Summer School: No Vacation for Technology
By: Brian Patrick

 A number of options have recently arrived to help streamline campus technology and to make it more efficient and productive. In general, spending is down at most universities, but most campus technology planners are using the summer session to improve what they have, test out forward-thinking technologies, and improve teaching environments. With lower operating budgets, their efforts regularly focus on these tasks:

• Infrastructure Upgrades
• Future Essentials
• Classroom Technology

Infrastructure

Students today expect Internet access in their dorm rooms and remote access to the campus LAN from any off-campus home.  For most universities, providing such access globally is an enormous burden, particularly to aging buildings designed for a bygone era. Just as the heavy amounts of rain in the East this year have caused major headaches for campus maintenance staffs, an exponentially growing  thirst for information pushes older IT systems beyond capacity and may reveal campus infrastructure problems as well.

Brown University in New England, felt that it couldn’t continue to compete in the higher education market and retain its prestigious status without performing an overhaul of its network infrastructure. EDI helped the university document and rewire most of the school’s 170+ buildings.  A detailed network model drew the roadmap for new network hardware purchases.  The project, which will be finished this summer, will allow students and staff to enjoy convenient network access with good bandwidth.

Wireless Networking

Many universities are offering their students the luxury of Internet access in student centers, public gathering spaces, lab and classroom buildings, and even across the grounds on the campus.  For security and reliability reasons, EDI remains cautious about implementing wireless as a complete replacement for wired networks.  It’s clear though that wireless networks do have appropriate uses and will continue to grow in popularity.

A recent feasibility study for a new technology center at a small, rural campus showed the new site may require a wireless Ethernet connection to be “beamed” from campus. The facility is over a mile away from the central campus cluster, and the option of running a new trench and conduit duct-bank through woods and marshland would be cost prohibitive. So, until the new campus entrance and access road is built, a wireless link is their best solution.

Voice-Over-IP (VOIP)

Another hot topic today is Voice-Over-IP (VoIP), which essentially replaces old telephone wiring, infrastructure and the phone switch with network hardware and Internet Protocol (IP) phones that communicate over the LAN. 

VoIP, or the umbrella of IP Telephony, is gaining popularity among universities, and EDI is starting to see novel and proven technologies emerge in this arena.  But replacing a million-dollar phone switch with another million-dollar solution that “might be wonderful” isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.  Bill Gruszka of Southern Polytechnic University believes that “most of the VoIP solutions are data manager solutions; that is 90 – 95% uptime is more than enough.  As a voice manager that is deplorable.” He notes that when something goes wrong such as a power failure or network connection problem, most laymen pick up the phone to call for help. Gruszka adds, “Don’t jump on the bandwagon because it is the thing to do. Think things through and don’t compromise the reliability of your voice network.”

Multimedia Systems or Audio-Visual Infrastructure

Summer is a great time for campuses to upgrade classroom facilities for instructional technologies, commonly seen as AV presentation systems in the corporate world.  These AV systems require conduit, raceways, special furniture, projection equipment and room treatments to create a good teaching environment.  An advanced technology classroom or distance learning room can easily take over a month to retrofit with modern technologies, not to mention the months of planning, designing, and equipment purchasing that must happen before the room is hit with the first hammer.

The staff at the University of Georgia are excited about the opening of their new 2200-seat Student Learning Center building. Tom Beggs of UGA notes that “all classrooms include touchpanel control, computer/video projection, motorized shades, dvd/vcr, and document cameras.” When most of us were in college, if the overhead projector lamp blew, the professor just reached in the cart and popped in a new lamp. With new multimedia technology comes a new level of technical support.   Beggs proudly adds: “A master control system links all classrooms to facilitate remote troubleshooting of AV equipment. We’re able to pipe videoconference feeds between rooms easily. Students have access to over 500 research PC stations in the facility, all with nearby one-card controlled printing.”

Some campuses are considering upgrading to digital cable TV or satellite service to meet the growing demands for campus video distribution.  The campus may create a return on investment by offering pay-per-view movies or video-on-demand so that students can instantly order a program of their choice. No more trying to time the pizza delivery with the start of your favorite show or movie, just point and click. Students will have access to an entire video store archive at their fingertips.

Universities are poised to make use of the trend in videoconferencing to communicate over networks using Internet Protocol (IP). The campus must maintain high-bandwidth, high Quality of Service (QoS) networks; and most institutes of higher learning are naturally adept at this task. Universities involved in the Internet2 initiative have taken back the world of IP and now share enormous bandwidth for data and communications among member institutions.

However, the common perception of the “plug and play” IP videoconference is misleading. To ensure success for IP distance learning, numerous prerequisites must be addressed behind the scenes.  Common issues include network switch software, firewalls, port assignments, and even patch cables. Chris Lindsey of Georgia Tech comments: “I believe that the biggest interest here in IP videoconferencing is economics and perception of easy setup of ad hoc conferences. On a daily basis, we have to balance reliability with cost and often make judgment calls for what participants are willing to put up with. In addition, 90% of corporate businesses we talk to can't handle IP calls.” Lindsey adds, “IP Conferencing won’t become a toaster-like appliance in the near future. You can’t just turn it on and expect it to work.”

Implementing what’s “hot” may not be an option for every campus, but it’s important to understand the positive and negative implications. Buying a helicopter as your primary mode of transportation isn’t a good idea unless you have pilots and a maintenance crew.   It’s the same in the world of technology. If you would like more information, please contact Brian Patrick at 678-202-0702 or bpatrick@ediltd.com.

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