--- Forwarded Message from "Margo Burns" <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Subject: RE: #7164 Satellite services
>Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 09:36:13 -0400
>Thread-Topic: #7164 Satellite services
>Thread-Index: AcMl2vdFWCiOQxYSTrG0aeiwxhvUvwABG4PV
>From: "Margo Burns" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum" <[log in to unmask]>
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-----Original Message from Michael Jones <[log in to unmask]> ---
>What I would like to do instead is add some number of receivers, rf modulators
>and whatever other equipment we need, in order to distribute 10, or
>possibly 15 channels of foreign programming into the LRC. [snip] Is anyone
>doing something like this already? What equipment are you using, or would you
>need in order to achieve something like this?
We've been doing this exact thing at St. Paul's School for eight years, and it is wonderful. The teachers especially like the bonus of being able to leave the TV in their rooms on between classes so that when their students come in, they immediately start engaging in the language -- even before class starts.
We currently have 9 language channels to support the 5 modern languages we teach -- SCOLA 1, SCOLA 2, TV5, TVe-International, Discovery Channel en espaņol, Deutsche Welle, German TV, TV-Japan, and Phoenix North America Chinese Channel -- from five dishes, located in a field at the far end of the grounds. Each has a receiver and a modulator that feeds into the into what is essentially a cable TV splitter in reverse. This combined signal goes through a fiber-optic cable to an RF broadband amplifier at the building, which then distributes the signal throughout the building. TVs and VCRs in the classrooms access the various feeds on different channels of their TVs or VCRs.
Our local satellite dish installer has been great, taking care of not only our sundry DishNet installations, but our DW and German TV ones as well.
We use Blonder Tongue Agile modulators, which allow for setting the channel easily. We still have some Olsen triple-modulators at the hut, which required setting dip-switches for channels, but we're getting rid of them because they've been flakey -- and if one of the three modulators died, to send it out for repair meant taking down down two perfectly fine channels in the process.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me off-list.
Cheers,
Margo Burns
Director of The Language Center
St. Paul's School
Concord, NH 03301
[log in to unmask]
(603) 229-4665
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