“For those of us in an educational setting, the selection of a product and a vendor creates high anxiety,” said Terry Edmonds, general manager of ITS-Video Services at the University of Iowa. “We have to go to bat to get the funding; then, if we make the wrong decision, the side effects will have to be dealt with for a long time. So we tend to be conservative -- we do a lot of research and think about it. When we chose the UTAH-400 system, we did it with confidence.”
The University of Iowa is counting on the UTAH-400 router to last at least a decade and possibly two, so Utah‘s proven reputation for service and support were key factors in the selection process. Another was the UTAH-400‘s analog compatibility, as most of Iowa‘s current master control system is comprised of analog channels. To keep the initial investment reasonable, Iowa chose to install what is now a sparsely populated 144x144 matrix, knowing that future growth can be accommodated with the simple addition of digital cards.
The University of Iowa Video Services comes under the mantle of the university‘s IT department and, therefore, specializes in Web streaming. News, Hawkeye sports, arts, and educational programming are produced, in some cases by students, for live and archived IPTV, as well as for campus and regional cable television (UITV). Popular content such as commencement ceremonies are broadcast live both on UITV and the Internet, archived for the Web, and encoded for playback later on UITV. They may also be uplinked for satellite distribution. The UTAH-400‘s versatility enables it to input the single feed and output it in multiple formats for an MPEG-2 encoder, analog CATV modulators, and digital SD and HD satellite uplink.
“Recently, we have placed several of our routers in the demanding educational market,” said Tom Harmon, president of Utah Scientific. “That‘s a credit to our sales and support team, which works tirelessly to earn the confidence of buyers, like the University of Iowa, who expect to build a long-term relationship with us. It‘s also a credit to the reliability and durability of our products.”
The University of Iowa took delivery of the UTAH-400 router in May and installed it during the summer academic break. The system went into service in August.
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About the University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a major national research university located on a 1,900-acre campus in Iowa City in southeast Iowa. Iowa is composed of 11 colleges, the largest of which is the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. More than 29,000 students enroll at Iowa each year. The ITS-Video Services department provides cable television, video Web streaming, teleconferencing and video production services to the university community.
About Utah Scientific, Inc.
Utah Scientific, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of analog, digital, and HDTV routing switchers, master control switchers, and related products including a full range of software for controlling and managing switching systems. The company has been serving the broadcast industry for 30 years with industry-leading products and best-in-class service and support as recognized by Frost & Sullivan with its 2005 Customer Service Leadership Award and demonstrated by the industry‘s first 10-year warranty. Additional information may be found at www.utahscientific.com.