Haivision Brand Name JA.pdf

VHAPM Part 813.106 Page 1 of 2 Original Date: 08/30/17 Revision 01 Eff Date: 04/23/2018

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Brand Name Justification IAW FAR 13.106-1

For Over Micro-Purchase Threshold but Not Exceeding the SAT ($250K)

Acquisition Plan Action ID: 36C776-20-AP-3659

1. Contracting Activity:

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) St. Louis

2. Brief Description of Supplies/ Services required and the intended use/Estimated Amount:

Currently, EES delivers two 24x7 streaming channels to our partnered web viewing vendor Brightcove and to dedicated VA YouTube channels. Additionally, we stream up to fifteen (15) 60-minute live townhalls per week to Brightcove. From our internal television studios, we host up to five 60-90 minute live broadcasts per month, and three times per year, we host week-long classroom style live training sessions.

To meet its mission, EES requires a contract for turn-key services that will consolidate our existing cloud-distribution paths and provide a cloud-based media routing system for contribution, production and distribution workflows, with reach to the expanding list of VA-partnered and managed viewer web portals.

3. Unique characteristics that limit availability to only one source, with the reason no other brand names can be used:

EES Broadcast and Video (B&V) produces live high definition video programming originating from the St. Louis and VACO television studios. We distribute this staff training and patient wellness live video to multiple viewer endpoints including Brightcove, Facebook, YouTube, and Roku. To support the increasing demand of expanding Internet audiences, B&V conducted market research to discover a cloud-based service vendor who could receive multiple VA inbound video streams, originating from our Haivision video encoders, and redistribute the streams to the multiple viewer endpoints identified above. To quickly start up new streaming routes, B&V needed a responsive management web portal which allows creation, control, and monitoring of each of the live inbound and outbound streams, as well as monitoring of bandwidth and stream integrity, usage hours, and accumulating costs for current and past events. Finally, B&V looked for a vendor that integrates a cloud Internet provider that is compatible with our in-house Avid non-linear edit systems cloud distribution workflow.

Avid has partnered with Microsoft Azure for cloud distribution of archive media, so the live streaming vendor must provide a compatible Internet path with Azure for file sharing. EES discovered that the number of vendors who support real-time inbound and outbound streaming services with management portals is limited. Industry providers who offer some degree of Internet https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=/browse/far/13

VHAPM Part 813.106 Page 2 of 2 Original Date: 08/30/17 Revision 01 Eff Date: 04/23/2018 streaming services, such as Telestream, Amazon Web services, Zixi, Wowza, and RFI respondents, do not offer all the required operational feature sets for web-based dashboards, support for desired inbound and outbound streaming formats, direct support for the Avid-Azure cloud workflow, and latency configurations. Haivision’s SRT Hub includes a full feature set cloud-based streaming portal which meets all the VA requirements and includes short and long team roadmaps for new features and options that exceed the VA expectations.

4. Description of market research conducted and results or statement why it was not conducted:

EES conducted tradeshow discovery meetings as early as April 2019, followed by detailed capabilities discussions with the few industry providers of this specialized service. In 2020, research continued with an RFI and respondent reviews. A 60-day trial of SRT Hub to conduct streaming tests mirroring the VA’s actual programming distribution was utilized. As of July 2020, following the market research and technical discover, Haivision is the sole vendor who has a functional online cloud streaming service designed and operated to immediately support EES’ streaming requirements.

5. Contracting Officer's Certification: Purchase is approved in accordance with FAR13.106-1(b). I certify that the foregoing justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Note: COs are required to make a determination of price reasonableness IAW FAR 13.106-3. See the S19 Open Market (FAR13) Award Documentation Form with Abstract to document price reasonableness.

____________________________ September 14, 2020 Rosella Torcaso Date Contracting Officer https://acquisition.gov/far/current/html/Subpart%2013_1.html#wp1125466 https://vaww.pclo.infoshare.va.gov/PMWeb/S19%20Open%20Market-FAR13%20Award%20Documentation%20Form.pdf