Video Tools for IP Schools

Midway School District
One school system that has invested heavily with Cisco in a VoIP network is the Midway Independent School District in Waco, Texas. The school is still preoccupied with capitalizing on the new phone and data capabilities and has not yet had time to fully take advantage of the network's video capabilities, but they have big plans for video and have already started moving forward.

Midway’s first use of IP video has been for security. They are currently enjoying the benefits of a video security system, which became even more accessible and flexible when the school added 802.11b wireless access to its network.

"We've given our principals Cisco 7920 wireless IP phones, which they can carry with them as they move around the campus to keep in touch wherever they are," says Adam Feind, Midway's director of technology and information systems. "In our new high school, assistant principals are equipped with wireless notebook computers to access student services and our IP-based video surveillance system. We have approximately 100 cameras throughout the campus, so they can observe hallways, stairwells, and other locations in real time."

Feind plans to make the most of his IP network by adding new multimedia applications to further improve instruction throughout the entire Midway school district. Because the Cisco IP Communications Solution already provides robust QoS, adding video streaming to the network will require only minimal upgrades, he says.

"The next project that we're exploring is content delivery," says Feind. "We want to investigate IPTV to provide multiple channel offerings for teachers on their computers. We've already begun a video on demand pilot program, working with the Texas Distance Learning Association. Teachers are recording course content, and we can upload it and make it available throughout the state."

Bergen County Technical Schools
One school district that is taking advantage of both IP telephony from Cisco as well as the Cisco/Tandberg full videoconferencing solution is Bergen County Technical Schools (BCTS) in Hackensack, New Jersey. As befits a "technical" school, BCTS has historically been an early adopter of new technologies. The district installed its first videoconferencing system over 14 years ago. Those early units were proprietary ISDN- and ATM-based systems, which were fine for using between classrooms, but when users wanted to connect with parties outside the school, they could only connect with other parties who had the exact same proprietary systems.

Consequently, BCTS Director of Technology George Gonzalez has for a long time been anxious to move from ISDN to IP videoconferencing. It was one of the deciding factors that led him to recommend that BCTS install a converged Cisco IP network, which the school did way back in 1999. "At that time, I made the crazy decision to become the first Cisco customer in New Jersey to go for voice over IP," says Gonzalez. When Cisco recently released Cisco Call Manager 4.0 (call processing software), Gonzalez instantly recognized an opportunity to improve the school's videoconferencing capabilities, and he realized his 1999 decision had not been so crazy after all.

Using Call Manager is a piece of cake, according to Gonzalez. Video calls are now as easy to manage as ordinary conference phone calls. "We can transfer and conference-in multiple people, just like we can with a phone call," says Gonzalez. "We can even bring in people who are on the road on a cell phone."

Not only has the IP telephony and IP videoconferencing helped solve BCTS' system compatibility issues, but the IP network has also enabled BCTS to introduce a number of new educational programs that would not have been possible before VoIP. These new programs include a global learning exchange, which uses videoconferencing to enable BCTS students to connect with schools in Israel, Russia, and Latin America. Another program uses videoconferencing to bring teachers, students, and parents together to discuss touchy moral issues. And BCTS has also created a new daily communications system that enables administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and parents to use IP phones to communicate on a variety of important daily school topics. And adding video makes these daily interactions even more convenient and more personal.

BCTS’ IP network has expanded its educational programs and improved its communications capabilities, and everyone there agrees that that is great. But the bottom line is that IP has improved BCTS’s bottom line. "In five years the IP telephony system will pay for itself in so many ways" Gonzalez says. "We've eliminated every T1 line, saving $24,000 per year. Maintenance costs have been reduced by $20,000 per year. And moving employees from one location to another and setting them up costs virtually nothing, which saves an additional $5,000 per month."

And now those at BCTS who thought that Gonzalez was crazy to install VoIP see that he was crazy like a fox.