The anticipation of Barack Obama’s ascendency as the 44th president of the United States of America and the first African-American to reach the highest level of government was overwhelming. Amid economic crisis, U.S. forces still mired in an unpopular war, and uncertainty about the future there was a feeling of change in the air this week as Americans flocked to the capital. The celebration began with the ‘We Are One’ Obama Inaugural Celebration at Lincoln Memorial including performances by U2, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, and John Legend. The event was broadcast live on HBO, but if you’re like me living abroad this is what we saw:
The messages of hope and change were trapped within the borders of the U.S. However, using a simple Firefox plugin like FoxyProxy or using Hotspot Shield (See Lifehacker’s step by step guide) , the celebration could be enjoyed by all.
Inauguration day was a fanfare event with an estimated 2 million people descending on the capital to watch a new chapter unfold as Obama takes his oath of the presidency. There were no shortage of options for watching the event. All major news media outlets were on location offering viewers every angle imaginable for covering this event. The Chicago Tribune had 7 live streaming feeds of locations across the capital. Live streaming sites like Hulu, Joost, and Ustream.tv broadcasted the event. Ustream.tv even launched an iPhone application in time to stream the event too. The Ustream Viewing Application had 214,000 downloads in less than 48 hours after launching in the Apple iTunes App Store.
The other big story in terms of live streaming was the partnership between CNN and Facebook. The two teamed up to give users live streaming online video of the event and integration with their Facebook account. Users were able to post status updates on the CNN.com Live Facebook feed and view updates from friends and all users interacting with the feed.
CNN and Facebook released the numbers from the event. Here they are as reported by TechCrunch and Mashable:
600,000 status updates posted through the CNN.com Live Facebook feed
An average of 4,000 status updates per minute during the broadcast
8,500 status updates the minute Obama began his speech
Obama’s page on Facebook has more than 4 million fans and more than 500,000 wall posts
Millions of people logged into Facebook during the broadcast
CNN had generated more than 136 million pageviews
CNN had served more than 21.3 million live video streams since 6am
At its peak, CNN served 1.3 million concurrent live streams (occuring immediately before Obama’s speech)
The numbers were truly staggering but one of the takeaways from the event for me was that live streaming online video isn’t ready for primetime. Video feeds from CNN, Ustream, Hulu et all were choppy as the video cut in and out and the audio playback was out of sync. It was tough to take in the moment of Obama’s speech as the video would pause mid-sentence leaving Obama speechless so to speak. It was a great day for everyone nonetheless. For those of us wanting to relive the moment, you can view the full transcript and video of Obama’s inauguration speech on the White House blog.
