Solution Spotlight: Streaming Video Solution

Client: Public School District
Location: Southern Kentucky

Highlights

This school district wanted to eliminate the use of televisions, DVD players and VCRs in classrooms by transitioning to a streaming video system. MCPc partnered with VBrick to provide all of the necessary equipment needed to stream 30 television stations to each classroom. The new system is easier to maintain and has led to significant savings in annual energy costs.

Benefits

• $40,000 - $50,000 annual savings in energy costs
• Discontinuing the use of cable set-top boxes eliminated a potential point of failure.
• The system’s hardware is housed at a centralized location, decreasing the amount of service calls that require technicians to be dispatched in the field.
• Existing computer hardware and video projectors were used, eliminating the need for additional technicians to administer the system.

Business Need

This school district, a first-time customer of MCPc, was interested in streaming video to 15 area schools. By using the current computer network and projectors already in place in classrooms, the district hoped to eliminate the need for televisions, DVD players and VCRs in the classrooms.

Technicians were making multiple service calls throughout the district to fix issues stemming from the current cable TV system. The district hoped to simplify maintenance with a single end-point at the school board office and decrease the need for traveling service technicians.

The solution had to come in under a tight budget, as the district was using a grant to fund the project.

Solution

MCPc partnered with VBrick to provide the district with a full product demonstration of a streaming video solution. We then secured demo equipment so that the district was able to ensure that the system would perform to their requirements on their network.

All of the necessary equipment – including VBrick units, portal licenses and tuners to hook up to the VBrick encoders – was procured by MCPc. The equipment is all housed in a single rack at a centralized location within the district’s datacenter at the school board technology office.

Each classroom now has instant access to 30 television channels through the VBrick portal and is able to display programming using computers and projectors that were previously deployed to classrooms district-wide.

Results

The VBrick hardware is housed at a centralized location, decreasing the amount of service calls technicians are dispatched to out in the field. And by using the existing computer hardware and end-points, no additional technicians were needed to administer the system. Plus, discontinuing the use of cable set-top boxes eliminated another potential point of failure.

By eliminating televisions, DVD players and VCRs from the classroom, the district has seen significant savings – $40,000 to $50,000 per year – in energy costs.

MCPc also worked with the district on their budget constraints and provided extended payment terms to accommodate the use of a grant.

If your business or organization can benefit from streaming video or video on demand services, trust MCPc’s visual communication experts to design and implement a solution that offers consistent, high-quality service.