Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- Case Western Reserve University Builds Groundbreaking Visual Communications Network Powered by RADVISION

Home | Education & Distance Learning Articles | Article

Case Western Reserve University Builds Groundbreaking Visual Communications Network Powered by RADVISION

Business Wire - September 2, 2004

FAIR LAWN, N.J. -- Significant Deployment to Deliver IP Videoconferencing, Video Distance Learning, and Managed Video Communications to Classrooms, Administrative Offices, and Student Dorm Rooms

RADVISION (Nasdaq: RVSN) today announced that Case Western Reserve University (Case) of Cleveland, Ohio, has chosen its advanced multimedia communications platform for campus-wide group and desktop videoconferencing services for its faculty, staff, and students. This network leverages Case's deployment of the largest gigabit Ethernet network in higher education, serving up one billion bits per second to more than 14,000 faceplates across the University, including 2,500 students in its residence halls.

Case has initiated the first phase in an ambitious project to deliver visual communication and videoconferencing service to meeting rooms, classrooms, desktops in computer labs, and soft endpoints for students' laptops throughout the university network. During the fall semester, Case expects that 200 classrooms, meeting rooms, and student end points will be online and communicating in a live video network. By mid-2005, when the service is fully deployed, Case plans to support thousands of devices.

"Not only will this network provide enhanced support for learning through our advanced academic technology courseware offering, we are intent on enabling a robust, scalable video infrastructure for staff meetings, faculty collaboration and ultimately to provide all faculty, students and staff with a soft video end point on their notebook or desktop computers," said Dr. Lev Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer for Case Western Reserve University. "We plan to install a "soft end point" on each student's computer, enabling them to participate in virtual study groups, seminars, view archived teacher lectures, and even participate in "virtual" office hours with Case professors, librarians, and other academic resources."

"We believe we are architecting the communications network of the future and found in RADVISION the ideal partner - both because of their product's architecture as well as their corporate vision and commitment to personal multimedia communications," Gonick concluded.

Case is a leader in deploying 1-gigabit fiber to each computer on campus, including each student dorm room in its residence halls. Additionally, Case features the world's largest free public wireless network, covering its 90 acre campus, including University Circle, with more than 1,315 access points and phase array panels, providing faculty, students and staff ubiquitous access to robust video services and multimedia communications irrespective of their physical location on and around campus.

"Case is creating the roadmap for personal communication for the 21st century," said Gadi Tamari, CEO of RADVISION. "IP broadband everywhere - wireless and wireline - with voice, video and data communications/collaboration available at the click of a button. We are very proud to be a key partner in this project."

RADVISION noted that the contract closed in Q1 of 2004 and revenue was recognized in that quarter.

RADVISION components chosen by Case in the deployment include its powerful MCU v3.2 with H.264 support, its MVP (multimedia video processing) for advanced transcoding and layouts, ECS gatekeeper for easy dialing plans and scalable management of all end points, the RADVISION viaIP IP/ISDN gateway, its DCS (Data Collaboration Server) for T.120-based real-time application and document sharing, and RADVISION's VCS for end user scheduling of calls.

Significant Future Plans of the Case Network -- Enabled by the RADVISION Solution

While the initial implementation is H.323 based, Case plans to introduce SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) endpoints in 2005, leveraging the flexibility and advanced call features, such as presence, enabled by the SIP protocol. RADVISION's MCUs, which already support SIP and H.323 networks, provide Case an ideal migration path to develop a hybrid SIP/H.323 network.

Case expects to scale its video network to support thousands of end points, requiring telephony-class network architecture. The RADVISION platform, based on an IP backplane, is ideal for a distributed architecture where different devices are added and located in different places in the network depending on call density and network architecture needs - rather than a centralized topology where all calls have to be routed to a central location before processing.

