Rochester Institute of Technology to Enhance Learning Capabilities With Innovative Video Applications and Cisco Media-Ready Wireless LAN

Leading University to Use Cisco Unified Wireless Network and New VideoStream Technology to Bring Educational Services to 1,100 Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Students

| Source: Cisco Cisco

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - January 19, 2010) -  Today, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced that Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a privately endowed university in Rochester, N.Y., will use new media-ready wireless local area network (WLAN) capabilities as part of its Cisco® Unified Wireless Network to deliver innovative learning applications to its students. Cisco is also announcing VideoStream, an innovative set of new features that ensures the optimal performance of video and multimedia over the wireless and wired network. With the wireless network, RIT will bring a wealth of new applications to students and faculty, including mobile, closed-captioned video for its deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Key Facts/Highlights:

  • RIT comprises of eight colleges and institutes and serves more than 17,000 students including a population of 1,100 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. 
  • To deliver pervasive coverage across its 5.3-million-square-foot campus, which encompasses residence halls, RIT deployed a Cisco Unified Wireless Network including 3,400 802.11n access points, 15 Wireless Services Modules (WiSMs), and Cisco's Wireless Control System (WCS). The resulting wireless network gives students and faculty access to a variety of mobile collaborative applications and services including video channels for the redistribution of educational materials and replays of major campus events.
  • Cisco introduced VideoStream, a new set of features for the Cisco Unified Wireless Network that optimizes the performance of multimedia over the wireless and wired network, and supports the medianet platform.
  • Cisco VideoStream removes the challenges associated with streaming video over the wireless network by delivering reliable multicast, the enforcement of video priority levels and resource reservation control. These help ensure the quality of existing wireless media sessions is maintained as additional wireless video streams are added to the network. In addition, Cisco is extending AssureWave, a solution verification program designed to simplify customer adoption of mobility solutions, to validate the performance of rich media solutions, including those from Cisco and its technology partners.
  • RIT is deploying the Cisco VideoStream technology to enhance students' use of video relay services that allow deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to communicate over video telephones with hearing people in real-time, via a sign language interpreter. RIT is also exploring capabilities for students to use laptops and other mobile devices to view close-captioned lectures, visual signing and transcription services in real-time.
  • RIT has also deployed Cisco's Mobility Services Engine (MSE) and Context-Aware Mobility solution, allowing information technology (IT) staff members to view the exact location of a user requiring support to troubleshoot technical issues faster and more efficiently. This capability also lets IT staff identify and mitigate rogue users and devices on the wireless network, track usage of the wireless network to better evaluate high-usage areas, and deploy access points.
  • RIT has tested additional applications, including voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services for faculty, using Cisco Unified Wireless 7925 IP Phones, and plans to deploy additional voice and video services over the WLAN in the near future.

Links/URLs:

Quotes:

  • Ray Smets, vice president and general manager for the Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit
    "The ability to deliver video and multimedia applications over the wireless network -- with the same quality and performance that users are accustomed to receiving via a wired network -- has inherent challenges. The new Cisco VideoStream technology addresses those challenges for the growing demands around delivering real-time visual collaboration and a need for new sustainable business practices, especially to support a distributed workforce. RIT is a perfect example of how the right wireless infrastructure not only delivers key applications for the broader population of students, faculty and IT staff, but can also be the launching pad for the innovation of new applications like the video lectures that RIT is offering to its deaf and hard-of-hearing students."
  • Jeanne Casares, chief information officer, Rochester Institute of Technology
    "We wanted to work with a leader that could provide the most proven and innovative 802.11n network in order to support the long-term mobile academic and recreational needs of our active and diverse student population. The Cisco media-ready wireless network that delivers converged data, voice and video services anywhere on campus that serves as the foundation to support a growing number of mobile video and voice applications that can make a positive difference by enhancing the collaborative learning experience for students, which ultimately can help them succeed."

Tags / Keywords: Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT, Cisco, VideoStream, Wi-Fi, WLAN, 802.11n, wireless, video, mobility, collaboration, borderless networks, medianet, student success

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