“With Silverlight, we can provide a high-quality service without having to convert the content to the right format. What used to take hours is now immediate.” Piero Gaffuri, Chief Executive Officer, Rai Net Rai Net anticipated that during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, demand for its online video services on its Rai Sport and Rai.tv portals would increase beyond its ability to deliver. By deploying the Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in and Internet Information Services (IIS) Media Services 4.0—which offers Smooth Streaming for Silverlight—Rai Net provides live and catch-up TV and video on demand (VOD). In 2010, Rai.it and Rai.tv reached an average of 114 million page views and 7.4 million unique users a month. Business Needs Rai Net is the internet arm of Italy-based public broadcaster RAI. In 2006, it developed the video portal Rai.tv, which provides video footage of TV programmes. However, the quality of videos was inconsistent, and, with increased demand for online viewing of programmes, Rai Net needed a quick and reliable way to deliver its content. In addition, with the 2010 FIFA World Cup approaching, Rai Net was eager to expand its online video services to include high-quality live streaming video and VOD. Piero Gaffuri, Chief Executive Officer of Rai Net and Head of the New Media Department at RAI, says: “RAI is an independent broadcaster with a mission to give people in Italy an opportunity to interact with the content we produce. We decided to offer the same content through the internet that our viewers could see on TV.” To do this, RAI needed a stable infrastructure that could withstand a large amount of traffic. Solution RAI has used Microsoft products for many years, and was eager to find a new solution that was compatible with the technology already in place. After checking all the options available, the broadcaster decided to partner with Microsoft to set up Rai.tv player based on the Silverlight Media Framework. Using Silverlight and IIS Media Services Smooth Streaming, Rai.tv player delivers live and on-demand high- definition streaming video. The first services available on Rai.tv player were: The 2010 FIFA World Cup—live streaming and VOD content from the 2010 FIFA World Cup on the Rai Sport and Rai.tv portals Rai Replay—seven days of catch-up TV from three main Rai TV channels With Rai.tv player, users can select different camera views of football games during live events. It also offers a highlights menu, where editors from Rai Net publish video clips during the match, using the Silverlight Rough Cut Editor. With the digital video recorder capabilities of Smooth Streaming, Rai Net can republish content as VOD immediately after the live event, together with the highlights. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, live streaming reached a peak of more than 1 million unique users and up to 560,000 concurrent users in Italy alone. Over 30 Customer: Rai Net Website: www.rai.tv Number of Employees: 60 Country or Region: Italy Industry: Media and entertainment— Broadcasting Customer Profile Rai Net is the internet arm of the state- owned public service broadcaster RAI, the biggest TV company in Italy. Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Visual Studio Microsoft Expression Studio Windows Media Services 2008 Technologies − Microsoft Silverlight − Internet Information Services 7.0 For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies Microsoft Customer Solution Case Study Italy-Based Broadcasting Company Attracts Viewers with Innovative Video Capabilities