Next-Gen Video

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Next-Gen Video

12/27/2006

By Barbara Arnn

The latest videoconferencing tools are enabling diverse learning initiatives at colleges and universities across the country.

WHETHER THE MANDATE is to offer a single class that trains students in studio production, to produce 25 videoconferenced classes a day for thousands of students across different continents, or to offer the very latest high-definition (HD) technology to a regional consortium of users, schools across the US are using the latest videoconference and audio/video streaming technologies creatively, to move to the next level of their very specific needs.

AT GEORGIA TECH, quality control specialists
simultaneously monitor all 12 of the school’s remote
classrooms, as well as video signals from around the world.

High-Volume Videoconferencing

At the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, the technology that is the backbone of the school’s extensive distance learning program has to be responsive, flexible, and above all, reliable. The Distance Learning department needs to cover 25 to 30 videoconference connections a day to support 125 courses per semester during the main academic year, says George Wright, associate director of distance learning. In addition, the department hosts guest speakers, faculty presentations, conferences, and even local business meetings.

To handle this workload, the department relies on 10 Tandberg 6000 codecs, three 880 codecs, and one 1000. Georgia Tech recently chose to update an older bridge with the Tandberg MPS 200 MCU bridge to support its heavy videoconferencing load, in part because the department already had all Tandberg codecs, but also because through experience, Wright has been convinced of the reliability and longevity of the product. In fact, he says that although Georgia Tech currently has the capability of doing HD videoconferencing, that development is on hold for the moment. “We’ve got these old boxes that just keep running, and I’m not going to throw them out. Some of those Tandberg codecs are going on eight to 10 years old—we can’t kill them.”

Beyond classes and research conferences, the technology supports crucial single events dependably and seamlessly, says Wright. As examples, he cites a student at Georgia Tech’s campus in the Lorraine region of France defending her Ph.D. dissertation to a committee in Atlanta via videoconference, as well as professors who hold office hours via web meetings. “All they really need is a web meeting capability similar to WebEx, Moodle, or Elluminate, and a reasonably decent computer and microphone,” says Wright. Students then join in via an internet connection and microphone.

The Distance Learning department routinely captures all videoconferences and makes them available in an asynchronous format. Explains Wright, “Typically, we do a web stream, encoding in real time, so while [an event] is going on, we are also encoding, and theoretically someone could log on to an internet connection and see that web stream.” But as Wright points out, many grad students—who often work full time and are scattered in different time zones all over the world—prefer asynchronous delivery. “Everything we do uses standard code, so as long as we stay within IEEE standards, we can communicate with almost anybody,” he says.

Sharing Cutting-Edge Resources

Sometimes it takes the old-fashioned skill of bartering to make new technology work well. At least, that seems to be the case at SUNY-Cobleskill, a small agricultural and technical college that belongs to the 64-member State University of New York system.

Jack McNerney, a professor of communications at Cobleskill, is also the executive director of Schopeg Access, a nonproft, community-access television station on the Time Warner system. Historically, SUNY-Cobleskill has provided Schopeg with equipment housing, studio space, and utilities; in return, McNerney teaches courses in studio production at Cobleskill and uses Schopeg equipment to cover college events. “It’s a symbiotic relationship,” says McNerney: “We trade services for classes and coverage.”