Savings with satellite - satellite-based distance learning services - Technology Information

Communications News, Nov, 1999

"Real-time" knowledge yields valuable commodities.

Distance learning presents a competitive advantage to organizations in the global marketplace by making it possible to train workers constrained by time, distance, or physical disability. Distance learning effectively gets the right information to the right people in real time--in other words, fast.

Distance learning could not have arrived at a more propitious moment. The Department of Labor estimates that by the year 2005, 75% of the workforce--90 million people--will need to be retrained. Add the estimated $60 billion U.S. companies annually spend to train employees, and it's apparent that training costs and results require incisive executive decision-making that affects stakeholders.

The investment may take the shape of distance learning, if for no other reason than that it gives a large, distributed workforce access to the information and expertise it requires to perform its work. Also, industry experience is that satellite delivery of training is as effective, if not more so, than traditional classrooms. This success is attributed to more tightly structured lectures, enhanced visuals, increased student interaction, and a high-quality environment for better student concentration.

Let's study a primer on how the application works.

DISTANCE LEARNING VIA SATELLITE

The technology for delivering a distance-learning program via satellite is relatively simple to set up and use. Receive sites are fitted with "downlink gear," which includes a rooftop antenna, such as a .9-meter antenna, and an integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) that connects to a television or other video-distribution system. The IRD may also be in the format of a PC card installed in a computer for desktop learning. Some satellite providers give users a conditional access card, a credit card-size device that slides into the receiver, encrypts the signal to provide high security, and ensures that only designated sites are able to receive information.

Distance-learning content in the form of audio, video, and other multimedia information is typically sent to a communications provider's "operations center" via high-speed terrestrial service, such as Frame Relay, T1, ISDN, or fiber optic. Prerecorded videotapes, compact discs, and data disks or tapes can also be used. For special events, microwave and mobile satellite links are common content-delivery media. While at the operations center, the signal is conditioned, encoded, and beamed to a satellite for broadcast to receive sites at a specific time.

During a distance-learning broadcast, students view MPEG-2 high-quality video feeds and interact with instructors using a variety of technologies, including keypads, two-way audio bridges, e-mail, and fax. Many distance-learning courses supplement video lectures with textbooks and special Web sites that include on-line chat rooms, tutorial sessions, and quizzes that can be returned via e-mail.

Satellite users generally pay $1,000 to $2,000 per site for downlink gear. Installation costs start around $200 for rooftop installation and vary according to the procedure's complexity, height of the building, and municipal codes. As for broadcast costs, many satellite service providers require purchase of a full-time channel for about $80,000 per month. Other providers' "occasional use" services (between $650 and $1,000 an hour, depending on the time of day) do not require the users to commit to the cost of a full-time channel. In addition, users may incur additional costs--anywhere from $250 to $5,000--for high-speed telco or satellite services to send files or programming from their broadcast origination site to their satellite communications provider. When you compare these figures against the cost of connecting dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites with videoconferencing equipment, or the cost of off-site instruction (i.e., airfare, lodging), satellite delivery is a very economical solution.

WHEN TIME AND COST ARE OBSTACLES

The Boeing Company instituted distance learning as a primary bridging tool to keep its workforce trained, informed, and apprised of company strategies. Boeing recently broadcast "Taking Care of Business" (TCoB), a course on the company's business strategy, to 17,000 midlevel managers located in 156 locations in the United States and 150 international locations.

Using direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services from DigitalXpress, Boeing delivered TCoB to multiple locations in the United States, Japan, Australia, and Western Europe in real time. The training's MPEG-2 broadcast signal originated from KCTS-TV in Seattle and was carried to an operations center via fiber. From there, it was uplinked to a satellite network and downlinked to Boeing receive sites around the world.

Trainees viewed the workshop on either 36-inch monitors or on large-screen video-projection equipment in rooms that seated from 30 to 300 people, respectively. Participants then sat in teams of six, learning class material and interacting frequently with the instructors via telephone and fax. Boeing posted supplemental critical information about the training on a special TCoB Web site and hosted Web chat sessions for participants to discuss TCoB before and after the broadcast.