Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Mediasite by Sonic Foundry Contributes to 2007 Installation Europe Award for VSB Technical University
University’s Information Technology Centre and system integrator Manta Projection Systems selected as Best Education Project
MADISON, WI — Sonic Foundry® Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), a leader in automated rich media communications technology, today announced the company’s patented Mediasite® platform played an integral role in an innovative audiovisual project that earned VSB Technical University in Ostrava, Czech Republic, the Best Education Project in the 2007 Installation Europe Awards.
The VSB Technical University Information Technology Centre partnered with Manta Projection Systems, an audiovisual technology integration company in the Czech Republic, to add a large capacity auditorium and four classrooms to their campus. Manta specified the sound, control and projection equipment centered on Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite webcasting platform. With Mediasite, the University can now make lectures available to students and professors through a standard web browser anytime, anywhere.
Launched in 2004, the Installation Europe Awards celebrate excellence in audio, video and lighting installation projects as well as products used by installers. The nominations included three short listed entries in each of sixteen project categories judged by a panel of design, manufacturing and installation industry experts during the Professional Lighting and Sound Association show last month. The winners were selected based on their creativity, innovation, architectural acceptability and project management.
“In an application sector that often lags behind others in terms of ambition and innovation, this project stood out for its use of Mediasite content management – relatively new technology, not commonly encountered in Europe,” noted the judges in their commentary. “The fact that the AV network had been fitted retrospectively into an existing structure was also taken into consideration – this is rarely, if ever, an easy thing to do.”
“Our new Campus IT Centre has remarkably enhanced academic and social life at our University,” said Professor Tomas Cermak, Rector of VSB Technical University. “In addition to our everyday use of webcasting courses, we have also just held more than 70 important conferences that were webcasted to users both within our campus as well as thousands of off- campus participants.”
”We strive to be on the cutting edge of international technology integration, and today that means balancing usability with innovation,” said Eduard Fianta, founder, CEO and partner of Manta Projection Systems. “We work very hard to encourage customers to install established solutions like Mediasite which excel at not only advanced performance, but are also reliable and approachable for the everyday user.”
Since its introduction in 2003, Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite has set the standard as a transformational communication medium for delivering critical information and sharing knowledge. Trusted by corporations, government, health and education institutions, the patented Mediasite webcasting and content management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of rich media presentations that combine audio, video and accompanying graphics for live or on-demand viewing.
“We are proud to be a part of the VSB Technical University award and believe it serves as an international model for Mediasite’s flexibility in integrating both new and existing infrastructure,” said Darrin Coulson, chief operations officer of Sonic Foundry. “We look forward to working with our international partners like Manta to create technology-enhanced learning environments that benefit students, faculty and the academic enterprise.”