News for and about the Internet2 community

["Sephora DeRoest" <>]

For Immediate Release
June 6, 2005

ResearchChannel Contact: Sephora DeRoest
877-616-7265

PSNC Contact: Cezary Mazurek
+48 61 858 2030


HD Video Wows TERENA 2005 Attendees

      ResearchChannel, in partnership with the University of Washington and the
Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), demonstrated High
Definition video transmitted across IP networks today at the TERENA 2005
conference in Poznan, Poland. Attendees observed HD programming transmitted
from ResearchChannel's DigitalWell digital asset management system over
advanced networks from Seattle, Wash., to Poznan, Poland, at a rate of 270
megabits per second.

      "As a new member of the ResearchChannel consortium we are pleased to
cooperate with the University of Washington to deliver high quality HD
transmission and present it at the TERENA Conference. This enables us to
showcase the demanding application which utilizes optical networking
technologies to deliver HD quality streams over IP," said Maciej Stroinski,
Ph.D., technical director of PSNC. "We expect a rapid growth of such services,
enabled through developments in optical networking and IP, which will open new
application possibilities in the multimedia industry. We are committed to
cooperate with ResearchChannel in further research of this subject."

      This advanced application illustrates the potential of state-of-the-art
digital asset management systems which are being developed in several
countries, the quality of HD video streams and the high speed capabilities of
emerging worldwide research and education networks.

      For its 270mbps HD video-on-demand (iHD270) system, ResearchChannel used
fast dual processor Intel Platforms, a Windows XP operating system and HD
capture boards.  The compression scheme used was Sony HDCam, which on most HD
displays is indistinguishable from uncompressed High Definition.

      "While we have been demonstrating high bit-rate HD Video On-Demand since
August of 1999, this is the first exhibition of its use in Eastern Europe,"
noted Michael Wellings, ResearchChannel Director of Engineering. "This type of
demonstration shows the capability of advanced networks, and paves the way for
future collaboration in this field."

      The technology for this experiment was developed by engineers at the
University of Washington, a ResearchChannel participant. Additional support was
also provided by the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center.

      ResearchChannel is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a voice
for research through video and Internet channels. For more information visit
www.researchchannel.org.

      The Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center is a non-profit
organization which operates the Polish Research and Education Network PIONIER
(Polish Optical Internet), and is one of the leading centers in IT research and
development in Poland. For more information visit www.man.poznan.pl/ or
www.pionier.gov.pl.

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