Mandela Day Concert Live (VIDEO)

The Mandela Day campaign calls upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them.

(NEW YORK) - 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, together with live video streaming partner, Livestream, have launched Mandela Day TV, a free and pay-per-view event that lets viewers anywhere in the world take part in the Mandela Day concert at Radio City Music Hall, New York on July 18th.

The concert boasts a wonderful range of artists from all over the world including Stevie Wonder; Wyclef Jean; Aretha Franklin; Loyiso; Will.I.Am; Jesse McCartney; Cyndi Lauper; Zucchero; Josh Groban; Baaba Maal; Angelique Kidjo; the Soweto Gospel Choir and many more. This is the latest pioneering development in the campaign for people around the world to support and take part in the creation of an official Mandela Day, to be held annually on July 18th, Mr. Mandela’s birthday.

Livestream has enabled the free viewing option for users by creating a custom video Flash player that can be embedded as a widget on any Web site and social networking page. The player widget has been developed using a soon to be announced Livestream player API (application programming interface). “We were chosen because our live Flash player and Livestream Premium platform has the scalability required for the hundreds of thousands of concurrent users expected to view the Mandela Day event,” commented Max Haot, CEO and Co-Founder of Livestream.

Distribution partners already on board include: Sympatico-MSN (Canada), Canoe (Canada), Telefonica (Spain), Univision.com (Mexico), MSN (Italy), Tiscali UK/Carphone Warehouse, Comcast (US) and UOL (Brazil). The Mandela Day event will be promoted and available on the Livestream.com website. Sites wishing to support Mandela Day are invited to contact 46664.

For the $4.99 pay-per-view alternative to Livestream’s free option, organizers have forged a partnership with Pecunia, that will let users who visit mandeladay.com watch the concert in high resolution, full-screen mode. These viewers gain access to multiple camera feeds and interactive content. Pecunia is a cutting-edge live streaming partner using the Silverlight technology to create a full screen, immersive and interactive environment where users will be able to view multiple camera feeds, information about the artists featured during the event, share with friends, exchange live with their contacts on Twitter and Facebook, answer polling questions and send in their questions to specific artists. All the net proceeds from this pay-per-view experience will benefit all the Nelson Mandela organisations. The annual Mandela Day celebration is being created to inspire people from every corner of the earth to embrace Nelson Mandela’s values as they seek to improve their lives through service to their communities. Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years, beginning in 1942 when he first started to campaign for the human rights of every South African. His life has been an inspiration to the world. To date, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664 have focused mainly on supporting projects in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa where current needs are greatest, particularly for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The Mandela Day campaign calls upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them. 46664 will also be working with partner organizations, other city authorities and community associations and volunteers across the globe to create a worldwide series of Mandela Day events to honour Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy.

The Mandela Rhodes Foundation was established in 2003 as a partnership between Mr. Mandela and the Rhodes Trust in the United Kingdom, with the specific brief of developing exceptional leadership capacity in Africa. The Foundation’s flagship programme, the Mandela Rhodes Scholarships, seeks out and then nurtures young Africans who demonstrate academic ability and broader leadership potential. The Mandela Rhodes Scholarships offer Scholars educational opportunities at Honours or Masters level, coupled with a unique leadership development programme and personalised mentoring.