Digital streaming and off-air recording

Satellite and terrestrial television and radio may be streamed around the Division via the computer network.

As a part of the Division's project to install the infrastructure necessary for the reception and reticulation of radio and television services around the Division, some television services will be distributed via the computer network and a digital off-air recording service is being developed.

Live streaming
At least five of the television services will be streamed live around the network as multicast streams. The minimum five services have not been chosen, but should include both terrestrial and satellite digital television services. There are no plans to reticulate analogue television services, or any radio services, live around the IP network.

On demand streaming
In order to make the services more widely available and more flexible, it is proposed to develop a system that allows properly authenticated users within the University or the Canberra Institute of Technology to log onto a website and schedule a recording of any available service, as a digital video or audio stream, recorded to hard disk on a central server. These recordings would then be available to appropriately authenticated users to access on demand via computer.

Stored recording should be accessible for editing to appropriately authenticated users, either locally on the server or on the user’s own machine. Recordings should be in a format that can be edited with common video or audio editing tools on Windows and Macintosh, and recorded onto DVDs for replay in most standard DVD players (with transcoding if required) for video, or CD or portable audio devices for audio.

A draft paper on the proposed digital streaming and recording service to be used to support a call for expressions of interest in developing the services is available for comment from the public_documents site in the Division: http://dcenas.canberra.edu.au/public_documents/tsu/digital/ [available to comedu Divisional staff only: authentication required]. The appendix is a presentation outlining the whole project.

Any comments on the paper should be sent to James Steele, TSU manager, by COB on 23 April 2004.

Satellite Dishes

Expect to see some satellite dishes rising from the roof of Building 20 over the next month or two.

Ritech Communications has begun work on the installation of the satellite dishes on Building 20 and associated infrastructure that will allow the Division to reticulate some free-to-air radio and television services via RF (and insome cases the computer network).

The dishes come in a matte dark charcoal grey finish: since the ACT Planning and Land Authority approval is subject to the dishes being in a colour taken from the palette of the building, it is proposed to leave them as charcoal grey, since this is a colour used in the building’s walls and for metalwork.  Changing the colour of the dishes will cost us around $2,000 and there is no guarantee that any exact match can be made nor maintained over time as the building and the dishes weather.

Executive approval is sought for leaving the dishes in their matte dark charcoal grey finish.

Callista access from Macintosh computers

A workaround for accessing the new student management system, Callista, from Macintosh computers is now available.

ICT Services has developed a proposed solution for users around the University on Macintosh computers (both OS 9 and OS X) to enable them to access Callista. TSU received instructions on the set up (TSU is required to support the installation of the necessary software and set up the Macintosh computers that need it) on Tuesday 13 April 2004, but with the work program already scheduled for this break it is unlikely anything much can be done about testing it before the Callista go-live date of 27 April 2004.

Users requiring access to Callista from Macintosh computers should contact the cehelpdesk requesting that their computers be set up to access the system.

Instructions for installing Callista on Macintosh OS9 and Macintosh OS X are available from the Division's Public Documents site [available to comedu Divisional staff only: authentication required].

ICT Services Strategic Planning Session Outcomes

Reorganisation of central ICT services progresses...

On 3 March 2004 the Deputy Head of the Division and the TSU Manager attended a one-day Strategic Planning session organised by PVC Research and Information Management at the Kamberra Centre in Mitchell to begin the process of developing an ICT Services Strategic Plan for the University. SMS Consulting facilitated the day, attended by representatives from across the University but mainly ICT Services people ("Building 10").

Topics covered included:

• who were ICT Services' clients and stakeholders;
• their needs and demands;
• a Mission and Vision for ICT Services;
• strengths and weaknesses; and
• strategies.

The Mission and Vision statements for ICT Services the forum came up with were:

Mission
To be a forward looking, client focused ICT service provider of high quality, delivering complete and accessible services and solutions in a timely and professional manner.

Vision
ICT services enables University of Canberra to achieve its vision and mission by providing professional, innovative and effective ICT services and facilities for the entire UC community.

SMS wrote up a summary of the day, which is available from http://dcenas.canberra.edu.au/public_documents/tsu/ICTS_results_20040303.doc [available to comedu Divisional staff only: ucstaff\sXXXXXX login may be required].

Wireless access to the University Network

Update on progress for WiFi access to the University network.

Logicalis has completed a survey of the University's Bruce campus (excluding the Residences) with a view to developing a proposal to provide wireless access to the University network for authorised users from anywhere on campus. Once the report is finalised it will be submitted to the University for funding and if approved the network may be in place this year.

Wireless will not replace the need for wired networks: applications that require large amounts of data to be moved around a network (multimedia production applications for example) will still require wired connections for the increased capacity wired connections provide. The wireless access points themselves will also need to be connected to the wired network at some point.

A number of universities around the world and across Australia have implemented wireless access to their networks and report a number of advantages. Swinburne University of Technology reports (Campus Review, 7-13 November 2003, iv) positive outcomes for its wireless trial, indicating "wireless laptops cost 26 cents per 'usable hour' compared with 60 cents for lab computers." The savings are made as a result of the higher availability of wireless computers when compared with lab computers: the wireless network can be accessed from around campus at any time, whereas the labs are not always available.

Swinburne has also reported increased student collaboration as a result of the wireless network, where students spend more time on campus working with other students. Students also said it improved their ability to study.

The Division should consider the possibilities offered by wireless networking to expand existing facilities without the expense of building new buildings and establishing new labs.