Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Administration, Division of Contracts and Property Management, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, 20852-2738

D -- BROADCASTING NRC COMMISSION MEETINGS ON THE INTERNET SOL ADM-00-009 DUE 112499 POC Donald King, Senior Contract Specialist, Phone (301) 415-6731, Fax (301) 415-8157, Email dak1@nrc.gov WEB: Visit this URL for the latest information about this, http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS?ACode=M&;ProjID=ADM-00-009&Lo cID=2206. E-MAIL: Donald King, dak1@nrc.gov. This is an amendment number 1 to the combined CBD/ solicitation RFP-ADM-00-009 previously posted on the CBDNET on 11/9/99 (Submission No. 399554). NOTE: THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES AMENDMENT NUMBER 1 TO THE SOLICITATION. PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN AMENDMENT TO THE SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. THE DUE DATE FOR RECEIVING PROPOSALS HAS NOT CHANGED. Only those offerors who will submit a proposal in response to this solicitation need send an acknowledgment of this amendment, by 3:30 p.m. on November 24, 1999, to the address in item seven above. The purpose of this amendment is to revise the solicitation referenced in item nine above by: (1) adding FAR clause 52.219-23, Notice of Price Evaluation Adjustment for Small Disadvantaged Business Concerns; and (2) responding to questions received from potential offerors. Accordingly, the following is hereby provided. (1) FAR clause 52.219-23 is added to solicitation RFP-ADM-00-009. The Small Disadvantaged Business price evaluation adjustment factor incorporated in clause 52.219-23 is 10%. (2) the following responses are hereby provided to offerors' questions: 1.QUESTION: Reference 4.2., In Section 4.2 you mention a minimum of 1000 viewers and then mention a minimum of 3000 viewers world wide. On what minimum number of viewers are we to base our quotations? RESPONSE: NRC is requesting that the contractor have the ability to support 3,000 simultaneous live Internet video viewers. 2. QUESTION: Reference 4.2., Also in section 4.2 you require all formats (e.g. G2, Windows Media, Quicktime). In reference to the previous question, will each format offer a minimum number of viewer? For example, if the minimum is 1000 (or 3000) viewers, are you requiring 1000 viewer capability in each format, or are you requiring a total of 1000 (or 3000) divided evenly between the formats? RESPONSE: At this time NRC is not anticipating more than 3,000 viewers at anyone time. The proposal should be based on one view (RealNetworks G2) being used for all 3,000 viewers. The contractor shall have the ability to move to an alternative viewer. 3. QUESTION: Reference 4.5., In section 4.5 you require broadcasting in both 28kbps and 100kbps. Assuming that these two bitrates will be required for each of the formats listed above, will the viewer requirement be 1000 (or 3000) per bitrate, per format? RESPONSE: NRC is requesting that you base your response on one viewer for both 28.8kbps and 100kbps. 4. QUESTION: Reference 8. In section 8, you require the contractor to monitor all equipment remotely. Normally, a webcast requires a technician with encoding and streaming computer on site, monitoring the video feed, encoding, the streaming through the ISDN line. Does this mean that you do not want the streaming from your site, but from a remote site? RESPONSE: The NRC will provide a live audio and video feed for all Commission meetings being broadcast. The contractor will determine the technologies required for transmitting the audio and video feed to their remote location. The NRC is not expecting the contractor to have on site presence for the meetings. 5. QUESTION: Reference, EVALUATION FACTORS. In the evaluation section, is there no provision for 8a or small business? RESPONSE: This procurement does not meet the dollar threshold requirement that calls for the use of small disadvantaged business (SDB) participation source evaluation factor or subfactor. 6. QUESTION: Will you consider making this procurement a SBA 8(a) set aside (either sole-source or competitive)? RESPONSE: Our procurement plan considered the small business community prior to advertising in the CBD. We will continue with a full and open procurement. 7. QUESTION: If the decision is to make it a full and open competition, will you amend your solicitation to include the mandatory clause required by FAR 19.1104 governing a 10 percent pricing advantage for small disadvantaged businesses (see FAR Subpart 19.1104)? RESPONSE: Yes, FAR clause 52.219-23 has been added to solicitation RFP-ADM-00-009. 8. QUESTION: Will meetings be held one after the other or can some meetings be held concurrently? RESPONSE: The meetings will be broadcast one at a time. 9. QUESTION: What does the 12x indicate in CLIN 003? RESPONSE: The 12 represents the number of months for telecommunications service and the "x" represents your unit cost for this service. 10. QUESTION: In Para 4.9: Will other locations besides 11555 Rockville Pike, MD be used from which to broadcast meetings? RESPONSE: No. 11. QUESTION: When is the first meeting for webcast planned? RESPONSE: At this time the broadcasting of meetings are not scheduled however NRC anticipates meetings being broadcast beginning in January of next year. 12. QUESTION: Can a visit to the meeting room at 11555 Rockville Pike, MD be arranged before the RFP is due? RESPONSE: NRC is not planning on site visits prior to contract award. 