Collaboration provides online seminars

An Institution of Engineering and Technology product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 1, 2007

The IET will help academic institutions web stream important research seminars, conferences and lectures via IET.tv.

The IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) will be collaborating with Janet, the UK's national network for research and education, to enable academic institutions to web stream important research seminars, conferences and lectures, via IET.tv, the institution's web streaming service.

Users will now be able to access the Research Seminar channel on IET.tv via the Janet network, which connects education and research institutions across the UK, including schools, FE colleges, universities and large research institutions.

Janet also provides ongoing connectivity to other national education and research networks (NRENs) across the globe via the pan-European GEANT network and the internet.

This IET initiative gives academics access to valuable web streaming technology, free of charge, as part of the IET's charitable remit.

The research channel initiative provides users with the ability to create live and on-demand video presentations that can be uploaded on to the internet and distributed to a global audience.

Eleven universities are already using the service following the beta trial and now the research seminar channel will be rolled out to all universities.

The Janet network, with its capacity for real-time data transfer, empowers research projects in a variety of fields and has an infrastructure capable of meeting the explosion of data predicted by research communities.

Robin McGill, Chief Executive of the IET said: "The IET is committed to raising the profile of science, engineering and technology to society and sharing the latest technological advances".

"Therefore, the IET is very pleased to be collaborating with the Janet network to offer the services of the Research Seminar channel on IET.tv to academia and ultimately open up a variety of opportunities for sharing ground-breaking research worldwide".

"We are delighted to be working with the IET, one of the world's leading institutions for engineering and technology".

"Janet will play a key part in enabling global interaction and collaboration within this innovative community".

"Addressing the ongoing needs of our users and implementing leading technologies is key to ensuring that the Janet network is meeting the contemporary needs of its users", says Tim Marshall, CEO at Janet (UK).

The technology enables users to host their own webcast with video footage synchronised to any media, allowing viewers to see the slides transition as the speaker changes them.

An additional feature is the distribution of video and synchronised media across a timeline, which allows the viewer to fast forward or rewind to any point in time within the presentation.

Viewers who tune in to a live webcast can put forward their views via the Q and A forum facility and interact with other viewers and the speaker.

Dr Lee Gillam of the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey said: "The IET.tv Research Channel enables Universities like Surrey to engage with much wider audiences than would be reached through a traditional presentation".

"IET.tv offers the opportunity for research groups within Universities to become content producers".

"This has significant potential for extending the dissemination and potential impact of research activities".

"Distances and time-zones are general difficulties in international collaboration; IET.tv can bring researchers just that bit closer together".