Powered by ContentDepotSM: The Public Radio Exchange
Earlier this year, the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), an online service for peer review and digital program distribution via the Internet, contracted with NPR Distribution to provide audio storage and delivery for its online services. The PRX website launched in September and is powered by the PRSS® ContentDepotSM.
With a stated mission of creating more opportunities for non-regularly scheduled and innovative public radio programming, the PRX is building an online community for new voices among producers through peer reviews and its own economy. They have received support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Technology Opportunities Program, and the Ford Foundation.
NPR Distribution and PRX started collaborating in the fall of 2002. In February, NPR Distribution built a proof-of-concept for PRX using the existing PRSS Catalog. Since then, the two organizations have continued to investigate how PRX and the ContentDepot can complement each other. As Jake Shapiro, executive director for PRX, noted in a recent AIR Member Spotlight online forum, "We recognized early on that we should work together with the PRSS ContentDepot, since they are the backbone distribution system for public radio, and the ContentDepot is going to be rolling out all sorts of tools for stations and producers that align with PRX services."
Since February, PRX has been building its own web interface. The PRSS ContentDepot is providing storage for all PRX broadcast and audition audio files and audio streams using a dedicated server. When a PRX producer uploads an audio file onto their site, a copy is simultaneously uploaded onto the NPR dedicated server. This will enable the ContentDepot to deliver the audio files to stations requesting download via our Internet connection. Eventually, the ContentDepot will allow PRX to deliver files to stations using the satellite. As Planning and Communications Director Linda Dominic concludes, "The Public Radio Exchange is attempting to showcase new programming and to expand the value of program exchanges. These are the kinds of innovations the ContentDepot is being built to stimulate and support."
More information about PRX is available at www.prx.org.