REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: RFI# UPGRADING UH TELEVISION INFRASTRUCTURE

Transcription

1 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: RFI# UPGRADING UH TELEVISION INFRASTRUCTURE Deliver Bid Response to: University of Houston Energy Research Park Purchasing Department, Attn: Samuel Arevalo 5000 Gulf Freeway, Building 1, Room 206 Houston, TX Posting Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Proposal Due Date: Friday, January 31, 2:00 p.m. CDT DO NOT FOEGET TO INCLUDE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF SUBMISSION 1 P age

2 INTRODUCTION: The University of Houston System (University) comprises the largest Texas state institution system of higher education located in an urban, metropolitan environment. The University offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a variety of disciplines; courses are conducted throughout most of the calendar year. The student population of the main campus in Houston, TX is comprised of approximately 37,900 students who commute to the campus and 2,100 students who reside on campus. The main campus employs approximately 6,700 individuals who serve in faculty or staff positions. The component campuses, in surrounding areas, consist of the following statistics: The Clear Lake campus, located in the far southeast Houston-area, has a student population of approximately 7700 students, 700 full-time and 450 part-time employees; The Downtown campus, located in downtown Houston, has a student population of approximately 11,000 students, 573 fulltime and 238 part-time employees. The UH campus at Victoria (near-southeast Texas) has a student population of approximately 2411 students, 239 full-time and 50 part-time employees. The two multiinstitutional teaching centers, one Land with a population of 1800 students and 35 staff positions and Cinco Ranch with a population of 1,000 students and 16 staff positions. Through this RFI, the university is searching a possible solution for the digitization of the University Television head end, including upgrades of satellite receivers, the addition of HD encoders, replacement technology for the analog modulators, and possibly the current Haivision portal. This solution could entail other technologies such as IPTV direct streams provided content programming is comparable to satellite or cable TV services and we are able to preserve our current distribution infrastructure. SUBMITTAL DEADLINE: University will accept proposals until Friday, January 31, 2:00 p.m. CDT. DO NOT USE U. S. Postal Service in submitting your bid. UNIVERSITY CONTACTS: Inquiries must be submitted in writing and received no later than 5:00p.m. Friday, January 24, Any questions or concerns regarding this RFI shall be directed to: Samuel Arevalo, Buyer, wsareval@central.uh.edu University specifically requests that Respondents restrict all contact and questions regarding this RFI to the above named individual. NUMBER OF COPIES & SUBMITTAL FORMAT: Submit one (1) clearly marked Original and one (1) Electronic copy in a memory drive of the proposal including any supplemental printed material referenced with the, RFI Upgrading UH Television Infrastructure must be submitted and received in the University s Purchasing Office on or before the time and date specified above delivered to: UH Purchasing Department, Attn: Samuel Arevalo 5000 Gulf Freeway, Bldg. 1 Room 206 Houston, Texas NOTE: ALL ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN PDF FORMAT & ATTACHED TO BID RESPONSE. The materials submitted must be enclosed in a sealed envelope (box or container); the package must show clearly the submittal deadline; and name and the return address of the Respondent must be clearly visible. LATE PROPOSALS: Late proposals will not be accepted or considered under any circumstance. TELEPHONE/FAX PROPOSALS: Facsimile ( FAX ) proposals are not acceptable when in response to this RFI. 2 P age

