Stream IPTV project wins prestigious local government award

Hull-based Broadband Capital is celebrating after scooping an award at the Good Communications Award 2008 for its unique television service, STREAM.  The Good Communications Awards aim to promote and encourage the public sector’s efforts towards effective communication with its citizens and its workforce.

The STREAM project, representing Hull City Council, won the award for IT Project Innovation, based on its very successful Independent Living Campaign, which provides vulnerable older people with access to local programmes and services through their existing television, using an IPTV application developed by the STREAM team. The award was given to the team in recognition of their achievement to improve communication with residents. The STREAM project was one of three projects shortlisted. The other two were Hampshire County Council’s Green IT Project and the Welsh Assembly Government’s Herian Project.

Steve Fleming, Group Manager Knowledge Economy for Hull City Council and Alan Mumby, Senior Producer at Broadband Capital, picked up the IT Project Innovation Award, which goes to IT projects that ‘further the progress of e-government and improve communication channels between government and the citizen.’ 

The awards ceremony was hosted by former news presenter, Peter Sissons, and held at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on June 26th.  Sissons said that the judges, in awarding first place to Hull, said of the project that it “lays a foundation for future delivery of services from both the Local Authority and their chosen partners.”

Steve Fleming said: “I am delighted that the STREAM project has won this award. It is a testimony of the dedication and hard work that the team at Broadband Capital have put in to get this unique service up and running. The response we’ve had back from residents and businesses has been extremely positive and we look forward to developing the STREAM project further.”

Alan Mumby, Stream’s Senior Producer, said, ‘Everyone at Broadband Capital is thrilled that we have received this award. This is national recognition for a project which is yet another example of what an innovative and pioneering city Hull is’.    

This is Stream’s second innovation award of the year, the first one being received in March for the company’s work on the NHS Choices mobile phone service. 

Sample content from Stream’s Independent Living Campaign can be seen at: http://www.streamonline.co.uk/intial.asp?tag=Health and http://www.streamonline.co.uk/intial.asp?tag=Community 

More information on the Independent Living Campaign, including a video interview with a user, can be seen at:

http://www.broadbandcapital.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=44

Background

The STREAM project started in 2005 and has been developed and delivered by Broadband Capital, a company set up and funded by Hull City Council to address the issue of digital exclusion. [www.broadbandcapital.co.uk] In 2006, Stream launched an online, on-demand broadband TV service for the local business community [www.streamonline.co.uk], and Learning Stream, an IPTV pilot project delivering school TV to six city schools.

The third project, Stream TV (Independent Living Campaign) was launched in January this year, and provides vulnerable older people with access to local programmes and services through their existing television, using an IPTV application developed by the Stream team. Each person receives a digital television set top box that gives them access to the free digital television channels, and a broadband connection that provides them with access to interactive local services entirely on demand on the Stream TV channel. 

In 2007, Hull City Council came third in the Government’s Digital Challenge competition with the STREAM project, and became members of the finalist network, the DC10plus. The Independent Living Campaign has been part funded by money provided through the DC10plus. DC10plus is a collaborative body of local authorities and their partners whose vision is to drive forward the digital inclusion agenda. http://www.dc10plus.net/  

http://www.accessibilityworks.com/dc10plusblog/   

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 4:51. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response or trackback from your own site.

---

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.