13. QUESTION: In Para 8: After the initial setup will the contractor have access to the meeting room for other meetings or will NRC personnel use the contractor's equipment to broadcast NRC meetings? RESPONSE: The NRC will not be using the contractor's equipment. Contractor access to NRC facilities after the initial setup is not anticipated and would only be required should the contractors equipment requires on-site support. 14. QUESTION: Payment: Will payment be in fixed amounts made to the contractor monthly or quarterly (firm fixed, delivery order) OR (per last sentence of para 9) will payment be on a meeting basis? RESPONSE: Payment will be accomplished on a monthly basis for services rendered. 15. QUESTION: Is a bidders list available for review? RESPONSE: A bidders list does not exist nor has one been established for this procurement. 16. QUESTION: When the data is encoded and sent to our machine, do you want the 3000 Internet users to view the live feed while it being sent? RESPONSE: NRC Commission meetings shall be broadcast live over the Internet and upon completion of the meeting they will be archived for future reference. The technologies required to transmit the audio and video content to the contractors network is the responsibility of the contractor. 17. QUESTION: Do you want to stream to a worldwide audience using Unicast or Multicast? Bandwidth can be a problem. RESPONSE: The configuration of the video servers used in broadcasting NRC meetings is the responsibility of the contractor. Selection of multicast or unicast is the responsibility of the contractor. 18. QUESTION: Can we get a list of the companies who requested the RFP? RESPONSE: The solicitation was included in the combined CBD/ solicitation number RFP-ADM-00-009 previously posted on the CBDNET on 11/9/99 (Submission No. 399554). As such, no companies have requested the solicitation. 19. QUESTION: Does the NRC location (building at 11555 Rockville Pike) have Internet connectivity? At what level or rate? RESPONSE: Yes. The rate is 10MBS. 20. QUESTION: Where does the connectivity enter the building and is a switch in place to route it to the Commission Hearing Room? RESPONSE: The NRC maintains a communications control roomin the basement of the building in which the Commission hearing control room is located. The NRC has the ability to rout communications from the control room to the Commission hearing control room. Please note: NRC will be responsible for routing all communications within the NRC facility. 21. QUESTION: Where is the conference room and is cabling routed to the switch for Internet connectivity? Note: Usually do a site survey and price per foot. RESPONSE: See the answer to question 20. 22. QUESTION: Will the viewers of the event, live or archived, enter through the NRC website? RESPONSE: The NRC web page will point to the contractors web page which will host the broadcast. 23.QUESTION: How many simultaneous users do you anticipate retrieving archived sessions? RESPONSE: Section 4.2 of the solicitation calls for 3,000 simultaneous viewers. 24. QUESTION: Website security can be done at many levels (including firewalls, encryption,,,). Our experience ranges from the National Security Agency /Defense Intelligence Agency to commercial sites. What level of protection is anticipated since the large scale promotion plan seems to demonstrate the desire for many public viewers to attend sessions? RESPONSE: The security plan should include provisions which will prohibit anyone from changing the content of NRC archived files or prohibiting the public from viewing NRC's official broadcast. 25. QUESTION: When will we be expected to present the Oral Technical Presentation and how will that be presented (via phone, in person, etc.)? RESPONSE: Only written technical and cost proposals will be accepted. Offerors will not be required to present oral presentations. 26. QUESTION: Does the NRC have existing video equipment with which to record the meetings? If so, what equipment is available? RESPONSE: The NRC currently has equipment to record Commission meetings on VHS tape. The NRC also has equipment which broadcast Commission meetings over an internal broadband network. This equipment is not available for purposes other than currently designated. The NRC will provide a live audio and video feed to any equipment provided by the contractor. 27. QUESTION: Is the NRC willing to host the encoder? RESPONSE: The NRC is requesting a turn key solution to broadcast NRC Commission meetings over the Internet and will not provide staff resources to operate encoder equipment. This is the end of NRC responses. The issuance of this amendment does not extend the original date set to receive proposals. Direct all questions or inquiries referencing this RFP to Donald A. King, Senior Contract Specialist (301) 415-6731. All interested firms should submit their sealed offers to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Division of Contracts and Property Management, M/S T-7-I-2, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 by 3:30 p.m. on November 24, 1999. Posted 11/19/99 (D-SN402329). (0323)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0030 19991123\D-0008.SOL)