Australia 6 July 2011: As part of its leadership in real time
video communications, AARNet is pleased to announce a strategic agreement with
Cisco.
The arrangement will see AARNet connect multiple academic institutions locally and internationally via a Cisco TelePresence Exchange System™ to facilitate cross institutional meetings.
| Note: This service which will only support Cisco TelePresence
systems that can connected to each other in a point-to-point and
multi-point service arrangement between AARNet connected institutions,
please see the dedicated service development page for more details |
This new solution will expand the portfolio of services provided by AARNet’s successful National Video Conferencing
Service (NVCS), and will come online progressively from October 2011.
The Cisco TelePresence solution will enable
customers on AARNet’s high-speed network to have life-like virtual meeting
experiences via Cisco TelePresence at different locations. It enables customers
to invite meeting participants from across Australia to a virtual table at
highly immersive high definition resolution. Education
and research institutions will gain a powerful tool that will bring
geographically dispersed researchers together into a single conference to
facilitate discussions, share ideas and make decisions.
Photo: Courtesy of Cisco and Monash University - Professor Debra Nestel using TelePresence for Regional Health Teaching and Learning
“Cisco TelePresence meetings provide an immersive
collaboration environment, allowing participants to decipher facial expressions
and body language as if they were in the same room. This new service removes geographical
barriers, providing Australia’s research and education community direct exposure to instructors, colleagues and
experts across the nation.” said James Sankar, AARNet Director,
Applications and Services. “This new solution is an exciting expansion to the
video conferencing capabilities supported by AARNet. It will sit alongside our existing high
definition video bridging service, providing a launching pad for next
generation video conferencing services.”
Assoc. Prof. Richard Constantine, CIO of Swinburne University, member
of the AARNet Board of Directors and Chair of the AARNet Advisory Committee said, “Whether we are talking about
teaching, learning or research, there is no doubt that how education
institutions are augmenting how educators and students communicate and collaborate
is changing in an unprecedented manner. Swinburne
University is looking forward to the added capability of Cisco TelePresence to
enable collaborative education and research between the well-renown Parkes
Observatory, Swinburne’s Advanced Technology Centre, five Victorian campuses
and others nationally and worldwide.”
“Cisco is
excited to be partnering with AARNet to help students, educators and
researchers in different locations around Australia and the world feel like
they are sitting in one room via Cisco TelePresence,” said Ken Boal, director
of Public Sector for Cisco Australia and New Zealand. “Whether it’s making it
easier for researchers to connect or bringing together new university
partnerships, this immersive meeting experience platform will improve
Australia’s higher education and research collaboration capabilities.”
AARNet efforts to participate in the Global
Research & Education TelePresence Community (GRETC) mirror those of
National Lamda Rail (NLR) Network in the USA whom AARNet kindly acknowledges
for its assistance and stewardship in this area.
About
AARNet
AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates
Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit
company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and
the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the
tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners.
AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through
local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please
visit: www.aarnet.edu.au.
About
Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide
leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and
collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.au. For ongoing news from
Australia and New Zealand, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/anz.
###
Cisco, the Cisco logo and TelePresence are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.
Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between
Cisco and any other company.
For
further information, please contact:
AARNet Media Contact:
Cisco
Media Contact: