Hi, Radio New Zealand has recently installed content servers at the Auckland (APE), Wellington (WIX), and Palmerston North (PNIX) internet exchanges. We also have a server located in California, USA to serve content to New Zealanders overseas. These servers have been deployed within the R2 infrastructure and will be used for the soon-to-be-launched on-demand and simulcast audio service. There will be a range of on-demand content from programmes broadcast on both networks, and we are hoping to provide live streams of National Radio and Concert FM (subject to resolving some outstanding copyright issues). When the service commences we expect about 60 hours of new content to be available each week. The servers will also be used by Radio NZ International for their on-demand and simulcast audio. All streams will initially be 16 kbs maximum, and this may increase to 24 kbs once we have a handle on traffic flows. Everyone will be able to access content at this rate. We have chosen to deploy a multi-homed architecture for the following reasons: 1. Greater diversity and redundancy than a single site/provider architecture. 2. Reduced network latency for improved streaming performance. 3. Shortest path for broadband consumers (reducing network congestion for Operators). 4. Scalability, allowing us to add servers at new exchanges in the future. 5. To minimise national transit costs for the ISP's of customers using the content. 6. Lowest cost to serve content. The servers have a globally consistent anycast IP address which will be advertised at each exchange to ensure that the content is delivered from the nearest server to the consumer. As new exchanges are installed throughout the country we intend to deploy content servers at them, subject to certain minimum criteria being met. This also includes MUSH style networks outlined in the NZ Government's Digital Strategy. In order to get the best performance we recommend that you peer directly with the anycast routers at all the exchanges where you have connectivity. For those who wish to peer locally an enhanced service is available from the NZ exchange-based content servers. Maximum data rates will increase to 32 or 48 kbs for on-demand content and 48 or 64 kbs for live streams. The live simulcasts (when available) will be available in stereo at these rates. Where content is limited to NZ for copyright reasons there will be no international route, meaning customers of non-peering ISPs will not be able to access the content. This is currently the case with the Enzology series (www.radionz.co.nz/enzology/). Please contact our peering coordinator at peering(a)radionz.co.nz if you need to establish a peering session with our content servers. We will be maintaining a list of peers and a help page on our new website so that consumers can be informed about how to access the enhanced service. Operators may expect increased help desk activity due to their customers not being able to access NZ restricted content, or asking for access to the enhanced service. We are publishing our intentions to this list in advance of the launch so that Operators can prepare for what we expect will be a very popular service with the 686,000 people who listen each week to National Radio and Concert FM. We expect to go live in 2-3 weeks. regards, Richard Hulse New Media Manager Radio New Zealand