On Friday night, 7NEWS began testing a streaming video feed of our nightly newscast on our website at 7NEWSBELIZE.com. The revolutionary new feature allows you to see our news broadcast at your convenience, and as many times as you like, on your computer. It's being made possible through a partnership between Belize Telecommunications Limited and Channel 7, in a partnership where BTL does what it does best provide the bandwidth, while Channel 7 provides what we do best the news.
Suzette Tillet, Public Relations Mgr., BTL
"What we've done is provide bandwidth for the different TV stations to be able to broadcast their news via internet. With this new technology now after each newscast the public is able to log on and view the news.
They can access it from Belizeweb.com where they can watch it live. It takes
you to the Windows Media Player which you can either install on your own, if it's not already on your computer, and thereafter the news plays. Customers are given the option to either watch it as is on a smaller screen or they can make the screen bigger and view the news on the internet."
Keith Swift,
And that is 7NEWS right on your computer?
Suzette Tillet,
"Right and this is simply because using the fibre technology we are able to transmit the bandwidth and transmit a higher speed whereby customers are able to view video and listen to audio.
It's targeted to the Belizean public on a whole as well as those people internationally who are interested in viewing the news. But most importantly the live newscast is not able to reach all citizens in Belize nationwide so for those people who may not be able to see the news via your local cable station, the internet is just another way to have that live news broadcast brought to you directly in your home.
This is not a service that BTL is charging for so really what the company hopes to achieve is that our Belizean people are on top of technology, and you might call it a goodwill gesture by BTL to be doing something like this."
Again 7NEWS is now available online in full screen format video and text at 7NEWSBELIZE.com. The only requirement is a high speed internet connection such as cable or DSL, and Windows Media Player which is available free on the internet.
Technical assistance for the 7NEWS end of the streaming video project is being provided by Systems Consultants Limited.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
