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Geographic Channel |
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National
Geographic Channel – Synchronized
Web Presence for UK, Asia, India, Hong Kong, Singapore
and NGC Global Resource Center
With a viewership of more than 100 million, National
Geographic Channel (NGC) broadcasts span across
the globe, in varied time zones. Acknowledging the
power of the Internet, NGC discerned the need for
its online presence. The aim was to display program
schedules online and allow viewers to experience
NGC explorations on the Web. The NGC Web site had
to be customized across different time zones and
countries. To manage operations on such a large
scale, NGC partnered with solution providers in
various countries and for India, they chose DevelopmentIndia
(then known as Indicom). The NGC India Web site
was launched in 2000. Providing high-quality services
on consistent basis, DevelopmentIndia gained appreciation
from the NGC team and subsequently, the responsibility
to design, develop, and maintain six NGC Web sites!
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Customer Profile
In September
1997, the world's first National Geographic Channel
was launched in Europe and Australia. National Geographic
Channel Asia was launched soon after, in 1998 and
has built a loyal and devoted following. The word
spread quickly and now the Channel has grown to
be available in over 133 countries and is viewed
in more than 100 million homes, in 21 languages.
Business Requirement
NGC wanted
to launch a turnkey project to accomplish its goal
of global Web presence. The operation would require
a very large & full-time, dedicated team of
professionals, not to mention the physical costs
such as hardware, OS etc. To prevent these costs,
NGC chose partners, who would manage its operations
in various countries, with different time zones.
DevelopmentIndia was chosen for India.
Solution
Benefits
 Consistent
and high-end Web design matching global standards
In-sync
event & operations management for NGC Web sites
Comprehensive
online coverage & promotions for NGC events
Website
traffic analysis and monitoring for consistent performance
High-end
graphic and Micro-Site designs
Interactive
online games and contests
Technologies
Used
Windows
NT (formerly deployed on LINUX servers)
MySQL,
MS SQL, Oracle
ASP
( formerly developed in CGI )
PHP
Flash
(ActionScript, Animations)
HTML
Web
Trends Site Analysis
SSI
JavaScript
Requirement
National Geographic
Channel was searching for new mediums to reach its
viewers. The Internet having evolved to what it
is today could not be ignored. With growing viewership,
NGC required a strong online presence to provide
extensive coverage of TV program schedules, along
with features to add value to the basic channel
subscription. NGC wanted the Websites to provide
extensive TV program promotions through online activities
like contests, polls, games, and other interactive
features. Apart from this, the Websites had to be
maintained for India, UK, Asia, Singapore, and Hong
Kong in addition to the NGC Global Resource Center
(Online) – all across different time zones,
with different types of events and contents maintained
on a daily and continuous basis.
Empowering NGC’s
Online Presence
NGC teamed with DevelopmentIndia in early 2000 with
only the India Website development project. Today
DevelopmentIndia manages the following NGC websites:
United Kingdom
- www.nationalgeographic.co.uk
Asia -
www.ngcasia.com
Singapore
- www.nationalgeographic.com.sg
Hong Kong
- www.nationalgeographic.com.hk
India
- www.nationalgeographic.co.in
Global Resource Centre
- www.ngcglobal.com
Managing six
Websites is only a part of the entire responsibility.
It extends to being the ever-present technical resource
for all online activity - Providing solutions to
the global network of NGC's teams, along with research
& development in new technologies are all part
of the services provided by DevelopmentIndia to
the Channel.
The biggest challenge in being a part of this operation
is working within global timelines. NGC plans its
online promotions and activities on a global level.
It is our responsibility to deliver within specified
timelines, in-sync with NGC teams worldwide.
Our Web activities
involve:
Online
program database and telecast schedule maintenance
Content
schedule implementation for regional Websites
Page
construction for all content
Online
event implementation (contests, polls, etc.)
Promotional
activities (e-Newsletters, online AV's, etc.)
Application
development for key processes (Banner Management
System, Global Resource Management System, Administration
consoles)
Implementation
of interactive features
Beta
testing, debugging and packaging for distribution
to NGC teams worldwide
Web
server & Web site maintenance
Implementation
and monitoring of the WebTrends Live site analysis
system
Offline
mirror site maintenance
Offline
Image banking
DevelopmentIndia
has a team of professionals who are dedicated to
NGC, from server administrators to proofreading
professionals - the entire gamut. In addition, we
provide the hardware infrastructure including the
Web server for porting the NGC Websites. Previously,
we deployed NGC's Websites on a multi-platform and
multi-host architecture, for serving Web pages and
applications. The Websites were hosted on the Linux
platforms. Development of applications was performed
using PHP, CGI-PERL under Linux. This setup has
switched to the Windows platform, using ASP and
PHP/PERL-CGI for Windows.
We
utilized MySQL for database management, previously.
As of now, SQL Server 2000 serves as the database
management backend for al NGC Websites. A key concern
while developing applications is that they should
seamlessly integrate into the existing system, irrespective
of the databases in use.
A
majority of the front-end uses SSI pages with extensive
use of JavaScript. Interactive features are developed
using a combination of JavaScript and ActionScript
(Flash).
Some
of the sub-projects that we have accomplished for
NGC include:
Mission
Everest –
Complete online coverage of this contest conducted
in India
Mission Mars
– Complete online coverage of this contest
NGC –
Geo Genius –
An interactive online game developed by DevelopmentIndia
Secrets Unveiled
& Secret Chambers Revealed –
Complete online coverage
of program schedules
for these series
The growing faith of the NGC team on DevelopmentIndia
has led to another successful venture that we are
currently managing for NGC – The History Channel
Website.
Summary
We believe
in long-lasting relationships with our clients and
NGC is a perfect example! Over the years, we have
grown as a company, and for NGC, our services have
only improved. As Mr. Jayant Shah, VP Media, for
NGC puts it – “The diversity and creativity
that the developers at DevelopmentIndia possess
has been an ongoing asset. In closing, our Team
would like to entrust DevelopmentIndia for the expert
development and project fulfillment we have experienced
thus far, we look forward to many years of ongoing
partnership."
Managing
operations across Websites catering to a diverse
time zone, we enable NGC to meet its requirements
of turnkey and high-end Web presence at par with
global Web standards.
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| Technology
@ DevelopmentIndia |
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| Windows
NT/2000 server, Sun Solaris, LINUX Apache, Lotus Domino |
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 To
view some of our work - Click
Here |
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| Offshore .Net Development