Additionally, RADVISION's advanced ECS gatekeeper, the heart of an IP video communications network, supports thousands of end points in multiple zones, easy to modify dialing plans, support of the H.350 standard, and deep hierarchy and authorization levels to differentiate between students, faculty, and administrators - providing different classes of privileges for unlimited distinct groups.

Leveraging the firewall proxy functionality of the RADVISION ECS system, Case also plans to offer video services to the city of Cleveland through the nationally acclaimed OneCleveland initiative (www.onecleveland.org). These external video end points, which will have to register to the Case gatekeeper, will pass through Case's network firewall and network address translation (NAT) services using the RADVISION ECS gatekeeper's optional proxy functionality for firewall/NAT traversal.

About RADVISION Conferencing Solutions

RADVISION offers one of the broadest and most complete sets of video, voice, and data conferencing network solutions for IP and ISDN-based networks, supporting the majority of end points in the market today. The RADVISION solution features powerful multipoint conferencing units (MCUs), scalable H.323, SIP, 3G and ISDN gateways and gatekeepers, and easy-to-use management and scheduling tools for the IT manager and end user. RADVISION also provides businesses and service providers with integrated solutions that deliver converged IP-based video telephony and multimedia streaming applications to employee computer desktops, residential broadband homes, and 3G subscribers worldwide.

About RADVISION

RADVISION LTD. (Nasdaq: RVSN) is the industry's leading provider of high quality, scalable and easy-to-use products and technologies for videoconferencing, video telephony, and the development of converged voice, video and data over IP and 3G networks. For more information please visit our website at www.radvision.com.

About Case Western Reserve University

Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Recognized as a national leader in campus wireless and mobile technology deployment, Case, located in Cleveland, offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. The Commission on Presidential Debates selected Case to host the U.S. vice presidential debate on October 5, 2004. http://www.case.edu.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general business conditions in the industry, changes in demand for products, the timing and amount or cancellation of orders and other risks detailed from time to time in RADVISION's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, including RADVISION's Form 10-K Annual Report. These documents contain and identify other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. Stockholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement.

FAIR LAWN, N.J. -- Significant Deployment to Deliver IP Videoconferencing, Video Distance Learning, and Managed Video Communications to Classrooms, Administrative Offices, and Student Dorm Rooms

1 2 Next »

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with hundreds of other Education & Distance Learning enthusiasts from around the world, please feel free to visit the discussion forums & post a message.

Discuss this article in the discussion forums now.

Popular Education & Distance Learning Discussions From The Past

Zyprexa and diabetes (1 posts)
by kr0 - Last post on: 11-09-04 06:53
It seems that there are a number of dangerous side effects to Zyprexa, which is also known as Olanzapine. Zyprexa has allegedly been the cause of diabetes, hyperglycemia and blood sugar disorders that have had serious effects on a number of patients even resulting in deaths. The safety of Zyprex... (Read More)

Link to Version 3.4 of 'Explaining The Scale Of Sanity' by KNT hrp&p (1 posts)
by Leonardo Been - Last post on: 09-12-04 06:30
This is a link to the latest version of 'Explaining The Scale Of Sanity' It probably will stay the latest version for some time, as it seems rather complete, and clear to very many, now, including to foreign language students. KNT - hrp&p ____ Link: 'Explaining The... (Read More)

please can someone help.. (1 posts)
by chimp - Last post on: 10-11-03 04:22
hello all, i need to find what PDP stands for it must be some sort off lil operation to an eye...? where can i find info about it ... or whats the full name .. thanks frans ... (Read More)

Re: RA institutions (1 posts)
by chris - Last post on: 08-26-03 16:47
Yes. They are involved in advocating for greater autonomy for Masters level providers. In some ways I feel they are engaged in a futile struggle when they try to get equal licensure for MA/MS and Ph.D. level clincial psychologists. They have a very tough/impossible road when trying to con... (Read More)

You must register before posting in the Education & Distance Learning discussion forums. It's free & only takes a few seconds. Please also remember that no advertising is allowed...
Enter The Forums Here