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Wireless Projector Connectivity

by cjones on July 30, 2010

Interesting new product to help older schools connect PC’s and Projectors wirelessly.
July 21, 2010 | Posted At: 06:55 AM | Author: Brian Nadel

Cut the Classroom CordFree Projector Tips

SWP100A-3 Schools attempting to wire older classrooms for projectors or large screen monitors over the summer are faced with one big problem: the cables for video and audio never seem to be where they need to be. Rewiring a classroom can easily dwarf the cost of the projector, but Warpia lets you unwire it by connecting any recent PC with a projector or TV with no fuss, muss or wires.

Warpia’s USB PC to TV Audio/Video Display Adapter SWP100a is a little long-winded but can link a PC to a monitor, TV or projector in a classroom wirelessly. Based on the USB Wireless 1.0 standard, Warpia takes advantage of Wisair’s WSR 601 chip to stream high-quality audio and video over thin air.

Warpia comes with a small USB radio that’s the size of a memory key and transmits whatever is on the host PC’s screen. The larger receiver goes near the projector and its radio can be aimed the received vertically or horizontally. There’s also an AC adapter for the receiver and a CD of software.

The system can handle resolutions up to 1,400 by 1,050 in 32-bit color and CD-quality audio. On the downside, At the moment Warpia is for PCs only and will work on neither Macs nor Linux computers. There is beta software for Macs that can be downloaded.

SWP100A-5 The way it works is that the teacher’s computer uses Warpia to send an audio-video stream over a wireless link in the 3.2- to 4.8GHz range. With 128-bit AES encrypted security, adjacent classrooms won’t interfere with each other. As data moves through the system, a green light blinks on both the sender and receiver.

Read more…

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Sony AIT Tape Discontinued

Sony Kills AIT Line of Storage Products

by cjones on July 28, 2010

Without fanfare Sony has quietly discontinued their AIT line of data storage products according to a message on their storage website. This announcement impacts thousands of Sony customers and quite a few of our own who have used AIT as a video archive and back-up system to back up video content from a broadcast automation system, video on demand library, an archive of public meetings or other unique local content.

AIT, known as Advanced Intelligent Tape, was first launched in 1996.  New generations of drives and tape cartridges were introduced over the years that provided faster back-ups and larger video storage capacities with each iteration. One of the key advantages Sony provided was backward and forward compatibility which enabled users to upgrade their drives without having to convert existing archives to a new generation to AIT Drivemaintain access and continuity. This feature saved countless hours and money because content stored on an early version of AIT did not have to be moved to a newer version.

Unfortunately the archive and backup industry has faced this problem many times before as multiple tape and optical disc formats have come and gone over the last 20 years and every time this happens it starts a process of identifying the next best format and every user of a discontinued format must migrate all of their content from the dead format to the new format.

If a migration from the old format to a new format is not done it produces a condition called DataRot. DataRot occurs when a format changes and through the attrition of equipment (i.e. the drives are no longer available) the data becomes useless, an orphan on a dead format with no way to transition to a new home. The millions of VHS tapes in homes, schools and cable access stations across the county will become victim to DataRot as VCR’s are no longer being manufactured. Once the existing supply of VCR’s disappears anything remaining on tape is lost forever because there will be no equipment with which to play the tapes.

Now that Sony has discontinued AIT every existing user must determine how and when to move the data from their existing AIT tapes to a new home. Key considerations include:

  1. Estimating the future growth of your video content over the next few years for planning  purposes,
  2. Determining what archive route to take for the future and,
  3. When to begin the migration process…the longer the delay the more risky the proposition.

Because there are many areas to include we will devote several more articles to this process over the next few weeks as a way to sort out the issues and explore the various options available to anyone who might be caught in a potential DataRot situation.

If you are not a regular subscriber please enter your email address at the top of the page to receive the next few posts about this topic or visit our Facebook page and hit the Like button.

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Skype is a free videoconferencing tool that can be used in a variety of settings. We use it everyday to talk with customers and remote employees. Forward thinking teachers use it in their classrooms in a variety of ways to engage their students. Here’s a list of 10 websites, articles and resources for using Skype in the classroom:

  1. Teaching Degree: 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom
  2. Suite101 Tips for Using Skype in the Classroom
  3. Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Using Skype in the Classroom
  4. Teach Hub: Using Skype in the Classroom
  5. Arizona K-12: Videoconferencing in the Classroom with Skype
  6. Skype an Author Network: Virtual Author Visits in Your Library or Classroom
  7. Instructify: A Window on the World, Using Skype in the Classroom
  8. Woven Teaching: Skype in the Classroom
  9. Bright Hub: Skype Across the World
  10. Blog 4 Teachers: Skype in the Classroom

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How Video is Changing Healthcare

July 20, 2010
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(A) Is YouTube just for kids and their wacky antics? (B) How many videos of cats chasing laser pointers do we need? (C) What do you, as a healthcare professional, need to know about video? The answers are: (A) No. (B) I found at least 4, 260 videos but we can all laugh at one [...]

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How Cooper Health Uses Video on Their Blog

July 15, 2010
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I ran across this video about Cooper Health thanks to a tweet from Andrew Poag. This provides a perfect illustration of how a hospital can create video using staff and willing patients to tell a great story. The video is not embedded here but if you click on the picture you will be re-directed to [...]

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Video Interactions for Teaching & Learning

July 14, 2010
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The following is a blog post from eHow.co.uk by Anna Tower, eHow Contributing Writer. Video can enhance student motivation to learn course content. Teachers today have a wide variety of resources available to enhance classroom learning. One of these tools is the use of video to encourage student interaction with learning. These interactions can include [...]

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No More Windows XP SP2 Updates

July 13, 2010
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Microsoft has announced that they will no longer provide updates for Windows XP Service Pack 2 effective July 13, 2010. They are also ending updates for Windows Vista without Service Packs as well. This announcement recently appeared in USAToday but little other coverage has been found. This effects any customer that uses Synergy Broadcast equipment [...]

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Doctors on Facebook and Twitter: USAToday

July 9, 2010

From USAToday By Rita Rubin. Some doctors join Facebook, Twitter; others wary Go into any obstetrician/gynecologist’s office and you’re likely to see a large bulletin board covered with snapshots of babies. But the docs at one Irving, Texas, OB-GYN practice have taken that ubiquitous display of cute kids into the 21st century. Their patients can [...]

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Calling All Video Producers: Life In A Day – YouTube 7/24

July 8, 2010
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News from YouTube to all video producers, students and anyone with a video camera who wants to be a part of a global video project to create a user generated feature length video documentary titled “A Day in the Life”. All the action takes place on July 24, 2010. If you or someone you know [...]

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From Government Video: Montgomery County Goes Live by Bob Kovacs

June 29, 2010

The following article was written by Bob Kovacs and appeared in Government Video. Montgomery County uses Synergy Broadcast Automation to manage their content and automation. In any county, there’s a need to serve the public with information on the activities of the local government. by Bob Kovacs Video staffers at Montgomery County operate the television [...]

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