Deploying campus network TV to experience the new horizon brought by streaming media

Author: Song teacher Changchun University of Technology

Official text:

As the school has established a campus network, the working methods and contents of our network center have also changed.

In the past, the work of the network center was mainly to maintain the system equipment and network operation in the school to help teachers solve some common problems of computers. Since the school built the campus network, leaders, teachers and students have used the network for learning, work and entertainment. The application and maintenance of the campus network has become the focus of our work.

Due to the limitation of public network bandwidth, multiple teachers and students cannot watch online video programs at the same time. Many students began to download the programs to watch locally, but too much download traffic also overwhelmed the bandwidth of the campus extranet, and normal teaching and business were affected. This has brought new issues to the maintenance of our network.

In 2007, our school built an integrated application platform for campus network TV. After nearly two years of use, we believe that it is better to solve the problems of teachers and students watching TV, on-demand video programs and live broadcast of major events, while effectively saving the Internet bandwidth The problem of being heavily occupied.

In the early stage of planning the application of network TV, we set four principles for system selection. First, the functions should be as comprehensive as possible. In addition to network TV, we must also have the functions of online live broadcast and video on demand VOD. The second is simple implementation and operation. The maintenance workload is less, the third is better viewing quality, supports high-definition, and is compatible with IPv6 networks, and the fourth is less investment. In addition to the purchase cost, the implementation of later maintenance and viewing terminals should be less, and try to avoid some minor incidents. . We inspected some of the more well-known streaming media manufacturers at home and abroad. Through comparison, we chose the Century Sunflower Campus Network TV Application Platform. We believe that this platform basically meets the selection principles at the beginning of our project.

This network TV platform, in addition to realizing the relay and intelligent recording of TV programs, can also broadcast live classes, teaching evaluations, celebrations, etc. on the Internet. At the same time, the original various audio and video materials can be uploaded to the server and posted online And watch. We started to worry more about the time and labor cost of system implementation, so we hope to set the project implementation time during the winter vacation, but through communication and confirmation with the manufacturer integrator, we have dispelled concerns because their system implementation is very simple. No professional technicians are required. Both hardware devices and server software can be set up, debugged and managed remotely. Through one-time setting, the system can run automatically. If something goes wrong, restart the machine and press F1 to restore it. It is relatively easy to manage. Therefore, we smoothly deployed and implemented at least half a year earlier than the original plan.

It is worth mentioning that the video quality of sunflower pictures is beyond our imagination. The quality of video encoding can reach the professional level of D1, which is close to the picture effect of DVD. Teachers, students and leaders are very satisfied, and the data distribution of this system has many A variety of mechanisms, including unicast, multicast and P2P, so that our multiple campuses can ensure stable and smooth viewing of programs. Especially system programs, viewers, etc. can be accurately authorized and managed. We think this is a more important thing. The security of the signal source, the viewing content, the control of the viewer and the time can be well guaranteed. After the system is up, There will be no major worries. The most important thing is that spending a set of system funds can realize the streaming media application on the campus intranet and school website, which is in line with our original intention of spending small money to do big things.

Because of the establishment of such a live TV and video-on-demand network application, teachers and students feel that they can see high-quality TV programs in the school, so they rarely go to the Internet to watch TV, which saves the bandwidth and education network of many schools. Netcom broadband, and the school's campus network content has been greatly enriched, and these applications can be managed very well and conveniently, we have not increased much work for this.

Based on the actual application, I will briefly talk about some of the more practical functions.

In live broadcasts, "real-time subtitle insertion" is often required, and live information is broadcast in the form of fixed subtitles or rolling subtitles in school information, school activities, etc., so that teachers and students can keep abreast of school dynamics. The necessary trouble, I think this is very practical.

When the number of users has increased sharply and cannot be finely managed, the platform's account management and user permissions help a lot. I can divide users into several groups for different management and specify the user's landing page, which can prevent malicious login and destruction.

The school leaders are busy with work and cannot keep abreast of domestic news and education trends. Just set the program to be recorded through "Set Task Recording", the platform will record the program in the first time accurately and automatically save it on the server In the future, the leader can directly click on the desktop icon of the computer to directly watch the live broadcast or the video.

When the teacher watches the video, he can record the clips he thinks useful at any time, and then go to the courseware, and upload and order the self-made courseware to facilitate students to review and share with other teachers.

Generally speaking, the implementation of campus network TV still satisfies ourselves and has been recognized by everyone.

In the process of educational informatization, the campus network is a new platform for campus culture. Online video has become a new tool for communication between teachers and students throughout the school. The campus network TV has become an indispensable good friend for the work, study and life of teachers and students of Changchun University of Science and Technology, which allows us to truly experience the new horizon brought by technology.