Ok this saga has been going on too long. It is now Monday the 1st of March 2004 (my watch sez it's Monday the 2nd March coz it doesn't handle leap years).

Reading down is chronological order. The important thing to look at is the dates.

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Sent: Thursday, 15 January 2004 8:32 AM
To: Lachlan Follett
Subject: Webcasting services


Hi Lachlan,

My apologies for taking so long to get back to you. In brief, we can certainly assist with setting up a completely self managed webcasting system. For a low end solution you may be looking at around the $10,000 to $15,000 mark, however if the Crematorium is after something along the lines of what the WA chapels are doing, you would be looking at solution cost of around $25,000 to $30,000. This would include cameras, encoders, servers etc. There may be some development costs over and above that, but I would not think it would be a great deal more.

If you would like some detailed costs put together then let me know and I'd be happy to prepare a document for you.
Regards
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Sent: Thursday, 15 January 2004 10:00 AM
To: Sean Cookson
Subject: RE: Webcasting services


Thank you for your response. Management has asked for more detail before they make a decision. Here is what we have:
There are 3 chapels (all wings of the one building). We currently have 2 cameras installed in each that go through a programmable controller to be recorded on VHS and the audio only to cassette. However, the cameras are adjusted in a way that the the field of view is large (picture attached), which I believe may be unsuitable for web casting as the frame size is typically small.

We currently have an excellent audio system installed in the chapels and the company who installed it advised that it is easy for them to provide a line level feed of the microphone and music mixed, as well as the composite video feed from the cameras in each chapel to the comms room in the chapel building (i.e. 3xvideo, 3xaudio total). The funeral directors are trained to use the touch screen based control application for the services (such as microphone levels, controlling the CD players etc).

We currently have a 1Mb/1Mb (megabit each way microwave) internet link which may not be suficient for webcasting. We have option to expand that to 2Mb each way before having to seek alternate technology (ie fibre).

All our buildings (ie the chapel building and the main office where the servers reside) are linked by fibre (100bFX network). We currently use a mix of Red hat Linux (apache 1.3) and Windows Server 2003 (IIS 6) web servers. We have 2 public IP addresses.

Kind Regards,

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Sent: Monday, 2 February 2004 11:13 AM
To: Lachlan Follett
Subject: RE: Webcasting services


Hi Lachlan,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. You'll have something shortly.

Regards,
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Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2004 3:43 PM
To: Sean Cookson
Subject: RE: Webcasting services


Hi Sean,
How are we doing?

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Sent: Thursday, 12 February 2004 7:49 AM
To: Lachlan Follett
Subject: RE: Webcasting services


Hi Lachlan,

My apologies for the delay. We have been exceptionally busy (and my wife decided to have a baby!). So I've been a bit snowed under to say the least. I have put together some detailed costs however, I need to go through it with our tech. director. I'll aim to have something completed before week's end.

Regards,
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Sent: Monday, 23 February 2004 9:15 AM
To: Sean Cookson
Subject: RE: Webcasting services


Hi Sean,
I'm getting a bit anxious at this end. If I don't get the proposal in to management soon I'm going to lose control of the project. I understand that you have been busy (both professionally and personally). Please advise.

Regards,
Lach Follett

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Sent: Monday, 23 February 2004 10:49 AM
To: Lachlan Follett
Subject: RE: Webcasting services

Hi Lachlan,

I'm actually sitting down with our tech director early this afternoon to go through final costs. Will have it together for you by tomorrow AM.

Regards,
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Today is the 1st March and I still have nothing.

Problem is this is the only company I can find that has an office in Melbourne and can do this kind of work. So I can't make idle threats etc. Gah.

Speaking of lame excuses,

"Lachlan, Sorry I dropped the ball on that one. My mother-in-law passed away last week, please accept my apologies for not getting back to you."

LOLF. Oh well I suppose it might be true.


EDIT: The last excuse was from a different company
- posted by Lach @ 08:43