News

BYU To Test Event Capture System in a Box

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/13/10

Brigham Young University in Utah is expected shortly to begin testing a new event capture system that bundles all necessary video, audio, and media server components into a single box. The ProEdge V-Chassis from I-O does live video broadcasts as well as video recording of events for replay to viewers' computers and smart devices.

The V-Chassis will stream live to a limited number of viewers without an outside server or customers can supply their own media servers, use I-O's optional hosting service, or engage an outside content delivery network service provider. The company said events will play in Microsoft Windows' Media Player or a customer-defined graphical user interface.

According to Lynn Packer, who designed the new system, the university was expected to begin testing the system during the spring 2010 semester. Some faculty and staff have worked with TechSmith's Camtasia Relay, but, according to Packer, few courses on campus are using lecture capture.

The ProEdge V-Chassis is priced at about $7,000. Components include a video/audio encoder/streaming device, pan/tilt/zoom remote control video camera, wireless remote control, microphone, audio mixer and headset, audio/video distribution amplifier, and two LCD video monitors.

The system expanded from its beginnings as a WMV encoder appliance, which the company said it developed for "a world-wide religious organization to stream local meetings via the Internet to remote congregations." About 350 of those encoders are in use around the world, according to I-O.

"The V-Chassis box marries IT with AV in a way few other products have yet been able to achieve," said Packer. "It makes video production and webcasting affordable for tens of thousands of customers who have been locked out due to high prices and difficulty of use."

The V-Chassis also has several optional components, including a teleprompter that attaches to the box; a table-top lectern with a built-in video monitor and an interface so that laptop audio can be captured by the ProEdge encoder appliance; and a hard-wired joystick camera controller that replaces the standard, wireless remote control for more precise control of the camera.