Beacon City School District Goes Digital with VBrick's EtherneTV; Live and On-Demand Video over IP Transform TV Network for Students and Community.

BEACON, N.Y. -- Beacon City School District (CSD) today unveiled Beacon IPTV, an advanced video network powered by the EtherneTV system from VBrick Systems, (www.VBrick.com), and TekConnect, (www.TekConnect.com) for multicasting live and on-demand video both throughout the district to its 3,600 students and via the Internet to the surrounding community. The announcement ushers Beacon CSD into a new wave of video technology swiftly being adopted as a cutting edge tool to enhance curriculum while cutting the costs of expansive video networking.

Beacon CSD is using VBrick's EtherneTV system to simultaneously record and broadcast DVD-quality video across its Beacon IPTV network to every classroom and networked facility across its eight campuses. Students and faculty will enjoy state-of-the-art digital educational programming approved for teachers' curriculums, student-produced news and campus-related programming, staff messages and videoconferences, as well as live cable television feeds at every desktop and network-connected television across the district. In addition, members of the surrounding communities will be able to view weather-related school updates and community programming over the Internet on a low-bandwidth government education Beacon IPTV channel.

"IP Video is the wave of the future for organizations such as ours, allowing us to advance our lesson plans and stretch our IT budget by three times," said Charles Symon, Director of Technology for the Beacon City School District. "We are now able to present our teachers and students with a system that delivers digital video at a higher level of quality that will not diminish over time, as happens with videotape and standard cable. Our VBrick-powered IPTV system has transformed our homegrown district television network into a cutting-edge digital video system."

Beacon CSD found it necessary to upgrade its existing system of AV carts and commercial television feeds after 10 years of wear on the aging circuit of coaxial cable and squeaky VHS video carts. The district had recently upgraded to a high-bandwidth data network capable of carrying full-screen DVD-quality video without interrupting routine academic and administrative data or Internet-related activities. Certain irreplaceable or rare educational videos also needed to be archived in a format that prevented future loss and allowed multiple teachers to access a video for a particular lesson. Additionally, the district saw a need to control the content of channels being carried into classrooms over a commercial cable feed. The EtherneTV system allows the district to store approved videos digitally for on-demand viewing, broadcast approved cable channels digitally and also multicast student and community productions to any number of sites on its network.

How It Works

The portability of the VBrick MPEG video appliances allow Beacon IPTV to travel anywhere on campus within reach of a network connection. When students or faculty want to broadcast a student production, or event on campus, they simply deliver a VBrick appliance along with a video camera, then plug the video appliance into any connection on the existing campus data network. The video feed is then compressed into MPEG-2 format IP video and sent across the network to any number of desktops or network-enabled televisions on the campus. Video can also be stored indefinitely on the EtherneTV NXG Video-on-Demand Server for playback at any time through the EtherneTV Media Control Server.

Students and faculty can then access that video on computer desktops or networked televisions through easy-to-use on-screen guides similar to those on home Digital Video Recorders. EtherneTV-enabled Beacon IPTV feeds can be played back with standard QuickTime players or by using VBrick's free StreamPlayer software for PCs. Set-top boxes for televisions also allow playback via remote control on televisions.

While Beacon CSD initially chose EtherneTV to power Beacon IPTV with Video-on-Demand and multicasting capabilities for far-reaching distribution of its broad catalogue of approved educational videos in conjunction with district curriculums, the district plans to enhance the broadcast capabilities of the system in the near future by increasing the number of cable television channels broadcast on the network from one to eight, and expanding the reach of its videoconferencing features from one-way to two-way.

"This implementation represents the cutting edge of IP video for use in large institutions," said Michael Baker, Vice President, Business Development, of VBrick Systems. "VBrick's EtherneTV solution takes advantage of the existing high-bandwidth networks that are ubiquitous on educational campuses, and result in cost-effective ways to quickly implement high-quality video broadcasts at a fraction of the cost for traditional cable. A technology innovator such as Beacon CSD is a natural catalyst for VBrick's abilities to transform video communications."

Beacon CSD plans to expand the network to be one of the most innovative IP-based educational video networks in the country. Plans are in place to videoconference between classrooms so that students can collaborate on projects with their peers across town. Using multicasting, staff in-service will be possible in multiple viewing locations without the need to move staff. In addition, when producing an in-house video mini lesson or staff training the schools will archive these for future viewing on the video on demand system.

About Beacon CSD

Beacon City School District is 65 miles north of NYC located in the Hudson Valley. Beacon has 9 buildings that educate 3600 students with a district staff of 450. Beacon is one of 57 small city schools in NYS, with a diverse population representing many cultures throughout the world. Beacon's innovative concepts have been incorporated into the educational environment. In 2001 Beacon opened a new state of the art high school that has become the showplace for education in the Hudson Valley and the world. Find more information at www.beaconcityschools.org

About VBrick Systems, Inc.

VBrick Systems, Inc. manufactures simple, reliable video solutions that enhance communications and reduce costs for organizations large and small. VBrick enables enterprises to benefit from high quality visual communications through networked video appliances. VBrick MPEG video solutions provide the simplest and most dependable visual communications to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies ranging in use from distributing news and information and distance learning to training and surveillance. Based in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, VBrick Systems' products are distributed through industry-leading value-added resellers, system integrators and distributors. Find out more at www.VBrick.com.

About TekConnect Corporation

TekConnect Corporation is nationally recognized and accepted as a leading educational technology integration and consulting firm. Founded in 1975, the company is headquartered in Cherry Hill, NJ, and has sales and service locations in Albany, NY, Monmouth Junction, NJ and Troy, MI. TekConnect is rapidly expanding its presence throughout the Northeastern United States. Find out more at www.tekconnect.com