News for and about the Internet2 community

["Andre Quenneville" <>]

For Immediate Release

Open Student Television Network partners with ORION to showcase talent of 
Canadian schools

August 10, 2006: Toronto, Canada and Cleveland, USA - Open Student Television 
Network (OSTN), the only 24-hour, seven-day global channel exclusively 
devoted to student-produced programming, is partnering with the ORION 
research and education network to bring OSTN to Ontario. 

The partnership with the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network 
(ORION) - which links more than 70 research and education institutions with 
more than one million students and thousands more staff and faculty in the 
province - brings the channel to the province's colleges and universities and 
gives students and faculty a powerful platform to showcase their film, video 
and television productions to a global audience. The agreement also allows 
institutions to host the channel on campus.

Broadcasting programs by students from Harvard, Yale, MIT, USC, and others, 
OSTN now welcomes content from Ontario students, creating new opportunities 
for students and faculty at ORION institutions, such as Sheridan College, 
York University, Ryerson University and the Ontario College of Art and Design 
and many more.

OSTN uses the Abilene network managed by Internet2 (I2) in North America, the 
GEANT2 Network managed by DANTE in the European Union, and now ORION to 
deliver OSTN to more than 34 million users at 3,778 university member 
campuses and 36 countries in North America and Europe.

OSTN multicasts short- and feature-length films, documentaries, performing 
arts, news and cultural programs. Students create content and make 
programming decisions necessary for the network to appeal to its peer-viewing 
audience. It also provides students with resources, community, exposure and 
experience.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for Ontario film, video and television 
students," says ORION President/CEO Phil Baker. "We're very excited about 
helping to showcase our talent to the world and to contribute to this 
wonderful global forum," he says. "We soon expect to see high-quality Ontario 
student content on OSTN, including films, animation and performance arts." 

Participating in OSTN also allows ORION to showcase its multicast 
capabilities. ORION features the very latest in advanced network technologies 
and can support multicast feeds to member institutions.

The partnership is a natural fit," said Prashant Chopra, Chief Executive 
Officer of OSTN. "This is OSTN's first expansion into Canada, and Ontario is 
its largest province. Thanks to this agreement, these students can view OSTN 
content via computer or television, and we are looking forward to their 
submission of quality content."

"We are thrilled that students and faculty from Ontario's universities and 
colleges can now view the programming and we're pleased to work with ORION to 
help students submit quality entertainment, sports, news and research content 
for distribution to peers," he said. 

"ORION's testing of OSTN multicast demonstrated its perfect multicast design 
and architecture to be enjoyed by the Canadian students to share their known 
talent and creativity with their peers around the planet" said Latif Ladid, 
President of IPv6 Forum.  OSTN will also collaborate with ORION to advance 
research in the new IPv6 Internet protocol, enabled throughout most of the 
ORION network. 

OSTN is an initiative of the CampusEAI Consortium, a non-profit organisation 
dedicated to facilitating development and exchange of community-source 
software and digital content.  ORION carries the OSTN multicast feed from 
Internet2, which connects into Ontario via Canada's CAnet4 national backbone, 
operated by CANARIE. 

- 30 -

About ORION:
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), operated by a 
not-for-profit organization, is Ontario's next-generation, ultra high-speed 
research and education telecommunications network. ORION connects all of 
Ontario's universities, most colleges, several medical and other public 
research facilities and a growing number of school boards to one another and 
to the global grid of research and education networks. Visit www.orion.on.ca

About OSTN:
Open Student Television Network (OSTN) is the only 24-hour global channel 
devoted exclusively to student-produced programming. OSTN is delivered to 
over 34 million users at 3,778 university member campuses and 36 countries in 
North America and Europe. For further information, visit www.ostn.tv

About Internet2:
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, 
Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies 
for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's 
Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry, and 
government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more 
information, visit: www.internet2.edu

Editorial contacts:

Joann Rasmussen
216-589-9626 ext. 207 or cell: 440.522.8304


André Quenneville
Director, Public Affairs, ORION
416-507-9860 ext 26