Catania University Uses Tvblob And Broadband Network For Multi-Location Telepresence At Eiba 2007

(13 dic 2007) - The 33rd EIBA annual conference of EIBA at University of Catania is using broadband and TVBLOB technology to interconnect various rooms via video streaming during conference sessions. The theme of this year’s EIBA, European International Business Academy, is “International Business, Local Development and Science-Technology Relationships” and focuses, in particular, on contributions regarding communication technologies and virtual teams.
From Thursday to Saturday, the Faculty of Political Science will be hosting more than 300 participants from all over the world in a 17th century building in the historical center of Catania. Using the broadband network, high quality television multicasting and large screens, EIBA organizers are creating a lively atmosphere of participation across several locations, which minimizes the importance of the physical location of the speakers, eliminates the need to rent a conference center, and allows the use of a beautifully restored building with smaller room configurations.
TVBLOB facilitates the audio-visual connections between four rooms and the main hall with its solution, vPARTY, a hardware and service combination that streams data bi-directionally over IP protocol. The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) in Catania is further enhanced with unicast and multicast connections coordinated by a Web- based control panel created by TVBLOB’s teams in Milan and Catania (Sicily), Italy and in collaboration with the university.
The ease of system installation and use, along with the technology’s respect for networking standards, convinced the Faculty to also consider extending the TV-quality streaming technology to its teaching and research activities in order to improve communication between various university locations.
TVBLOB was pleased to support EIBA’s progressive undertaking, in order to demonstrate its technology and show that there are reliable and easy-to-use tools available now that leverage the existing broadband network and enable new, innovative ways to communicate and manage both real-time and archived audio-visual content.