The University's Internet Protocol Television program - which allows students to watch TV on their computer - will return to residence halls this academic year after last year's pilot program garnered positive reviews from students, faculty and administrators.
"The basic services are identical to what we trialed on campus throughout the past academic year," said Alan Usas, assistant vice president of Computing and Information Services. "With the major exception being that we will be increasing the channel lineup to 30 channels in the fall."
Regular cable television services in residence halls offer 20 channels. This year IPTV will feature every channel available in the regular service plus 10 additional channels. These include Fox News, CSPAN and National Geographic.
Currently, IPTV features the same limited 17-channel lineup from the pilot program. The expansion will occur later this fall, pending contract agreements.
Services were turned on last Tuesday in the residence halls, Usas said, adding IPTV is only available for students living on-campus.
The Herald reported in July that the future of the program was contingent on securing additional funds.
Last academic year, administrators brokered an agreement with VideoFurnace, IPTV's provider, to offer the pilot program at Brown for an entire year without paying operational fees.
Usas said CIS has invested $180,000 in purchasing equipment for the service in addition to $40,000 per year in operating costs. The Office of Campus Life and Student Services will pay for individual channels, and this money will come from what students pay to live in on-campus residence halls.
In addition to allowing students to watch TV channels on their computer, IPTV will also allow students to access Video-on-Demand material for courses. This material may serve as an alternative to accessing material at the Language Laboratory and Media Services.
"We had about eight or 10 faculty involved in the trial last year," Usas said. "Those faculty were very happy with the service. We anticipate the number will be ramped up."
IPTV elicited very positive reviews from students, according to feedback CIS received about the service.
"We had hundreds of responses from students through our feedback forum, and 99.9 percent of them were extremely positive and encouraging of this service," Usas said.
Zac Townsend '08, a former member of the Undergraduate Council of Students and member of the University's IPTV steering committee, indicated that UCS polls concurred with CIS's findings.
"We polled students and those students who used the system ... were very happy with it," he said. About 1,000 students used the service regularly, according to Townsend. He added that the service has been "problem-free," as CIS was informed of virtually no technical issues. In addition, the service works on computers running Macintosh, Windows or Linux operating services.
Townsend suggested that IPTV's academic use would grow in coming years. "In the future there are probably going to be more language channels," he said.
The Herald reported in July that IPTV was partially spearheaded by UCS to address students' frustrations with the limitations of traditional cable television offered in residence halls. Townsend said the cable system cannot feasibly be upgraded.
"The system is continuing to fall apart," he said. "And you can't buy parts anymore for it."
Townsend said he suspects the University may look to offer IPTV programming that is compatible with regular televisions as the regular cable system deteriorates.
"Other than procrastination, there really is no downside" to IPTV, he said.
