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ASU Adopts Appliance for Personal Videoconferencing

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/02/11

In an effort to broaden the reach of video collaboration on its campus, Arizona State University has adopted a new appliance from Vidyo that lets users record and Webcast their own video conferences.

VidyoReplay is a new $9,500 appliance from Vidyo that allows large numbers of users to concurrently watch a Vidyo conference via Web browser, either in real-time or afterward. Users can also record and Webcast from Vidyo endpoints, including mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and VidyoRoom systems. Conferences can be recorded in standard Flash video file (FLV) format.

Arizona State University, a Vidyo customer, began using Vidyo technology in its School of Life Sciences to launch a course that features video conference exchanges with experts at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Arizona State professors and students. What appealed to the institution initially was Vidyo's low buy-in cost, its mobility, and the number and quality of multiple simultaneous connections it could facilitate.

"With VidyoReplay we can now capture these valuable interactions to use as an educational resource for larger groups of students to view and learn from; it enhances the learning experience for our faculty and students, alike, said Charles Kazilek, director of technology integration and outreach for the School of Life Sciences. "Vidyo has opened a range of education and research opportunities that we never thought would be possible."

Administrators can control who is able to record, Webcast, and access storage content through VidyoReplay, including for multi-tenant setups. The user can start a Webcast and record a video session with a single mouse click.

The product includes a content management application with search and annotation capability; a portal for browsing and viewing recordings; and digital video recorder-like functionality such as pause, rewind, delay start, and go to live for viewing live Webcasting. The company said any standard Flash player plugin can be used to view a recorded Webcast.

A single VidyoReplay appliance can support up to 300 concurrent content views and store up to 2,500 hours of high-definition video. The appliance works with network attached storage devices to expand archival capacity.

Further information can be found here.