At Ball State University in Indiana, instructors have direct access to the fiber optic video information system (VIS), developed specifically for this university three years ago.
The VIS was developed by senior research faculty at the seven-year-old Center for Information and Communication Sciences in conjunction with engineers at Dynacom, a systems integration firm, to create an infrastructure that would meet the needs of the faculty. The Center for Information and Communication Sciences is a graduate-only program that takes students from Management Information Sciences (MIS), computer science, and Telecom, training them to integrate voice data and video in the marketplace. The VIS is a critical component in the university’s Teaching Environment Model-Campus of the Future (TEM-COF).
Introduced to faculty in 1989, the VIS allows each instructor to have ultimate control over video presentations in class and enhances classroom presentations through the use of multimedia across the curriculum. Students are able to go back to a historical time period for history classes with the multimedia presentations.
In political science classes, news stories are captured through news clips to make students feel as if they are experiencing historical moments, such as the Gulf of Tonkin or the Cuban missile crisis, as they happened.
Each class wired for VIS is equipped with either a 30-inch monitor suspended from the ceiling or a large screen projection system. Faculty have access to a wide range of media, including videotapes of various formats, video laserdiscs, video floppy disks, films, slides, filmstrips, audio cassettes, and audio compact discs. Instructors also have the ability to switch among these media at any time during a class presentation. Instructors are supplied with an infrared controller, much like a remote control for a television or VCR.
The controller can be used anywhere within the classroom. It allows faculty to advance slides, start, stop, pause, review, and search the material to be presented at will. Macintosh computers are used in presentations requiring graphics, as is the VideoToaster. The VideoToaster provides the instructors with a video switcher with digital effects contained in the software.
The center of the VIS system is located in the basement of the university’s Bracken Library, which contains much of the instructional material. Control of the network is via a broadband, 40-Megahertz Dynair Dynasty video switch that brings text, graphic, audio, and video material to nearly 300 classrooms across campus.
The Dynair switch is connected to an AT&T 386 computer running proprietary file maintenance and management, and system supervisor software. An employee instructs the switch to connect select source hardware to a specific classroom at the proper time, when a faculty member schedules the VIS system.
Each classroom is equipped with a telephone line, which works in concert with the master control for that room. The telephone lines give instructors access to VIS personnel at the network hub, allowing for immediate assistance if an instructor has a problem with the system. The same lines provide the infrastructure for the dual-tone multiple frequency (DTMP) signaling between the control panel in the classroom and the system supervisor at the network hub. The VIS control panels also have local inputs for video (BNC), audio (RCA), and data (RJ-45), which allow instructors to bypass the VIS network and feed local instructional material directly to the monitor.
The demand for VIS within Ball State is growing. In the fall of 1989, VIS averaged 24 requests per day. That average grew from 64 the next year to a high of 102 requests one day in 1991. It is also extremely reliable. More than 96 percent of rooms equipped with VIS are in service, and system failures occur in less than 2 percent of all scheduled events. The system has been developed into a commercial product that is marketed by Dynacom called Dynacom IIS (Integrated Information System) and uses either a fiber optic or coaxial network. The system is distributed to individual schools, such as Notre Dame, as well as entire school districts and campuses.
For more information, contact Dr. Bob Yadon, associate professor, Center for Information and Communication Sciences, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306; (317) 285-1515; or contact Dynacom at 5005 Lincolnway East, Mishawaka, IN 46544; (219) 255-2044.
