INNOVATIVE VIDEO STREAMING FACILITY AT DCU
DCU gets Video Streaming; Selects Sun as platform of choice DCU students can view lectures on demand

"We selected Sun for a number of reasons," explains Professor Alan Smeaton, Head of the School of Computing.  "We have a history of buying Sun equipment and we had found the consistent service, maintenance and reliability was very high."

The Sun platform will be used in the School of Computing for both storing and streaming of lectures as well as digitally indexing content.  "We will be using the Video Server to record guest lecturers initially and later on will record high interest lectures," explains Professor Smeaton.  "This content will then be available to approximately 400 different workstations in the School.  Students use a web-based browser to identify the material they want to view and then simply stream it onto their desktops."

Each of the 400-odd workstations in the School of Computing runs both Solaris and Windows NT but as the service is delivered via a web browser either operating systems can be used.  The workstations are PCs connected via a Gigabit Ethernet backbone.

"We are also working on an innovative digital indexing project called Físchlár," says Smeaton.  "The project name comes from the Irish for 'video' combined with 'blackboard'.  We capture television programmes in digital format, index using tools we have developed ourselves and then allow the viewer to browse rapidly or search for material of interest without having to watch the whole programme."

"This is a funded research project and we needed the storage and reliability that the Sun platform can give us to progress our in-house development work."

  The second key use of the video server in DCU is in the School of Communications.  Here students record large amounts of digital video material before transferring it to the video server.  They then download it onto desktop machines for editing where the resulting video length may contract from 30 minutes to less than three, but traditionally storage and manipulation of the data had placed the greatest strain on the University's storage capabilities.  Students will now also be able to use the video server to broadcast the final video across the campus.

"We have installed a Sun 4500 with six processors, 4 gigabytes of memory and 800 gigabytes of storage," says Alan Murray, Academic Business Manager with Sun Microsystems.  "This provides a turnkey solution for the college with its heavy demand on storage and streaming.  In fact, we can store upwards of 2 terabtyes of archive material at any one time."

DCU already has a strong relationship with Sun Microsystems.  Three years ago the college was selected as the Sun Server Site for Ireland.  This site provides updates and information for the Sun community in Ireland and has resulted in DCU gaining valuable experience and resources on the Sun platform.  In addition, the Sun Academic Programme was responsible for partial sponsorship of the new video streaming server.

About Dublin City University:
The School of Computing is housed in a purpose-built building on the DCU campus with an extension opened in July 1999.  It is a moderately sized school with 35 academic staff, 9 technical and 7 support posts and over 1150 students.  It produced over 300 graduates at all levels in 2000 and intake into the first year of all programmes in 1999 was 538 students. Further information at www.computing.dcu.ie.

The School of Communications offers 10 taught degree programmes covering such areas as communication, journalism, multimedia and international relations, in addition to research degrees at master's and doctoral levels. In the coming academic year it will have some 650 students and over 80 full- and part-time staff. Student numbers are set to rise to 800 within two years. It has some 50 research students. The School's computer network consists of over 250 workstations.

About Sun in Ireland:
Sun has been doing business in Ireland since the company's inception in 1982 when one of its first customers was Trinity College Dublin. In 1991 Sun decided to expand its sales and marketing operations in Ireland by working with an indigenous company.   The result was the establishment of a strategic business partnership with Horizon Open Systems, a wholly Irish owned company.  Since then Sun has become the leading provider of Internet infrastructure solutions and services to the Irish marketplace.

In 1993 Sun Microsystems established its European Software Development Centre (ESDC) in Dublin where the company's Irish staff are engaged in strategic software engineering roles including software development, software localisation and system test.  The company has also established collaborative research programmes with a number of third level colleges in Ireland. Sun's ESDC can be found on the worldwide web at: www.sun.ie

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.:
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer[tm]," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ "SUNW"), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet.  With more than $14 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

For more information, please contact:
Alan Smeaton   DCU     (01) 704 5237
Mary Mulcahy   Horizon Open Systems  (01) 805 5633
Jillian Godsil   PRG     (055) 294 55