Internet protocol television, which allows students to watch TV on their computers, is more than an alternative to cable television - it's a replacement. At the beginning of the semester, Computing and Information Services expanded IPTV, doubling the number of channels, and plans to extend IPTV to television sets and into the classroom.
Brown's IPTV, a product of the company Video Furnace, was introduced to students as a pilot program in Fall 2005. During the pilot program, the University had a chance to distribute 16 entertainment channels to residence halls and get feedback about the service, said Alan Usas, assistant vice president for academic and network systems and services for CIS.
The success of the pilot program led the University to consider IPTV as a solution to the increasingly obsolete cable system now in place. The system is so outdated that its replacement parts are no longer manufactured. "[The cable system] basically died about 10 years ago and has been on life support," Usas said.
The expanded IPTV system, according to a presentation prepared by Sara Gentile '09 for UCS members last fall, cost the University about $180,000, plus an additional $40,000 per year for "support and maintenance of the IPTV system," increasing the total annual cost for IPTV to $270,000.
As of now, IPTV is only available on computers. Gentile wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that "UCS will only support the cable system's replacement if there is a viable solution in place so that students may watch television on their personal TV sets." The solution, according to Gentile, is the "set-top box," another Video Furnace product.
A set-top box is a device that sends the IPTV signal to a conventional television, allowing the shows transported over the Internet to be viewed on a TV screen. Video Furnace has been developing this product since last spring but it is not yet for sale, Gentile wrote.
Set-top boxes would be purchased for televisions in areas like dining halls and lounges. "They're not that expensive - a few hundred dollars each," Usas said. The product wouldn't be provided for students with televisions, but Residential Life is interested in renting them out to students. "We hope to make that affordable," Usas said.
The University is also planning to expand IPTV to the academic sphere. This would include adding international channels and broadcasting more campus events. Brown has paid for additional space on the IPTV system to store 1,200 hours of videos for a video-on-demand program where students can watch course materials online, though the project is still in preliminary stages.
"Whether events or curricular material, the system gives us that dimension ... as well as MTV and ESPN and Fox," Usas said.
