Warren School District Selects VBrick Systems' Turnkey EtherneTV Digital Video System.

EtherneTV Distance Learning Solutions Provide Powerful Video Streaming, Recording, and Video on Demand for Teaching and Training Among 19 District Buildings; Delivers Video Across Blended Coaxial Cable and IP Network

WALLINGFORD, Conn. -- VBrick Systems, Inc. (www.VBrick.com), the world leader in digital video systems and solutions, today announced that the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (MSDWT) in Indiana is deploying VBrick's EtherneTV to expand its teaching and training capabilities. MSDWT is using EtherneTV's powerful video streaming, recording, and video-on-demand features to share educational activities among the district's 19 buildings. Intuitive "point and click" digital video access provides teachers with educational multimedia resources for the districts' 12,286 students.

MSDWT is building on its comprehensive television video production and broadcast capabilities to include digital video. VBrick's solutions will enable students to see live and recorded events from other district schools, such as guest speakers and morning announcements. Importantly, the EtherneTV video-on-demand server provides a centralized digital video library that teachers can access from their classroom televisions or computers quickly. Using VBrick, the districts plans to store its library of approximately 2,000 videos on a single, centralized server, enabling teachers from any classroom to find and play selected video easily. Digitizing and centralizing district video titles eliminates the administrative requirement to retrieve, ship, and track video tapes manually as they are routed among classrooms and buildings.

"Technology's prominent role in today's economy makes it essential that we provide students with the resources required to succeed in the digital environment," said Brian Woods, director of network operations, Metropolitan School District of Warren Township. "VBrick is providing the flexibility and ease-of-use that enables teachers and students to focus on education, without worrying about the underlying technology."

Digital Video Extends Warren Township's Technology Capabilities

The district's mission to incorporate technology throughout its educational and administrative operations is being realized through grants.

"Additional funding has been provided by Lilly Endowment, Inc., with the main focus on how technology can assist students in closing the achievement gap," said Mary Kay Hunt, chief information officer, MSDWT. "MSDWT believes technology is the vehicle to lessen the gap."

MSDWT selected telecommunications provider AT&T Inc. and IDSolutions LLC, a Noblesville, Ind.-based integrator specializing in interactive communications solutions, as strategic consultants to support the evaluation and deployment of the district's IT broadcast and digital video infrastructure capabilities.

Nearly three years ago, MSDWT expanded its television video production and broadcast system capabilities to include a media center and closed circuit television in each of its 15 school buildings. Each school distributes morning announcements and other video broadcasts to classroom television sets within each building via coaxial cable.

To make the systems even more useful, however, the district wanted to broadcast live video among buildings, as well as centralize and simplify teacher access to its library of approximately 2,000 videos. The district evaluated multiple digital video solutions prior to selecting EtherneTV.

MSDWT officials selected VBrick's EtherneTV system for two primary reasons: its intuitive web-based interface makes the system easy for teachers and students to use, and its straightforward installation within the district's existing IP and coaxial cable infrastructure. The VBrick solution was less expensive than competing solutions and provides a high level of video reliability and quality. The district is especially pleased with a new EtherneTV feature that enables teachers and administrators to rename video files using a streamlined administrative rights process that combines ease-of-use with security authorization safeguards.

"The Warren school district continues its pioneering best practices for incorporating technology into its educational initiatives by providing engaging multimedia resources for education and discovery," said Pat Cassella, senior director of marketing - Education, VBrick Systems, Inc. "VBrick's digital video distance learning solutions support Warren school district's requirement for reliable streaming for events across the district and video on demand access to the classroom."

The most immediate benefit the new VBrick system brings to MSDWT is the ability to distribute live video broadcasts throughout the district. This allows, for example, the school superintendent to keep abreast of school activities from her office by monitoring morning school announcements and other important video broadcasts. In addition, classrooms will access broadcasts from other schools, including the numerous programs produced by the high school's sophisticated video production studio.

The school district also plans to use the system as a professional development tool. By broadcasting new teacher training and professional development training classes, the district will make it easier for teachers to attend classes while also minimizing travel time and expenses. EtherneTV capabilities also enable the district to create an on demand archive of teacher training sessions, making it easy for teachers to make up missed classes or review material.

The VBrick Solution

The school district purchased 19 VBrick MPEG-4 encoder appliances and 19 VBrick EtherneTV-STB set top boxes, and placed one of each into the media center headroom at each of the district's 19 buildings. The high school also uses one VBrick 4300 appliance - a dual encoder that provides users the choice of either low-bandwidth Internet streaming or DVD-quality digital video - via MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 compression. The VBrick appliance encoders and set top boxes enable media specialists at any building to broadcast live video signals to all school district buildings via a 1G fiber optic network.

Once a signal is received by a school, it is distributed throughout the building via the existing coaxial cable-based closed circuit television network to the television sets located in each classroom. Each television set is configured with a scan converter that, in turn, feeds the signal via a VGA cable to a teacher's computer located in each classroom.

The district can save live video for later viewing on a VBrick EtherneTV video-on-demand server located in the central administration building's network operations center. The center also contains a VBrick EtherneTV Media Control Server, which manages the entire EtherneTV system and provides an intuitive interface that allows users to access the video-on-demand library.

About Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (MSDWT)

The Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (MSDWT) is a growing school district of approximately 12,286 students in eastern Marion County, an Indianapolis, Indiana suburb. The 36-square mile district supports an expanding and diverse population of approximately 90,000. The district's Strategic Plan accommodates for curricular growth and integrates new technologies into the education process. MSDWT has earned numerous state and federal awards, including the U.S. Department of Education's "Outstanding School" designation for Warren Central High School. The diverse school community includes Warren Central High School/Walker Career Center, which features a freshman academy, 3 middle schools, 11 elementary schools, and an alternative school for grades 6-12. MSDWT unique offerings include an early childhood center for children ages 3-5, and the parental choice of traditional or year-round calendars. Services are available for children ages 3-21. For more information, please visit http://www.warren.k12.in.us.

About IDSolutions, LLC

IDSolutions, LLC is an Applications Service Provider, which provides comprehensive interactive communications solutions over traditional and next generation networks. IDSolutions' collection of application services enables our customers to maximize the benefits of interactive communications technologies. We achieve success by developing unparalleled technical solutions that excel to the next level by providing application services support and ensuring successful implementation of our customer's communications technology initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.e-idsolutions.com.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. is one of the world's largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, AT&T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high speed DSL Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT&T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with 57.3 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at www.att.com.

About VBrick Systems, Inc.

VBrick Systems, Inc. is the world's most reliable provider of standards-based video networking solutions to educational institutions, corporations, and governments. VBrick, an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, has garnered numerous industry accolades including the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Connecticut Technology Fast 50, and the National Association of Broadcaster's (NAB) Award for Innovation in Media in the Content Delivery category. Based in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, VBrick's products are distributed through industry-leading value-added resellers, system integrators, and distributors. Find out more at www.VBrick.com.