JSE-listed black empowerment IT group, Casey Investment Holdings, Ozoneware and the Learning Channel have successfully implemented the first pilot site at the Andrew Anthony School in Laudium that sees the trio using a new Data Broadcast Education initiative that makes use of SABC TVs Vertical Blanking Interval - portions of the TV transmission unseen by the human eye - to allow for wirelessly-conducted remote education.
Ozoneware, which has been negotiating with SABC for a number of years, recently received the go-ahead to use two of the 14 vertical lines (VBI) used in TV transmissions. While the naked eye cannot see these vertical lines when watching TV, they are now being harnessed, thanks to new technology, to bring remote education to remote areas throughout SA - even at those schools without access to telephones.
Ozoneware has acquired the non-exclusive rights to use the SABC VBI lines for five years, with an option to renew thereafter.
George Bester, MD of Ozoneware, said in order to offer "all the necessary elements to complete the technological mix", the company joined up with two other South African companies and one Canadian company: The Learning Channel is to provide the educational content, Casey Net - a division of Casey Investment Holdings - is to act as the ISP (Internet Service Provider) and technology provider, while Canadian-based Norpak Corporation is to provide the broadcast equipment, software and Internet Reception Cards, which allow the PCs to receive encrypted data straight from SABC 2. Norpak Corporation, having formulated the recently-adopted "IP over VBI" standards, currently commands 90% of the industry implementation worldwide.
Norpak equipment is currently being used in over 2000 installations in 30 countries. Norpak President Jim Carruthers was at the first live transmission, which took place recently in Laudium.
Nigel Vaz MD of Casey Net said The Learning Channel has just launched an online Internet Initiative and is now keen to carry this material to the remotest regions of SA. The Andrew Anthony School in Laudium, a previously disadvantaged school, is the first successful pilot site in SA.
Caseynet - the main technology supplier for the LearnCast initiative - installed this new system at the school that they have setup with computers the the broadcasting of the educational material using the SABC`s VBI. GM of Casey Net said the LearnCast Initiative championed by the trio stems from the fact that most schools and pupils in SA have no access to a telephone, let alone an Internet dial-up connection.
Thanks to the deal struck between Ozoneware and the SABC, however, this will not be required as courseware will be wirelessly transmitted, courtesy of the SABC`s VBI.
The transmission of computer data during the regular Learning Channel TV airing - hosted by the well-known educationalist William Smith - is now to be tested at a handful of underprivileged schools.
Bester said the "clever use" of technology takes "brickless" school concept one step further by now permitting courseware, tuition material, tests and answers to be simultaneously downloaded to computers during the course of the 1.5 hour daily Learning Channel Broadcast. This 1.5 hour period could potentially see up to 40Mb being downloaded within the VBI throughout 86% of the country, reaching a potential 35m people. All users will eventually need is the LearnCast-packaged "Teacher in a Box", a basic computer, a normal TV aerial, and reception of SABC 2. Bester said if one uses the active portion of the TV signal rather than the invisible VBI, the data could be downloaded at much higher speeds - up to half a megabyte per second. The downside of this technology is that the data download is visible on the screen in the form of "snow".
These Datacasts could be used in the middle of the night to distribute exam papers nationally.
Vaz said his company - although entitled to use the VBI for general broadcasting of data - has exclusive rights to use VBI in the remote educational market.
"One of the major problems facing the Internet and, indeed, communications in general, is bandwidth. By using this wireless datacast technology bandwidth restrictions are no longer a problem.
Explaining further, Vaz said a special Data Broadcast Card - to be provided by Norpak - will need to be installed inside a PC before a user can receive these encrypted messages, which will be sent out via the SABC 2 channel.
"We intend going on a major educational drive. With this technology we can effortlessly reach schools in remote rural areas because we are sending messages via the SABC 2 channel." The cost of the special Data Broadcast Reception Cards are not expected to be a barrier.
Both Microsoft and Intel have endorsed the VBI standard from a software and hardware point of view. Microsoft calls it Web-TV for Windows, while Intel calls it Intercast. But, with the `Wintel` powerhouse behind VBI-based wireless datacast networking, the sky is literally the limit.
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