Live streaming of parade a worldwide hit
Almost 15,000 people around the world logged on to the live webcast of the Mullingar St Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday.Viewers watched via three websites - www.westmeathexaminer.ie, www.mullingarparade.ie, and the host broadcast site www.LiveTrad.com, which provided the technical facilities for the live webcast."It was a wonderful day, one which, thanks to the internet, Westmeath people the world over were able to enjoy," said Ruth Illingworth, chair of the Mullingar St Patrick's Day Parade."It was an innovative way of bringing our town's biggest day to a worldwide audience, and thanks to our wonderful production team, viewers were able to find out so much about the town," she added.Viewers in countries like the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia were present throughout the webcast.Many posted messages of goodwill on the LiveTrad message board, which team of presenters, including Gina Cleary, Chris Corroon and Gary Nolan, read out.They did a great job with interviews, telling stories, meeting some of the town's characters.Tom Griffith (a member of the Mullingar St Patrick's Day Parade committee) approached LiveTrad about streaming the event."We had great support locally and reaction has been positive," said Tom."We had people online in places as far away as South Africa, Japan and Thailand, so in many ways this was a really global event, and one which we'd really like to run again next year."We were pleasantly surprised to find there was also a local audience."People who could not be in town to watch the event watched online, which was an unexpected benefit of our webcast and which makes it a must for future years."Thanking all of those who contributed to the success of the parade, Ms Illingworth said: "This parade was one which will live long in the memory. With so many Westmeath people now living abroad, this was a great way to reach out to them on this special day, and we hope that streaming the parade brought them a little closer to home St Patrick's Day."See the Mullingar Parade webcast on www.LiveTrad.com/stream/mullingar.php.