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In September 1997 the world's first National
Geographic Channel launched in Europe and Australia. In July 1998
National Geographic Channel Asia was launched and has built a
loyal and devoted following. The word spread quickly and now the
Channels have grown to be available in over 133 countries and
are seen in more than 100 million homes and in 21 languages
In 2001, the National Geographic channel reviews it's online presence,
looking to find new mediums to reach its viewers. The Internet
having evolved to what it is today could not be ignored. The channel
now exploits the Internet to reach out to viewers by providing
broadcast schedules, programme synopsis and other features that
value-add to the basic channel subscription. With a growing viewer
ship, the channel websites are used extensively for TV programming
promotions by way of online activities like contests, polls, and
interactive features.
Today the sites boast of more than a million site visitors monthly!
And the number still grows.
Behind a third of this global activity, is Icreon Communications.
Providing the technical infrastructure and expertise and being
that invaluable ingredient for the success of NGC's online operations. |
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| NGC's operations are 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, research and development
in new technologies are all part of the services provided by Icreon
to the Channel. |
| The operations involve: |
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Online programme database
and telecast schedule maintenance |
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Content schedule implementation
for regional websites |
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Page construction for all
content |
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Online event implementation
(contests, polls, etc.) |
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Promotional activities (e-Newsletters,
online AV's, etc.) |
| Design and Development |
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Application development
for key processes (Banner Management System, Global Resource
Management System, Administration consoles) |
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Interactive features |
| Technical and Graphic
Support |
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Beta testing, debugging
and packaging for distribution to the NGC teams worldwide |
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Web site server maintenance |
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Implementation and maintenance
of the Webtrends Live site analysis system |
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Offline mirror site maintenance |
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Offline Image banking |
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Global audience. 9 Websites. Different time
zones. Diverse platforms. Several teams. Continuous activity.
One company. One vision.
The biggest challenge in being a part of this operation is working
within global timelines. NGC plans its online promotions and activities
on the global level. It is our responsibility to deliver within
specified timelines in sync with the NGC teams worldwide. |
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To maintain a global operation of this scale
in-house has staggering cost implications and equally staggering
logistics. The operation would mean a very large full-time, dedicated
team of professionals, not to mention the investment in the hardware
infrastructure. To counter this NGC has carefully chosen partners
for these operations. Icreon is one of those few.
At Icreon we provide a team of professionals who are dedicated
to this operation, from server administrators to proofing professionals,
the entire gamut. We also provide the entire hardware infrastructure
that include web servers for hosting, graphic workstations, page
construction workstations and data entry consoles.
We started working with the Channel in early 2000 with only the
India web site development project. Today Icreon has now been
given full responsibility for these NGC websites:
United Kingdom - www.nationalgeographic.co.uk
Asia - www.ngcasia.com
Singapore - www.nationalgeographic.com.sg
Hong Kong - www.nationalgeographic.com.hk
and
India - www.nationalgeographic.co.in
Global Resource Centre - www.ngcglobal.com |
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NGC's web sites have been deployed on a multi-platform
and multi-host architecture, for serving the web pages and applications.
The websites are hosted on both Unix/Linux and Windows NT platforms.
Development of applications is done using PHP/PERL-CGI under Unix/Linux,
and then ported to the Windows NT platform with ASP.
SQL databases include mySQL, Microsoft SQL and Oracle servers.
A key concern while developing applications is that the applications
should seamlessly integrate into the existing system, irrespective
of the databases in use.
A majority of the front-end uses SSI pages with the extensive
use of JavaScript. Interactive features are developed using a
combination of JavaScript and ActionScript (Flash).
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"This is with
reference to the work you have been doing for the National
Geographic Channel over the past one and a half years.
In this regard, I would like to express my appreciation
for the exemplary work you have been doing on developing
and maintaining the National Geographic Channels websites
for various regions and countries. I would like to commend
you for the excellent service you provided us, getting back
to us even at odd hours of the day and working across different
time zones, to ensure that we met our deadlines on time.
The diversity and creativity that the developers at Icreon
possess has been an ongoing asset. In closing, our Team
would like to entrust Icreon for the expert development
and project fulfillment we have experienced thus far, we
look forward to many years of ongoing partnership."
Jayant Shah
VP Media
National Geographic Channel |
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