Oklahoma State University Selects VBrick Systems for Dynamic 'On Demand' Digital Video Communications

Business Wire, April 11, 2006

WALLINGFORD, Conn. -- VBrick Systems, Inc. (www.VBrick.com), an industry leader in affordable video over IP network solutions, today announced that Oklahoma State University (OSU) has selected VBrick as the foundation for its new digital video capabilities that will enhance education while extending communications and information access across campus and globally.

VBrick applications include on-demand video, video streaming, and real-time virtual presence collaboration. OSU will leverage its new digital video resources to expand structured classroom teaching and independent student learning, which is integral to fulfilling the university's commitment to education excellence.

"OSU graduates and professors have a long history of forging new frontiers in medicine, science, and other fields," said Dr. Marlene Strathe, provost and senior vice president, Academic Affairs, Oklahoma State University. "It is paramount that we provide students and professors with new tools to continue research and discovery. As we prepare for new challenges and opportunities, we are committed to adopting new technologies that simplify and expand our ability to educate and support our community."

The VBrick EtherneTV Media Distribution System enables users to record, distribute, and manage DVD-quality digital video via any IP network. The robust digital video capabilities enable professors to retrieve video and multimedia content at the push of a button, providing an added classroom dimension. Students gain on-demand access to archived class lectures and supplemental information for enhanced course understanding, as well as increased global insight through unique distance learning opportunities. EtherneTV also supports real-time virtual presence communications between two sites, enabling productive collaboration between two locations across campus or across the globe.

"The way that we work and communicate continues to evolve dramatically, and it is essential that we leverage technology to support the university's mission to foster groundbreaking discovery and prepare students for their active roles shaping our nation's future," said Marshall Allen, director, The OSU Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence. "We expect that VBrick's on-demand and streaming video capabilities will play a key role in dramatically shifting how students and faculty communicate with one another, access vital academic resources, and support an enriched learning environment."

VBrick is easy to use - placing the focus on teaching and education while removing user technology hurdles. EtherneTV's intuitive, browser-based interface enables authorized users to search the college's central digital video library and immediately access stored programming. Importantly, VBrick provides the scalability and flexibility to support OSU's evolving communications requirements.

"Student learning styles are as unique as their fingerprints, which is driving the trend for blended course content that includes lectures, small discussion groups, textbook review, multimedia, and video," said Michael Baker, vice president of business development, VBrick Systems, Inc. "When studying seemingly abstract concepts such as quantum physics, illustrations and video can provide the clarity that enables students to truly understand, retain, and apply subject matter. VBrick fosters new education models by enabling students to view specific course content on demand from any networked school computer anytime, view events streamed from across the globe, or brainstorm project ideas with classmates located in another dorm. We look forward to supporting OSU's continued commitment to harnessing technology to support all university initiatives."

VBrick delivers reliable digital video content to users via existing IP networks or Internet viewers globally using minimal bandwidth resources. VBrick multicasting technology enables an unlimited number of IP networked users to view a video stream, while only requiring the bandwidth for a single stream.

OSU's Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ITLE) will deploy VBrick's EtherneTV and oversee the training and best practices for using digital video and OSU's existing IT solutions.

About The OSU Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence

The Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ITLE) provides resources and support services to promote and enable excellence for every element of the teaching-learning transaction within the University community, and provides quality video production, broad distribution services, and access to state-of-the-art educational technology for Oklahoma State University and its clients.

About Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma's only university with a statewide presence, Oklahoma State University is a five-campus, public land-grant educational system that improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research, and outreach. Established in 1890, the Stillwater campus is the home of the OSU System. The STATE's university boasts students from all 50 states and 116 nations, and has 185,000 alumni throughout the world.