UK College of Further Education uses Windows Media Center Edition as a social and entertainment hub, and also as a teaching tool

Published: March 2004

South DownsCollege is a successful College of Further Education in the south of England. Like all colleges, there are periods in the day when students have to wait for their next lecture, or, especially in South Down’s case, for a bus. A WindowsMediaCenter system was installed in the main café in the college to entertain the students, and to provide them with an outlet for their creative abilities. The capabilities of WindowsMediaCenter have led to the following benefits for the students:

  • A showcase for the students’ creative efforts
  • A forum for the students to discuss and criticise each other’s work
  • A greater sense of community
  • An increased sense of responsibility (students are responsible for the content played on the MediaCenter system)
  • An enhanced “feel-good” factor about the college, which leads to:
  • A better reputation for the college and more students

Situation

South DownsCollege is the biggest college of further education in Hampshire, a large county on the south coast of England. Located off the A3 motorway, just a few miles north of Portsmouth, its location could be described as idyllic for some. The College is extremely successful, as evidenced by the number of students: 15,000 part-time and up to 4,000 full-time. Unlike inner-city colleges which are surrounded by amenities, South Downs has to provide a focal point for entertainment and education for its students who spend time at college between lectures or stay to socialise.

The college could certainly be described as “progressive”, both in terms of offering an up-to-date portfolio of courses (in accordance with the UK Government’s aim of broadening the range of educational options available to students) and in the way it actively tries to improve the quality of life for the students, staff and local community.

Solution

An easy, but limited, option would have been to install a television in the Courtyard Café, perhaps with cable or satellite access, and possibly with an integrated Personal Video Recorder (PVR). But such a solution would have restricted available content to live or recorded off-air material, and would not have offered the flexibility of a WindowsMediaCenter system.

Chris Harris, Web Manager at the College, explained:

“The obvious choice would have been to install a Sky + box; but this would have been a very limited solution. We wanted to be able to show student-created material and seamlessly intermix it with off-air broadcasts, at the same time as having a time-shifting capability. We also wanted to have administrative control over the system while letting students set up playlists and schedules from media which we have made available to the MediaCenter”.

For maximum flexibility, the college’s media playback system needs to cope with a wide variety of video formats, as well as digital still pictures and music files. Windows Media Center Edition plays any format which has a Windows codec (a “coder-decoder” that tells Windows how to turn a media file into video and audio).

South DownsCollege’s Windows Media Center Edition system is installed in the main refectory, the Courtyard Café. A 50” NEC plasma copes well with the ambient light and six speakers ensure that sound can be clearly heard without being obtrusive. The MediaCenter computer, an Evesham eMedia Cube, is housed in a cabinet about three meters above floor-level: close enough for the remote control to work but well out of harm’s way. The only connection between the computer and the plasma screen is a simple VGA cable. In practice pictures are bright and clear, with no apparent jerkiness. In other words, video looks just like video.

The MediaCenter user interface, with its simplified menu structure, works brilliantly over such a large distance, and slickly integrates the capabilities of the system.

Chris Harris sees the Courtyard Café installation as just the beginning:

“We’re looking at installing Media Centers at other strategic locations within the college. The flexibility of the software allows us to customise media playback for a specific location. Once students and staff take on board the possibilities we expect to see the usage of the system increase dramatically, building on the benefits that we’re already seeing”.

South Downs’ unique use of WindowsMediaCenter illustrates its use as a media management and playback system. As part of a media production workflow it can take video directly from a student’s editing workstation and show it on the giant screen without any need to modify the media. Students may even devise and run their own “TV Channels” using the MediaCenter’s playlist capabilities, incorporating their own pre-recorded continuity announcements.

Benefits

Using Windows MCE in their most popular public area brings specific social, educational and business benefits to the college.

Social benefits

Using the MCE installation, students are able to contribute to the life of the college in a very tangible way. Students are encouraged by the thought that their work will be seen in public by their friends: a highly critical audience. The Courtyard Café has become the “social hub” of the college and is a place where students relax and are entertained by student-generated content as well as off-air programming. Students are responsible for devising and scheduling content, and are made to feel an important part of their own social environment.

Educational benefits

The South DownsCollege installation of Media Center Edition gives students an opportunity to showcase their work. Having an outlet where creative content is reviewed and enjoyed by their peers is an important motivating factor. Students are responsible for creating and scheduling content, thus providinga greater insight into the process of media creation, and important feedback from an available and willing audience.

As Media Center Edition is built on Windows XP, it is able to deal with a wide range of media content including Flash animations and HTML, which means that a very wide range of student content can be easily displayed. Teaching staff will use the time-shifting capabilities of MCE to reschedule off-air material, and to show video material derived from lectures and, for example, science experiments.

Carl Restell, a Media Student at the College said: ”It’s a great addition.All the media students will benefit hugely if our work is shown. We could do post-production work by asking other students what they thought of the footage, and can even get their feedback by putting our contact details on the broadcast. It’s a great way for me and my peers to develop our work.”

Chris Bearpark of One Man Band Pictures and Director of the Police Mountain Biking, Training Advantages video went on: “This is an excellent way showcasing student work and I’m very happy that our work is being seen. There is a lot of good work made by students and you never know who could be watching it.If the initiative is taken to set this type of system up in other colleges then that can only be a good thing for the media industry. Many more people’s talents will get recognised.”

Business benefits

By installing such an innovative solution in a very public arena, the college has enhanced its reputation. Even more students will be attracted to the college, bringing more income that can be spent on broadening the prospectus and further improving facilities for the students. And, because Windows MCE is a superset of Windows XP, it uses only industry-standard components, minimizing support and maintenance worries. So, for a minimum outlay, the college attracts kudos and, potentially, more students.

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About South DownsCollege

South DownsCollege has 30 years experience in offering further education and is a leading provider of post-16 education and training in Hampshire, with 4,000 full time and over 15,000 part time students studying a wide range of courses from Pre-Entry to Higher National Diploma and professional level.

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