Improvements to Distance Learning Classroom Update Aging Systems - Feb 22nd., 2007

A class, with both local and distant students, meets in the Distance Learning Classroom.

Since the Learning Technology Center’s Distance Learning Classroom (DLC) opened in 1998, countless students, instructors, and colleagues have been brought together via the video and audio links it provides, saving untold hours of travel and the costs involved. The room has also been praised countless times through the years for its excellent acoustics, ease of use, and helpful technician who is always present during every videoconference.

But as the DLC entered its eighth year last year, and even as its use continued to grow, it had begun to show its technological age. Its audio equipment did not meet the new standards for audio conferencing performance. It needed additional equipment to more flexibly take advantage of newer types of video connections, such as Internet Protocol (IP) and webcasting. Its control system lacked the processing speed and network capabilities of current models.

So Craig Smith, the LTC staff member who manages the room and operates the facility during videoconferences, began a multi-phase effort to upgrade the DLC’s systems. The upgrades have been funded by ITAC Vision Plan projects, as well as the general LTC budget. The first upgrades were completed in early 2006, when new ceiling microphones and an echo cancellation unit were installed to improve audio performance.

Craig Smith, left, helps Karen French conduct a videoconference between COE students and a young teacher in Kuwait.

Just recently, a Tandberg MXP 3000 Codec was installed. Codec stands for coder/decoder. The unit processes the video signals so that they can be sent and received between conference sites. The Tandberg is an IP Codec and connects to another Codec simply by punching in the distant unit’s IP address. Says Craig, “It’s as easy to use as making a phone call, and 100% dependable.”

The Tandberg is the first Codec the DLC has had, relying in the past on the Codecs at UT’s Network Operations Center (NOC), reached through a high bandwidth connection. The Codec makes scheduling much more flexible, since Craig no longer needs to work around other events scheduled on the NOC’s Codecs. Craig notes “the IP-based H323 protocol is the fastest-growing type of videoconferencing today. Many new facilities are being designed around it, so the Codec both updates and increases our connection capabilities.”

Next on the prioritized list of DLC system needs, Craig would like to update the touch panel control and the video switching systems, replacing them with digital equipment that has greater speed and flexibility. This equipment is also necessary if the LTC decides to respond to increasing demand by expanding its videoconferencing capability into the Advanced Applications Lab, the large computer classroom next to the DLC.

Further down the road, Craig plans to reconfigure and update the rest of the DLC system until a total conversion from analog to digital is made. The system's components will then function together more seamlessly and efficiently. Craig would also like to acquire a webcasting encoder for originating webcasts, another very popular connection method, in which a participant sees and hears what’s happening in the DLC via a computer Web browser. The encoder would allow him to schedule the DLC’s webcasts free of the schedule of the NOC’s encoder.
With these continuing upgrades, and the LTC’s commitment to maintaining the DLC as a first rate facility, the travel cost savings, and the compliments, should keep adding up for many more years to come.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator