Case Study: Exploratorium Delivers Immersive Live Learning Experiences with Brightcove

How The Exploratorium Live Streamed Amazing Learning Experiences To The World

The Exploratorium, a San Francisco-based science museum, sought to expand its educational reach beyond its physical location through digital video and live streaming. While it had a long history of innovation, its initial do-it-yourself streaming infrastructure faced challenges with scalability, latency, and reliability. These technical issues were a significant concern for broadcasting high-profile events like solar eclipses, which are crucial to its mission and funding. This led the Exploratorium to partner with vendor Brightcove and its Brightcove Live service to find a more robust solution.

By implementing the Brightcove video platform, the Exploratorium streamlined its publishing workflow and integrated it with its Drupal CMS, allowing teams to focus on content creation rather than technology. The solution provided a scalable, reliable, and secure method for global live streaming. The results were substantial, most notably with the live stream of the 2017 solar eclipse achieving 1.69 million total video views. Brightcove's technology also facilitated widespread distribution through third-party embeds on sites like NASA TV, Wired, and Space.com, dramatically increasing global engagement and supporting the museum's educational and funding objectives.

Exploratorium

Rob Rothfarb

Online Project Director