Papers in PDF format

By mid-October 1995, I had the server up and had received and configured the audio encoder. I was running
NCSA’s HTTPD server software and developed some web pages which incorporated a cgi call to the Xing
server software. These allowed people using web browsers to select icons on web pages to receive MPEG and
LBR data. The hardware and software was up, the interface was in place, and everything was working, so we
decided we needed to know how many people we could distribute information to simultaneously.
Now, if you live in Lincoln, Nebraska, and you work for the University, and you need some content to get a
bunch of people to test, one subject surfaces above all as common ground to encourage as much participation
as possible -- football! So we met with Bill Byrne, UNL Athletic Director, and Chuck Jewell, General Manager
of KFAB Radio, and received permission to do a live broadcast (KFAB radio audio) of the last three Nebraska
home games. I received e-mail from Australia, Asia, and Europe as well as from all over the US asking me
about software, saying how "cool" this was, talking about how they were displaced huskers, etc.
But the tests were game days, when three to five hundred people would log into http://citv.unl.edu and listen to
the game. This data was served over a 4 mps token ring card from a Pentium 60 computer. From the nature of
my mail, I would guess most people were able to get logged on and listen to the game.
IV. - Current Implementations
Beginning the first week of January, 1996, CIT started distributing six four and one-half audio news packages
weekly. The content of these packages are time sensitive news items produced by CIT for release to Nebraska
radio stations, and contain reports from specialists from all areas of IANR. This site is located at
http://citv.unl.edu/almanac.htm, and the packages are updated every Friday.
The audio is digitized to .wav file format and converted to LBR format using a software product from Xing.
This takes about 35 minutes, because our system has to digitize the audio in real time. After converting the
data, it is moved to the server and entered in the servers database. The database is then recompiled. Two web
pages are updated and the server is restarted. The whole process takes about an hour. One other note, the .wav
files start out at about 5-6 MB and after conversion to LBR format are around 250-300K in size.
V. - The Near Future
Other projects on the horizon will probably include integrating web pages with content containing video
and/or audio clips programs, as well as links to other related on-line information. This is timely information
delivered to meet the needs of Nebraskans, based on incoming calls, and e-mail questions. One project, called
EduPort, involves high-quality digitization of video and animation, including archives from Nebraska and the
National Film Archive. Much of this material, due to it's fragile and/or costly nature, is not easily accessible
by the general public, let alone teachers and other educators.
VI. - Implications of the Technology
With the infrastructure expanding and cost of this technology falling, I would submit that the application of
these technologies will continue to expand and that the pace of installation will continue to excel, the
economic and technological friction is rapidly decreasing. These are reasons enough for the technology to
succeed.