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Miami University Enhances Learning Environment and Student
Experience With HaiVision's Video Furnace System
HaiVision Network Video
June 11, 2009
Montreal, Canada & Chicago, IL -- HaiVision Network Video
today
announced that its Video Furnace System is being used by Miami
University to
deliver live television channels and video on demand to students and
professors across its main campus in Oxford, Ohio, as well as its
Hamilton
and Middletown campuses and the university's Voice of America
Learning
Center. A fully integrated video distribution solution, HaiVision's
Video
Furnace allows Miami University to use its existing IP network to
deliver
high-quality video to desktops and laptops with a high degree of
flexibility
and minimal maintenance. |
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"The goal of working with
Video Furnace is to offer resources that improve
the student experience and facilitate, rather than hinder, the
learning
process," said Chris Bernard, director of network engineering and
telecommunications at Miami University. "By simplifying the
previously
frustrating and difficult task of obtaining video for student
viewing, the
HaiVision system has made a dramatic
improvement in the lives of our
professors. Our students benefit from the remarkable speed and
efficiency of
the system, as well as from the look and feel of the interface,
which
clearly was designed by individuals who knew how users would work
with the
system. The response across faculty, students, and IT staff has been
very
enthusiastic."
Many universities rely on a cable system for delivery of video to
the
classroom or dormitory. In both cases, the learning experience is
constrained by the need to tune in at a particular time and watch
continuously, from start to finish. By integrating Video Furnace
into the
teaching environment, Miami University allows professors in the
classroom to
access video on demand, when it best fits into the day's lesson
plan, and to
use common control functions to stop or pause video for discussion.
Links to on-demand media are offered to students through the
university's
Blackboard system. Students can access assigned video via their
computers
and laptops, watching according to their individual schedules and
using the
InStream player's intuitive interface to
control video playback. Integrated
into the Video Furnace System, this "zero footprint" player makes
access
available on any computer, regardless of platform, without loading
or
updating software. As a result, students no longer need to attend
special
sections, compete with other students for viewing time at the
reserve desk,
or even purchase media themselves.
"We pride ourselves in having an engaged and active student body
with many
student organizations and opportunities for leadership and community
service," said Cathy McVey, director of customer relations and
communications at Miami University. "Our use of Video Furnace allows
students to match their viewing experience to their schedule and to
view
class-related video content when they are able while still taking
advantage
of all the activities our university has to offer."
Miami University is building a repository of video-on-demand
content,
beginning with library-type assets and later including recorded
presentations and other school-owned assets. Future plans for the
system
also include using the Video Furnace System as a tool through which
students
can upload their own projects for faculty review or peer critique.
As a
state institution, the university will be investigating using its
Video
Furnace System to share media assets with peer institutions K-12
schools
as well as other post-secondary institutions across the statewide
network.
The university's growing asset library so far features more than 200
media
assets, ranging from specific educational material to programs
recorded for
analysis. Miami University also uses its Video Furnace System to
make live
foreign-language television channels available to students over its
IP
network in a multicast stream.
HaiVision will be demonstrating the Video
Furnace System and the company's
range of low-latency encoding solutions at InfoComm Booth 2979.
Complete
information on HaiVision products, including recent case studies and
application notes, is available at
www.haivision.com/account/downloads.
About Miami University
Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, 35 miles north of
Cincinnati,
with regional locations in Hamilton, Middletown, and West Chester,
Ohio, and
a European Center in Luxembourg. With 14,488 undergraduates and
1,812
graduate students on the Oxford campus, Miami effectively combines a
wide
range of academic programs with the personal attention ordinarily
found only
at much smaller institutions. The university's residential programs
involve
students in life-enhancing activities that build leadership,
character, and
lifelong friendships. More information is available at
www.miami.muohio.edu.
About HaiVision Network Video
Based in Montreal, Quebec, and Chicago, Ill., HaiVision Network
Video is a
private company and a world leader in delivering the most advanced
video
networking technology and IPTV solutions. HaiVision's products are
deployed
worldwide within the foremost Fortune 100 companies, in the most
rigorous
military and defense applications, in healthcare facilities for
video
collaboration and training, for education and remote learning, in
interactive broadcast applications, in IPTV applications, and within
the
world's leading TelePresence suites. HaiVision distributes its
products
through value-added resellers, system integrators, distributors, and
OEMs
worldwide. |
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