Orleans, Ontario - Ottawa students can now harness the power of multimedia.  Adasca, Ottawa's multimedia design-build authority, provides educational systems that allow the distribution of streaming audio and video, satellite, cable television, and student broadcasts to any display in a facility or campus.

 

"Student excitement and enthusiasm aside, there are many tangible benefits to a multimedia system," notes John Davidson, President of Adasca.  "The days of a student tearing down the hall with a 75-pound television on wheels are gone.  Our systems allow any TV in a facility to view VHS or DVD movies stored in one secure location, or cable television, from any or all locations simultaneously.  Instead of multiple assemblies due to space limitations, these events can be broadcast to the entire school.  And remote cameras can broadcast any event such as sports matches, plays or morning announcements in the same fashion."

 

Of the numerous schools with these systems, arguably the greatest benefit uncovered is broadcasting, which opens a whole new avenue for students.  A.Y. Jackson High School students now enjoy JTV, a student-led broadcasting service that delivers morning announcements, public service messages, and radio shows every day, as well as "The Friday File" that promises laughter.  The OCRI award-winning program encourages an innovative curriculum and has recently produced the high-school entrepreneur of the year. 

Teachers at Turnbull Learning Academy televise curriculum from their computers, and students can even watch the yearly student-teacher volleyball match from the comfort of their desk.  Teachers are able to prepare their lessons outside the school, save them on portable memory, and present them to students in the classroom.

 

 "The systems we install are extremely flexible, and are tailored to the individual needs of each facility." notes Davidson.  "Often, we are able to transmit on the existing computer cables to carry our signals to each location, saving the significant cost of re-wiring each facility.  Feedback for our educational solutions has been very positive, and we hope to expand to Southern Ontario and Western Quebec in the Fall."

 

Adasca has also developed a software package that allows students to showcase their homework on school screens as a backdrop when broadcasts are not scheduled.  The screen displays the students' work coupled with up-to-date sports scores, a three-day weather forecast, and daily announcements.  Announcements and multimedia files are uploaded each morning by office staff, and are displayed all day. 

 

The software is written in web-compatible code, and the notice-board can be viewed remotely by any parent with internet access, keeping them in touch with school events.  St. Peter High School students are able to display their multimedia homework on every television in the facility.  A future software release will include a "lockdown" screen allowing office staff the ability to alert all occupants of an emergency using the televisions located in each classroom.

 

The Technological Education Renewal Initiative (TERI), a $90M four-year plan, is helping Ontario schools achieve a strong, technological program, and many institutions are busy writing business plans for their share of the funds.  However the promised funds have been slow to arrive.  Currently, Adasca's systems are found in over thirty facilities across the region.

Adasca delivers technology-rich solutions enabling organizations to develop and maintain robust, high-performance infrastructures. 

 

For further information, please contact:

John Davidson, RCDD
President
Adasca Telecommunications Inc.
(613) 225-1010
john@adasca.com