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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
London, United Kingdom, 04/09/2008 - Following a successful trial last summer, the University of Essex has taken delivery of a MediaStar Compact video delivery solution from Cabletime, which has transformed the way the University uses multimedia on campus.
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The Lecture Theatre Building (LTB) at the University is widely used at all times of the year for delivering live lectures and seminars, showing films, and hosting a variety of presentations and conferences. Any of these events within an LTB lecture room can be easily distributed to any of the twelve lecture theatres in the building. In the past, the University had been relying on a large number of Cat-5 converters, but over time the quality of the broadcast signal became downgraded and the University wanted to find a solution that could integrate with existing systems and deliver video across a number of buildings on the campus.
Cabletime's Mediastar Compact, which is ideally suited for a 16-channel TV/AV service over CAT5/UTP, is installed in the main technicians' room inside the Lecture Theatre Building. In addition two fibre links from two other locations on campus feed into the Mediastar Compact in the LTB. Films for course modules in Literature, Film and Theatre Studies can be remotely delivered from the MultiMedia Centre, the University's main studio, to the theatre auditorium in the LTB. The Mediastar also allows events like Graduation, which takes place in the prestigious award-winning Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall, to be attended at different locations throughout the LTB.
Alfonso Torrejon, Senior Technician, at Essex, said: “The beauty of the system is that students and visitors can see live lectures and presentations in any one of the rooms served by MediaStar Compact, while at the same time and without involving a technician, an end user can select a different channel, perhaps a Freeview or satellite broadcast programme. We have 12 rooms connected directly to Compact, but because it works in tandem with other systems, our coverage on campus is much greater.”
During the summer when the University was trialling MediaStar Compact, the Colchester Campus played host to a large number of students of different ages and nationalities. The Compact system was used to simultaneously deliver movies suitable for the various age groups, and incorporate subtitling to help the students learn English.
“We no longer have to carry out time-consuming manual settings, or restrict the audience because we can only broadcast to one auditorium or lecture room. We have much greater flexibility now,” continued Alfonso Torrejon.
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julie[.]grappa.co.uk 