3 PURPOSE OF THE RFI: With this RFI we request information regarding your company and your products/services. The same information will be gathered from different companies and will be used to evaluate what suppliers we will follow up the sourcing process with a RFI. The University of Houston is at a crossroads with its television delivery system. Operating a bank of seventy-one (71) DirectTV D12 analog satellite receivers that have reached end-of-life, and with a growing demand for digital and high definition content, the University must find a solution that will address these and other issues moving forward. Television programming is distributed through a hybrid network composed of co-ax for the majority of the campus and IPTV for newer buildings that are mostly comprised of dormitories. While convergence over the data network remains a goal for the University, a new digital head end must continue to accommodate the coax portion of this network through Clear QAM signaling. Additionally, the IPTV portion is a Haivision Video Furnace with a bank of seventy-one (71) Barracuda standard definition encoders originally purchased to provide television services to a single dormitory. Students are able to access television programs through a java launched application on their computers. General viewing areas were originally equipped with Haivision Stingray set top boxes to convert the signals for television displays. Due to the high cost of these STBs, further expansion was facilitated by dual streaming the Barracudas and decoding these secondary streams with Amino A140 STBs in newer buildings. But merely digitizing the University s fleet of satellite receivers poses additional problems. Upgrading the Haivision system to accommodate HD channels will cost an additional $10,000 per encoder while requiring an encryption component to remain in compliance with our satellite TV provider for high definition programming. Haivision encrypted signals are not compatible with the more than two-hundred-sixty (260) Amino SD/HD STBs currently deployed. There is also an issue with attempting to salvage the majority of Barracuda encoders that require S-Video signals without first having to transcode a digital signal possibly resulting in a degraded signal quality. Of the current 71 channels, we believe 24 of these could be received in high definition. SCOPE: Please provide a thorough design including a component list, projected materials and installation costs, and a prospective installation schedule. If alternate sources of programming other than Direct TV are part of your design, please provide projected annual recurring costs and an example channel lineup. Our current project due date is May 30, 2014 with a one-week installation window. A subsequent Request for Proposal will be posted based on the results of this RFI. It is believed the most cost-effective solution may involve replacing the Haivision Video Furnace with a less proprietary server capable of delivering encrypted signals to the Amino STBs. This solution would also have to include an active TV directory and an operating system independent PC desktop player for students. The goal is to provide an economical means of growing IPTV services, to maintain our current flexibility in adding local ingest points, to continue to service our coaxial cable customers while preserving as much of our Haivision infrastructure as possible. The University is open to other IPTV solutions as long as programming content remains comparable to current cable and satellite TV offerings. Note: Alternate sources of programming will need to include per front door recurring costs as well as public viewing area costs. The University currently has 2,695 dormitory front doors and 60 public viewing areas. 3 P age

4 CURRENT ARCHITECTURE: 71 Direct TV D12 with composite video and audio outs to 71 Modulators (Blonder Tongue, Scientific Atlantic or CASCO) and S-video and audio outs to 71 Barracuda encoders. Modulators feed the coax infrastructure, (98% of the campus), public viewing areas and classrooms. Barracuda encoders primary streams managed by Haivision Video Furnace capable of providing encryption, LDAP compliant credentials, viewer application for student PCs, and active TV listing through a managed maintenance contract. Student dorms. All TV services access is controlled through multicast enabled VLANs. Barracuda encoder secondary streams run independent from Video Furnace and provide signals to Amino A140 STBs for television located in public viewing areas in a few buildings. Encryption is currently not possible for these STBs. All TV services access is controlled through multicast enabled VLANs. CURRENT UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON CHANNEL LINEUP # Channel Name 1 KPRC (NBC) 2 KTXH (UPN) 3 KUHT (PBS) 4 KRIV (FOX) 5 KHOU (CBS) 6 KTRK (ABC) 7 KHTV (WB) 8 ENCORE 9 THE WEATHER CHANNEL 10 ESPN 11 ESPN 2 15 FSN 16 FSN (not continuous programming) 17 FSN (not continuous programming) 18 NFL 19 FX 20 SPIKE 22 TNT 23 TBS 24 USA 25 CNBC 26 CNN 27 C-SPAN 28 KHTV (CW) 29 C-SPAN 2 30 KUVMCA 31 OWN 32 THE SCIENCE CHANNEL 33 A&E 34 TLC 35 SYFY CHANNEL 36 ANIMAL PLANET 37 FOOD NETWORK 4 P age

5 39 HGTV 40 TRAVEL CHANNEL 41 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 42 LIFETIME 43 BLOOMBERG 44 AUDIENCE 45 AMC 46 HISTORY 47 DISCOVERY 48 TRUTV 49 BRAVO 50 MSNBC 51 KXLN 52 HLN 53 FOX NEWS 54 EWTN 55 GAME SHOW NETWORK 56 ABC FAMILY 57 CARTOON NETWORK 58 COUNTRY MUSIC TV 59 BET 62 KTMD 63 VH1 64 E! 65 NICKELODEON 66 FUSE 67 DISCOVERY HEALTH & FITNESS 68 GALAVISION 69 COLLEGE SPORTS TV 70 KPXB ION (Remainder of page intentionally left blank) 5 P age

6 Complete the section below as part of your RFI response Question Answer Company name Company address Company web page Main products/services Main market/customers Ownership structure with ownership status in percentage Structure of mother corporation, joint ventures, subsidiaries, partnerships or other relevant relations Number of years on the market Description of your Quality management system(s) Describe your business continuity management Number of Employees Last year turnover Last year gross margin Last year profit Stock markets where your company is listed Contact person and responsible for answering this RFI Telephone Description of products or services that are already delivered to customers today, and could be comparable to what is requested in this RFI Reference customers using comparable products or services (including contact information, provide 2 references) 6 P age