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The Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is piloting Microsoft® Windows Media® 9 Series, the company's newest digital media platform. Planning a late 2003 deployment, the business school leader will implement the latest in streaming media technology to improve the learning experience and enable richer interaction between faculty and students.
Recognized around the world for its intellectual leadership and innovation in teaching and research, Wharton strives to heighten the learning experience through the creative use of technology. Through the Wharton Video Network, deployed in 2000, Wharton's more than 4,600 undergraduate, evening, MBA, and Executive MBA students have access to on-demand, Windows Media-based course materials and interactive learning applications. According to Kendall Whitehouse, Wharton's director of Advanced Technology Development, "The Wharton School faces the same challenges as any enterprise: getting information to a broad internal audience in a compelling and engaging way." The addition of the Windows Media-based Video Network to Wharton's award-winning student intranet, SPIKE, provides all Wharton students with better access to lectures, presentations, and other course materials, regardless of the students' location or time zone.
The ability to automatically capture lectures and presentations, encode the video, and deliver the video content online is available from all the classrooms in Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Wharton's new 324,000 square foot learning center. Huntsman Hall hosts audio and video recording capabilities and playback technology in its 48 classrooms, 57 group study rooms, lecture halls, labs, and conference rooms. All of the classrooms are equipped with video cameras controlled through the "Wharton Lectern," a custom-designed podium that allows lecturers to access stored streaming content and to digitally record their own live classroom presentations. With a touch of a button, the live classroom experience is captured, encoded into Windows Media format, and automatically sent to the Windows Media servers of the Wharton Video Network. The 450 desktops throughout Huntsman Hall are equipped with access to the student intranet, the Video Network, and the Internet. The school's WiFi wireless Ethernet also delivers video content throughout the campus to students with laptops and handheld devices.
Today, Wharton delivers 350 hours of on-demand content-including instructional videos, complete class lectures, and presentations by business leaders-all continuously available on the Wharton Video Network. This powerful communication system is the foundation for Wharton's groundbreaking use of streaming media.
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Wharton's goal is to make technology in the classroom pervasive and transparent for students and faculty in a way that adds value to the teaching process. Wharton believes technology can enable rich interactivity among students and faculty, and that the innovative implementation of rich-media based teaching tools will help the business school maintain its competitive edge.
Working with Microsoft Certified Partner Approach Inc.  , a consulting firm delivering digital media solutions for enterprise clients, Wharton has successfully built a Windows Media 9 Series lab to test specific features and refine plans for a full-scale deployment.
The testing lab consists of two media servers running Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, Enterprise Edition and one encoder running Windows Media Encoder 9 Series on Microsoft Windows® XP Professional. Lab prototypes focus on three features of Windows Media 9 Series: the Server-Side Playlist, Fast Streaming, and Variable Speed Playback. Wharton has identified these features as key technologies to enhance its interactive learning applications.
Using the Windows Media 9 Series encoder and player, Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and the Windows XP operating system, Wharton can now capture, encode, and serve a vast amount of video content, including faculty presentations that are digitally recorded automatically from the new lecterns. The ability to organize content dynamically with server-side playlists is an important feature to support this growing universe of digital video content. "With Windows Media 9 Series and server-side playlists, we can now encode and store content once and easily repurpose it without re-encoding," according to Kendall Whitehouse. "In addition to saving storage space, it will allow us more flexible access to our expanding archive of digital video material."
Providing an uninterrupted video experience is particularly important for Web-based simulations such as "FutureView," which Wharton developed for the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab. To demonstrate advanced market research techniques, FutureView presents simulated consumer interviews, television commercials, and other rich-media content for a fictitious future product. FutureView's database of streaming video and other Web-based content is dynamically reconfigured to immerse students in the experience of real product evaluation and selection. With the instant-on/always-on Fast Streaming capabilities of Windows Media 9 Series, Wharton's new FutureView prototypes eliminate buffering delays and deliver a smooth, seamless video experience.
Enhanced FutureView prototypes are currently being tested and demonstrated to Wharton MBA students and faculty. According to Michael Wagner, CTO of Approach Inc., "The Windows Media 9 Series lab we helped Wharton build is showing immediate results. Wharton has been able to take advantage of the features like Fast Streaming and its more subtle elements: Fast Start, Fast Caching, and Fast Recovery." Fast Streaming saves on bandwidth and improves the end user's experience dramatically by using intelligent caching and start technology to deliver a seamless, uninterrupted display of digital video.
Pat McClanahan, a second-year MBA student at Wharton, observes, "Compared to previous experiences with streaming video, the improvements [delivered by Windows Media 9 Series] are like night and day. We are always looking for ways to bring maximum value to our time without limiting our exposure to all the incredible learning available from this institution. Streaming media gives me access to presentations that I've been forced to miss or would like to review and gives me the ability to fast forward or rewind to a key point in the lecture without missing a beat. [Variable Speed Playback means] I can spend 45 minutes reviewing the critical elements of a 60-minute presentation, and that is an extra 15 minutes that I can use."
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Wharton is always evaluating solutions that will enhance learning and give its students an edge in the world of business. According to Beverley Coulson, Wharton's Technical Director overseeing the Wharton Video Network, "Plans to upgrade Huntsman Hall, the Wharton Video Network, and FutureView to Windows Media 9 Series and Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition are well underway, and deployment should be complete by the end of the 2003 summer term."
Improvements to streaming media playback, made possible with Fast Streaming and new enterprise management tools are the key to this adoption. According to Wharton MBA student McClanahan, "With no buffering delays and the ability to stop and start a presentation wherever I want, streaming video is now an essential tool."
Fast Streaming and improvements in new video codecs should also propel advancements in the next version of FutureView. Immersion into the media lifecycle of a "virtual" product is much more realistic and will have a greater impact on the participants. Kendall Whitehouse believes, "The features of Windows Media 9 Series will allow us to provide a more immediate and compelling presentation of video in all our Web-based learning applications."
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This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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