When Stephen Hawking took to the stage at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall on May 2, 2007, some of the best seats in the house weren't even in the same building. In addition to the standing-room-only crowd, an "overflow" audience for the world-renowned Cambridge University professor was treated to high quality real-time video and audio streaming of his speech at a second remote auditorium on the UCB campus.
Reaching the additional audiences was made possible, easily and economically, using new leading-edge video and audio streaming over the IP network. "This 'IPTV' solution was incredibly easy to implement, and it produces video and audio clarity and detail that is just phenomenal," explained Mike Ray of Berkeley's Educational Technology Services, about the XVD Video Compression technology used by the university. "We're able to provide our popular lecture series in real-time to a much larger audience, which is such a tremendous benefit to UCB students, faculty and staff."
Replacing a cumbersome temporary fiber-optic link, the UCB technology team now deploys an XVD TX100 encoder to compress and process their NTSC standard definition analog video camera output and convert it to an IP (Internet Protocol) stream, which is transmitted over the university's IP network. At the receiving site, a standard, off-the-shelf laptop decodes and outputs the analog stream for display on standard video projectors and large plasma screens, as well as via an Internet webcast. "It's simple, easy and effective IPTV, on a moment's notice, with minimal hassle and minimal expense," continued Ray. "And there is so much fidelity in the picture that even after encoding and decoding twice, the projected image quality is still excellent."
UCB originally purchased the XVD digital media solution as an emergency broadcast backup for the fiber optic system for its 3-camera television studio, but soon realized the benefits of using the system wherever needed. "This is a great tool for us wherever we need a quick AV link," said Ray. "It's not hard to set up at all -- we can take the box to a classroom or lecture hall, plug-in to the Ethernet and be good to go. It just opens up so many information-sharing opportunities for all of our constituents. With the tremendous interest in the high-profile guest speakers of our lecture series, our use of XVD technology has really enabled us to set higher standards for effectively serving our audiences."
In addition to the Hawking lecture, which sold out the 1,000+ seat Zellerbach Hall as well as an additional 770-seat auditorium, the popular UCB lecture series has included a presentation and discussion between Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and author Michael Pollan. This popular event also sold out Zellerbach Hall, and was served offsite using the real-time XVD digital media system and IP streaming to an overflow audience at the UCB School of Journalism's library. "Audience comments on the quality of the projected image -- which was over 20 feet in size for the Hawking presentation -- were that it was absolutely great, and I completely agree," said Ray. In addition to streaming live content to assembled overflow audiences, UCB also uses their XVD technology to stream live webcasts of popular events; a sold-out lecture at Zellerbach Hall by former President Jimmy Carter was streamed live via webcast in May of this year.
The 10-campus University of California system also uses XVD digital media compression technology in its non-commercial satellite-based University of California Television (UCTV) station. UCTV broadcasts the best in educational and enrichment programming from the campuses, national laboratories, and affiliated institutions of the University of California. Based on the UC San Diego campus, UCTV delivers science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities and the arts to a general audience, as well as specialized programming for health care professionals and teachers. UCTV is available to over 16 million homes nationwide via Direct Broadcast Satellite, online at www.uctv.tv, and on cable television.
About XVD Technology Holdings Ltd
XVD Technology Holdings Ltd (www.xvdth.com) is the pioneer of XVD next generation, advanced real-time compression technology. This patented technology is utilized in software and hardware solutions to produce the highest quality HD and SD video and associated audio in real time for any given bit rate or bandwidth availability. Applications include professional broadcasting, video conferencing, homeland and public security, video surveillance, SDTV and HDTV streaming, highly mobile applications, content distribution, digital signage, and many more enterprise applications.
For more information about XVD™ Digital Media Products and Systems, contact XVD Corporation; 10636 Scripps Summit Court; San Diego, CA 92131 USA; Tel: +1 858 635-9363; Fax: +1 858 635-9606; info @xvdcorp.com; or visit www.xvdth.com.