--- Forwarded Message from Karin Thomeier <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 15:52:35 -0300
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Karin Thomeier <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Customized satellite TV programming (!)


Hello fellow LLTI'ers,

I am interested in hearing about colleagues' experiences at other
(particularly Canadian) language media centres with
satellite TV. Have you purchase a dish and if so, were you able to work
out a customized programming package designed for
the educational environment with the vendor?

Here at Memorial, we have just invested in a dish from
Bell ExpressVu and three receivers that will allow us to
feed three different programs / languages out to our
Macintosh lab at once. We are very excited about the
prospect of receiving Deutsche Welle and TeleLatino for the
first time, along with a host of French TV channels. However,
it seems now that ExpressVu is unwilling to grant us anything
but a commercial hook-up, for which there is no educational
programming included and language packages have to be
bought in addition to the (for us useless) basic channels. The monthly charge
would run around $80 and includes $10 fee for each receiver.

The ExpressVu web site mentions absolutely nothing about
commercial hook-ups and focuses entirely on the residential
programme offerings. My attempt to impress upon the agent I was
speaking with that a university cannot be lumped together with
commercial enterprises such as hotels proved futile. I cannot
imagine that there are no labs out there who have not tried to
customize satellite stations to meet the needs of the students
using their facility. The ExpressVu agent said he had never
heard of such a request.

Please respond either to the list or offline with your experiences in
setting up the satellite TV language channels you have and how you
put your package together.

Many thanks!

Karin


--
Karin Thomeier, Ph.D
Director of Language Laboratories
Faculty of Arts
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NF   CANADA   A1B 3X9
Tel.: (709) 737-8585    Fax: (709) 737-4000
http://www.mun.ca/langlabs