Amd_1_-_Q A.pdf

Q&A – Amendment 1 Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Services

Division of Procurement RFP-EAC-15-0106: EAC’s MEDIA LIVE STREAM WEBCASTING SUBSCRIPTION, EQUIPMENT, AND SUPPORTIVE SERVICES

Vendors Questions and Answers

1. Are the Trained EAC Employees storing equipment and bringing the equipment to the webcast conducted at other DMV or other location venues?

Answer: Yes

2. Do you have or require shipping boxes for the equipment to be shipped to these location venues?

Answer: Yes, the Contractor needs to provide shipping boxes for the equipment; however EAC will handle the shipping to the different event locations.

3. In the Solicitation there is mention of “Remote” camera controls, is this something you want to add to the list from Attachment A, or will there be staff manning the camera?

Answer: No. EAC staff will be manning the camera.

4. What are the current configurations at the meeting sites?

Answer: There is no current configuration. EAC has a meeting room that accommodates 20-30 People with telephone line, power outlets and internet access.

5. Is the Internet service provider (ISP) government furnished or does the contractor need to facilitate fiber/satellite uplink/upload?

Answer: ISP provider is Government furnished, but when EAC conducts the meeting outside their current facility EAC will require internet access from the host building.

6. What are the current connection speeds/bandwidth?

Answer: The current connection speed is 10 MPS.

7. The solicitation also mentions the H.264 encoding standard, but what is the actual resolution to be supported on the webpage/html broadcast? (720p, 1080i 30/60, 1080p 30/60). Is captioning in English only?

Answer: EAC prefers 1080i and captioning is in English.

8. Please elaborate on what is meant by / required from a “proprietary process”:

6.1.3.d. “The Contractor shall use a proprietary process of segmenting the archive video into clips for each agenda item discussed. “

Answer: EAC requires the Vendor to breakdown the segments of the Video by topic for post event archived videos

Division of Procurement

9. 6.3 Is the hardware being requested in the proposal for post captioning a must have requirement or can a software solution be implemented that would provide the same result at a much less cost? The spec’d hardware solution is typically found in TV broadcast video production.

Answer: A software solution for post event captioning is acceptable. Offerors may modify the price list, if needed to propose a software solution.

10. 3.0. – is the spec’ed gear supposed to be used at all locations – to included tear down, transport and reset for each event that is off site? You probably do not want to be moving the 56” smart TV to each location.

Answer: As already mentioned in the requirement, most of the event is taking place in the main office. However, EAC may need to transport the purchased equipment to a remote location.

11. 4.0 – where will gear be stored at EAC once the products are delivered?

Answer: Since EAC will own the equipment, EAC will store it in their storage room.

12. Is there a secure facility for expensive technical gear?

13. 6.1.1. will there be any simultaneous webcasts?

Answer: Mostly EAC conducts one Webcast per event.

14. Will high-speed hard wired internet access be made available at the venue?

15. 6.1.2.a – stream delays are mostly dependent streaming CDN and end user technology – not onsite production technology or services. Given that EAC is recommending Live stream and end user technology is out of the contractor’s control – will the 20 second delay limit req be considered in the technical evaluation?

Answer: Yes. EAC believes this is the standard.

16. 6.1.2.c. – Why is EAC recommending to go out at 150kbs - sounds low? Why would you not want to feed a user 500kbs if the user can accept 500 kbs? We would like to go out at a higher bit rate to support users that can accept it.

Answer: The 150kbs is the minimum, EAC will accept a higher bit rate if available.

17. 6.1.2.d. Will there be an opportunity to site visit the install location? Without a visit it will be difficult to include a cabling / wiring diagram in the proposal.

Answer: No. Please see item number 6 on Attachment A for length of cable needed.

Division of Procurement

18. Is a wiring diagram required with the proposal?

Answer: No.

19. Can we get a room diagram to assess cable runs and camera locations?

Answer: No. See Attachment A for length of cables that will be used universally in event locations.

20. 6.1.2.e. Is the gear that is installed in Silver Spring expected to be mobile and used for the other locations as well?

Answer: Yes. The gear needs to be portable and mobile and it also has to be dismantled after each event.

21. Who will be insured for the gear?

Answer: EAC

22. Would you consider installed remote-operated PTZ cameras?

Answer: No

23. Where does EAC plan to store all this gear?

Answer: The gear will be stored in EAC’s storage room.

24. What Type of security will there be?

Answer: EAC is located in FEDERAL building, which is secured.

25. What assurance will there be that no one will move gear / change gear setting / break stuff between our uses of the gear?

Answer: EAC is purchasing the gear and it will take care of it and keep it a secure room when not in use.

26. Would EAC consider renting gear on a per-event basis?

Answer: No

27. Are camera iso’s on the SD cards? What is EAC planning for back up recording?

Answer: Yes. Contractor shall back up the event recording for archiving and provide a copy to EAC.

28. 6.1.2.f Can we get a room diagram to assess cable runs and camera locations?

Answer: No, please see response to question 19 above.

Division of Procurement

29. 6.5 – who is being trained? So is this saying that EAC staff will actually be operating the equipment during the webcasts?

Answer: EAC staff will be trained to actually operate the equipment. Yes.

30. How many hours of training?

Answer: Up to 8 hours of training.

31. How many trainees?

Answer: 3

32. What is the background of the trainees?

Answer: The EAC staff work in the Information Technology (IT) Division and have performed in-house photographing and audio video recording.

33. Do they have A/V or technical background?

Answer: Yes, intermediate knowledge.

34. Is there a template curriculum?

Answer: No, Contractor shall propose a training curriculum.

35. Can run this like an apprenticeship program – where contractor fully staffs first events and over time transitions role by role to EAC after a shadowing period?

Answer: For the first event, installation and setup of the equipment is required by the Contractor with EAC staff working with them.

36. 6.6 – is this project replacing existing gear?

37. Is there an incumbent?

Answer: York Telecom Corporation currently provides similar services to the one requested here, however; it is the Government’s intent to bring most of the services in-house over the next year.

38. Is the webcasting of these meetings a new capability?

Answer: No, York Telecom Corporation provides this service that the Government intends to bring in-house.

Division of Procurement

39. Requests that the response deadline for RFP-EAC-15-0106 is pushed back to Friday October 2 to allow EAC to respond to proposer questions and allow proposers to incorporate answers into proposal.

Answer: The Government has extended the due date for proposal until 3:00 pm, EST, on 9/29/15.