ACADEMIA

Educational, Foreign Language and Student-Produced Programming Available to FLR-linked Universities, Research Institutions: Florida LambdaRail, LLC (FLR) today partnered with Open Student Television Network (OSTN) to deliver IPTV to FLR's 10 member universities and more than 260,000 students, staff, and faculty. OSTN is the leading provider of educational and foreign language IPTV content and student-produced programming. Florida's universities and research institutions created FLR to facilitate advanced research, education and economic development throughout the state. OSTN launched in 2005 with the only 24-hour, seven-day global channel exclusively devoted to student-produced programming. In 2006, OSTN added CableTV, which delivers educational and foreign language TV channels to colleges and universities via FLR and other networks. OSTN now is delivered to 34 million users at 3,778 university member campuses and 36 countries around the globe. "The FLR/OSTN partnership will enable students throughout Florida's education community to create and deliver, exchange video content both nationally and internationally" said Dave Pokorney, CTO and Director of Engineering. "This is just one of the many applications that advanced networks such as the Florida LambdaRail was designed to support and nurture." OSTN CableTV includes educational channels NASA TV, C-Span, University of California Television (UCTV) and the Florida Educational Channel. The foreign language channels include CCTV (Chinese), TV5 (French), RAI (Italian), ART (Arabic), TV Polonia (Polish), SBTN (Vietnamese), MBC (Korean), RTN (Russian), TFC (Filipino), TV Asia (South Asian), TV JAPAN (Japanese), CTI Zhong Tian Channel (Chinese), and C1R (Russian). "We are pleased to partner with FLR to deliver IPTV to FLR's member institutions along with theirs students, faculty, and staff," said Prashant Chopra, OSTN Chief Executive Officer. "Not only will FLR members have access to educational and foreign language programming on the desktop, but will also have the opportunity to share student-produced content with their peers and colleagues around the world." Universities connected by FLR that already participate in OSTN include the University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Miami and the University of Central Florida. Other FLR institutions include Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, the Florida Institute of Technology, Nova Southeastern University, University of North Florida and University of West Florida.