Live Webcasting service is provided in association with HEAnet, Ireland’s Educational are Research Network.
The MPEG2 Streams are provided to several networks including the following:
I would be interested to hear from users who are able to watch the Oireachtas TV service as a Webcasting feed or as an IPTV feed. I would also like to know the quality of the stream, e.g. bandwidth used by the stream that you are receiving.
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Posted by bollinsl on 11 August 2008
Oireachtas TV is available on the Internet and on educational networks as Windows Media Webcast streaming, and we are looking at supplying a Flash service in addition.
Live feeds of the Dáil and Seanad are provided, and additional feeds are being considered (Committees, multiscreen channel, the parliamentary channel).
The streams are provided as 16:9 widescreen as follows:
The SDI feeds from the Oireachtas Broadcasting Unit are encoded as Windows Media Player streams. The following live feeds are available:
The Oireachtas Live Webcasting service is provided in association with HEAnet, Ireland’s Educational are Research Network.
The Webcasting Streams are provided to several networks including the following:
I would be interested to hear from users who are able to watch the Oireachtas TV service as a Webcasting feed or as an IPTV feed. I would also like to know the quality of the stream, e.g. bandwidth used by the stream that you are receiving.
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Posted by bollinsl on 8 August 2008
The Oireachtas TV Irish parliamentary digital television service is available on the Government Campus LAN in Dublin and on the Government Networks in Ireland as the Oireachtas MPEG4 IPTV service, and provided in association with the Department of Finance.
The television service is available as IPTV MPEG4 at 1.2 MBit/sec per channel, which gives a very good quality 16:9 wide screen feed.
The SDI fed from the Broadcasting Unit is encoded as MPEG4 using a Skystream encoder. The following live feeds are available:
Government department and agencies may receive these channels free of charge once they are connected to the Government Campus LAN or to the Government Networks using a 10 MBit/sec or faster connection, provided by a carrier which is capable to carrying multicast traffic (all carriers connected so far are capable of this), and your own LAN must also be able to support multicast IP.
Multicast IP is used, so there is no impact on the bandwidth of government departments’ networks or Internet connections no matter how many users are watching the channels.
The Skystream appliance encoder that we use can handle eight channels, six are in use at present. The Office plans to supply the new parliamentary channel, and a multiscreen channel showing live feeds from the Dáil, Seanad and four committee rooms on one screen.
There is also a backup encoding system in place which can use input from the RF television distribution system.
Users can watch the television feeds using a standard television via a set top box and a SCART cable, or on a PC.
Several departments and offices are already connected to this service, and discussions are ongoing with several other departments, offices and agencies.
Any government department, office or agency interested in receiving Oireachtas IPTV channels should contact:
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