Joint Venture To Link 6 Universities Via HD Video
- By Paul McCloskey
- 05/01/07
Three firms involved in high-definition video networks have christened a project to link six universities with HD video channels to support interactive collaboration and research.
The three companies are LifeSize, which makes HD equipment; kynamatrix Research Network, a non-profit focused on science education; and GBH Communications, which does Internet-based teleconferencing.
The project will link lab facilities at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech, Harvard, MIT, and the University of Washington. Each site will be equipped with an HD display, an HD codec with embedded four-way multipoint capabilities, an HD camera, an integrated audio conference phone, and a wireless remote control.
Researchers from the six campuses said the facilities will give them a "transparent environment" for collaborating between institutions, as well as for advising students and managing inter-university research teams without leaving their own campus.
Dan Boyarski, head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon, said the gift would "help us really see what is being talked about" in remote collaborations. The Carnegie team also said it wants to study the effect of the technology on their own design processes, he said.
Daniel Schodek a professor in the School of Design at Harvard University, noted that the technology would help support the globalization of learning.
"Globalization has become common in design practice in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning," he said. "These practices demand new ways of interacting among the many participants involved."
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About the Author
Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.