While colleges and universities rush to send voice over the internet protocol, a select few are using broadband pipes to deliver something far more sophisticated.

Television sets are a dying breed at Northwestern University (IL). Walk the halls of the Bobb and McCullough residence halls on the north end of the school’s suburban Chicago campus, and you’re likely to find nary a one. Down at the other end, in the dorms at 1835 Hinman Avenue, the boob tubes are just as scarce. Visitors to campus might like to think that students ditched their TVs to focus on studying, but the truth is that NU students have simply consolidated their devices, and now watch all of their favorite programs via their personal computers.

Facilitated by a technology dubbed Video over the Internet Protocol (IP), this social change has altered just about every aspect of dormitory recreation. Through a broadband application from the vendor Video Furnace (www.videofurnace.com), every student with a laptop or desktop computer and an Internet connection can now access up to 24 channels of public and cable television, including MTV, TNT, C-SPAN, and more. According to David Carr, director of Telecommunications and Network Services, students only have to open a program to watch their favorite shows.

By Matt Villano

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Article source: Campus Technology