Hull-based company offering free video streaming to schools on CA*net 3

Veteran streaming company Callisto Media Systems is offering its technology to Canadian and American universities to experiment with video in the classroom. With the federal research agency CANARIE Inc as a partner in the initiative, the Ottawa-based company put out the call two weeks ago to institutions that are linked into either country’s national fibre backbone network. The five-year-old firm says it has developed a way to minimize storage capacity requirements for video objects such as educational and other films, making its servers and software ideal for start-ups and other cash-strapped institutions such as schools. At the same time, it has cooperated extensively with infrastructure giant Sun Microsystems, which is intrigued with the system’s growth potential among large-scale users such as broadcasters and telcos that want to offer video-on-demand. The call for partners within Canada’s academic community is similar to the company’s other ventures in foreign markets. In Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, many schools have snapped up Callisto’s offerings. The firm has also partnered with TVOntario to provide educational offerings to Ontario high school students on a trial basis. VP of sales Robert Muise told CNM that schools represent a potentially lucrative market thanks to the new proliferation of high-speed campus networks, and an ideal test market for new applications that exploit IP-based video streaming. The Callisto trial, when it launches, will be open to university and college users connected to Canada’s experimental high-speed backbone (CA*net 3), the American’s similar Internet 2 initiative, as well as other research and education networks. The project will be conducted in two phases. During the first stage, beginning immediately, students and faculty will be able to load, catalogue, stream and search video content from their desktops to the web through existing browsers. In the second phase, slated for early summer, users will act more as producers, with tools that enable them to set up content "channels" from a centralized repository of various media. Callisto expects to launch specialized software providing templates for creating those channels within the next few weeks. The offer to universities is being made without strings attached, and the company promises no need for equipment purchases or administration costs. While the privately-held company has been profitable since its inception, Muise says there are still challenges to the widespread acceptance of streaming technology. The main hurdle is broadband availability. Fast networks to the home such as DSL and cable modems still aren’t ubiquitous, limiting the potential to offer near-television quality over small pipes. To date, he says, marketplace attention has focused on sexier technologies which have captured the public attention such as Real Networks with its entertainment and news programming geared to phone-line users. Still, Muise is convinced that "the whole video world really hasn’t manifested itself yet." Rather than a one-way feed of information, Callisto is working to exploit video as an interactive tool, created by and for an interested community. Broadcasters, especially, must learn to use streaming in an effective fashion, he says. As a Sun partner, Callisto attended the National Association of Television Program Executives’ (NATPE) event in Las Vegas in late-January. President Bruce Fischer told CNM that while the booth was buzzing with activity, the vast majority of broadcasters are approaching digital media with trepidation. "At least 90 per cent of them are scared of this thing," he says. Industry practices such as charging premiums for content in digital form still have to be overcome. Still, Muise says some companies are embracing the new possibilities. "When we get the right customer in the room, they know what we’re talking about."

Hull-based company offering free video streaming to schools on CA*net 3

Broadcast | February 7, 2001

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