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Students In Largest Ever Video Conference |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Thursday, 08 November 2007 |
On November 8 and 9 Australian students will be using the AARNet (Australia's Academic and Research Network) to take part in what is being billed as the world's largest videoconference,
called appropriately Megaconference 2007.
Megaconference conference goes for a staggering 12 hours from
tonight at 11:30pm through till Friday lunch time and is actually an
annual global event . The students will use the new Gigabit AARNet3 to
link into the vid con.
The even is designed to connect people everywhere on
Earth and further the use of videoconferencing in education and
research with the Australian contingent hooking in using one of two AARNet Multipoint Control
Units (MCUs).
These hubs will provide participants with access to
two-way, standard and high-definition which will allow users to connect
to the Megaconference from anywhere, over the internet. The
videoconference access will be provided through AARNet's Codian
Management Platform.
AARNet is one of 12 organisations around the world supplying access to Megaconference participants. The network is built on a highly resilient backbone
stretching from Brisbane to Perth with two geographically diverse POP
sites in six Australian capital cities with new core routers fully
installed. AARNet has achieved high speed access across Australia based
on STM-64c (10Gbps) circuits from Nextgen Networks with high speed
links to multiple "Tier One" Internet Providers in the USA and SX
TransPORT, the joint initiative of AARNet and Southern Cross Cable
Networks. Our Optical Regional Network is also providing substantial
increases in capacity to Regional Australia.
Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet, said, "The annual Megaconference is an
excellent opportunity for Australian research and educational bodies to
participate in a global event and discuss almost any topic they want
to. The Codian platform will allow AARNet to provide 60 end point
connections for schools and universities that want to be involved. As
part of our ubiquitous video strategy this means users will be able to
access the Megaconference via anything from a desktop PC, right up to
broadcasting it throughout a lecture theatre in high definition."
Locally, several educational and research institutions will be
participating in the videoconference, including the Australian Catholic
University, Griffith University, Newcastle University, University of
Western Sydney, Scots College, University of Melbourne, TAFE Queensland
and the Australian Institute of Sport.
Evan Harris, Co-ordinator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education for the Australian Catholic University, will be presenting to
the global participants on Australian Indigenous Education Programs.
Harris said, "The Australian Catholic University places a high value
on indigenous education and over the last few years, we have won
multiple awards for outstanding contributions to Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander student learning. Our programs have focused on teaching
indigenous students education subjects. This year's Megaconference will
allow us to showcase to the rest of the world the success of these
programs and the benefits indigenous communities gain from them."
www.megaconference.org
www.aarnet.edu.au
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