Richard Edwards is the Director of Technology for Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District. When he needed to implement a solution to serve the media distribution and control needs of their two schools, he contacted Video Corporation of America. VCA then contacted Realm Control Corp. regarding their needs. After spending a day at the Realm Control Corp. offices in Dallas, Richard knew he had found their solution.

Digital Content Delivery

Richard made it clear up-front that they were not interested in implementing a traditional Media Retrieval environment with analog decks. Instead, they required a system where all content would be stored and delivered digitally, either via the existing campus RF network or straight to the desktop of their Macintosh driven facilities. To meet this need, Realm Control Corp. recommended the Canopus MediaEdge2 solution, with added capabilities to serve their desktop stream requirement. MediaEdge is fully supported by Phoenix and is an ideal solution for any campus with similar needs. In December of 2005, VCA installed the hardware and Realm Control Corp. installed and validated the software.

A Versatile System

The MediaEdge2 digital file server consists of a single file server and several decoder units (one per CATV channel). In a typical environment all decoders reside in the Head End and decode the digital data streams to baseband audio & video. The decoded audio and video signals are modulated onto the campus cable (RF) network. Phoenix also supports a topology whereby the decoders physically reside within the destinations (i.e. classrooms, conference rooms, etc.), alleviating the RF network entirely. This would require that one decoder be installed in each destination.

At Ramapo Indian Hills RHSD, the first solution is employed (show me). All of their decoders are rack mounted in their Head End and each one corresponds to a cable channel. 20 decoders were installed, which means that they can have a maximum of 20 concurrent videos playing back over the cable network. The videos are controlled using the Phoenix32 XGen Web Client. To the end users, it's as if they are controlling a DVD or VHS device within their own classroom. However, they are actually remotely controlling the decoders (which support MPG1, MPG2, or MPG4). The content that the Faculty have access to is either scheduled beforehand or is accessible immediately as Video On Demand .

In addition to the ability to broadcast digital content on the RF network, they can also make the digital content available for viewing as desktop streams (show me). The desktop streams are served from a QuickTime Streaming Server, running on Mac OS X Server, directly to their Macintosh computers using Apple's Safari web browser. Streams may be scheduled for either desktop viewing, for broadcast on the campus cable network, or both simultaneously. As part of the Video On Demand feature, both Faculty and Students may instantly request content to be streamed directly to their desktop or to go out on the cable network.

Conclusion

Realm Control Corp. would like to thank the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District for choosing Phoenix to manage their digital content delivery and control. Very special thanks go out to Adam Nemeth, the Coordinator of MultiMedia Technologies for Ramapo Indian Hills RHSD. Adam made invaluable contributions to the feature set to ensure that Phoenix would suit the needs of the District. Realm Control Corp. also extends thanks to David Dong and Ray Brooksby of Canopus/Grass Valley  for their continuing support. And of course, this never would have happened without the ongoing sales and installation support provided by Video Corporation of America.