In August of 2005, JDL staff assisted with the design and implementation of a Video Furnace Video-Over-IP distribution system in the Lower Merion School District in Ardmore, PA.  The system broadcasts 20 channels of live CATV as well as 4 scheduled channels of local content to the District’s 8,200 students and faculty via 5,100 computers across its 10 networked buildings.

The school district had been seeking a network-based video distribution solution capable of supporting live streaming channels and a growing video library. Because the organization uses Windows and Mac OS/X, the system needed to be fully cross-platform, both for system users and those managing it. LMSD considered various vendors and a range of options, from traditional analog-based coax distribution to solutions that mixed analog with IP.

LMSD selected the Video Furnace design proposed by JDL Horizons to provide a solution that would address its needs. For the school district, one of the primary benefits is Video Furnace’s InStream viewer. “All of the other solutions needed to have dedicated viewing software installed on all the workstations,” explained Michael Perbix, telecommunications specialist for the Lower Merion School District. “Video Furnace delivers its viewer with the video stream. Not having to worry about software being installed on every client really makes it a beautiful choice.”

The district now offers 20 live streaming channels – including local channels, major networks and educational cable channels – that faculty can tune into for classroom instruction. The lineup includes four in-house channels that the middle schools and high schools use for live video homeroom announcements.

One of the high schools even posts the video announcements as podcasts for students and parents to download. In addition, the district can use the in-house channels to carry video of guest speakers, graduation ceremonies and other school- and district-wide assemblies. For example, when the audience for a graduation is too large for a school auditorium, the district uses Video Furnace to carry a live simulcast into another room, so additional guests can watch live. In addition, the district now uses the Video Furnace system to encode programming and announcements that go out to the community via the local cable TV provider.

LMSD also is using Video Furnace for its video-on-demand (VOD) library. The district’s video collection primarily includes videos that were produced in-house, teacher training materials and recordings of guest speakers. Anyone in the school district who is wired to the schools’ network can watch videos from the VOD library.

Finally, the organization uses the Video Furnace technology for multicasting Internet2 videoconferences for viewing purposes. The system allows LMSD to take the video and audio out of the conferencing unit and plug it into the Video Furnace system so viewers can watch an Internet2 videoconference without being part of it. “That’s a really nice feature,” Perbix said. “We’ve gotten permission to simulcast a number of big videoconferences throughout the district so other people could watch them.” LMSD also used Video Furnace’s technology to simulcast its participation in an educational  simulation game called Operation Montserrat where teams of students to worked together to help devise a plan for saving residents from a volcano.