ACADEMIA

MOREnet, Internet2 Bring Regional Competition to International Audience: US FIRST Robotics Greater Kansas City Regional to be Streamed Via Internet2: On March 16-17, 2007, the US FIRST Robotics Greater Kansas City Regional Competition at Hale Arena will have a much bigger audience than they expected. Through partnership with FIRST, and funding from the Kauffman Foundation, the Missouri Research & Education Network (MOREnet) will stream the live competition to a global audience via Internet2. With competitors from seven states, this technological enhancement to the event will enable other students, families and members of the community to be a part of the competition experience, even if they can't travel to Kansas City. The live streaming of the event allows competitors to see the other teams compete. This is helpful not just for competitors in Kansas City, but from around the country, since the field narrows toward the final competition in Atlanta in April. MOREnet will also provide standard- and high-definition videoconferencing capabilities to teams from an interview area on the competition floor. From here, teams will be able to interact with their communities at home including parents, students, and even members of the media who are following the competition. "To our knowledge, this is the first time a feature like this has been available to regional competitors and the teams are very excited about it," said MOREnet Project Manager Eric Nicklas. These services are made possible with the help of the Great Plains Network (GPN) which provides transport of the content to Internet2, a University of Missouri - Kansas City production crew, talent and technical expertise from RoundTrips, and equipment from PolyCom, Tandberg, LifeSize, Fortress Technologies, Roland, AVA, HME, Sound Concepts, Professional Network Solutions and VBrick. For more information about the event, and to learn how to connect or participate, please visit its Web site.