Company background
Eastman is a global advanced materials and specialty additives company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day.
With a portfolio of specialty businesses, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. Their market-driven approach takes advantage of world-class technology platforms and allows them to occupy leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables.
Eastman focuses on creating consistently high value for all stakeholders. As a globally diverse company, Eastman serves customers in more than 100 countries, and reported a revenue of approximately $10.5 billion in 2021. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA and employs approximately 14,000 people around the world.
Eastman has been distinguished by multiple awards that highlight their commitment to their global workforce:
- Voted Glassdoor Employees’Choice Award / Top 50 Best Places to Work
- Named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere® Institute
- Recipient of ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence award
The challenge
With over 14,000 employees spread across dozens of countries, regular company-wide communication is critical to ensure all employees are aligned with the corporate strategy and feel involved in the overall success of Eastman.
Nothing is better than a personal appearance by senior executives, but this isn’t always possible. Over the past ten years, video communication has played an increasingly important role. In order to broadcast video from executives across the company network, Eastman created a server-based system that incorporated a mix of both multicast and unicast. The solution was “good enough,” but broadcasts often impacted their network and user applications; video quality maxed out at 400Kbps, which was sub-optimal, and broadcasts could only be conducted from a central location.
Due to these reasons and the fact that their encoders were nearing end-of-life, a decision was made to find a solution that would:
- Make better use of network resources
- Eliminate impact on user applications
- Reduce maintenance
- Improve monitoring and reporting of event performance
- Extend the broadcast capability companywide
- Improve video quality for all users
- Integrate with Microsoft Office 365 sign-on and collaboration tools