April 2007
HD video installation offers possibilities for real-time collaboration in art & design
Pilot streaming initiative spans three cities and nearly 5,000 km across Canada
The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) recently joined Concordia University in Montreal and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver to concurrently broadcast a live high-definition video stream for 72 consecutive hours over Canada's regional advanced networks, including ORION in Ontario. It is a project they expect will trigger greater real-time collaboration in art and design using new digital technologies.
In Toronto, the digital transmission was on display over a large high definition LCD screen in OCAD's Great Hall, at 100 McCaul Street. Similar installations were in place at Concordia and Simon Fraser University, displaying scenic images broadcast live in digital HD to and from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
The east-west transmission over Internet Protocol (IP) streamed dual sets of data at 25 megabits per second, for a combined 50 Mbps. OCAD sent the native HDV stream across the research network without any re-compression of the camera's HDV Firewire output. The demo used relatively accessible equipment, such as the Sony HDR-HC3 HDV video cameras, with a special MPEG-2 Transport stream that can be streamed using Video Lan Client (VLC), a free and open-source software.
The event was the first pilot project of a high-definition streaming consortium, led by OCAD, involving seven other universities from across Canada, looking at the adoption of HD streaming by the cultural and arts and design communities.
"This is good news," said Phil Baker, ORION President/CEO. "Research and education networks across Canada in the provinces and territories can rest easier now that CANARIE will connect all of us to one another and to colleagues around the world."
For more information, visit the OCAD-ORION HD Streaming Initiative PDF.
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