Eastview graduation will be Web-cast

Posted: 6/9/05

by Aaron Tinklenberg
Thisweek Newspapers

Friends and family members of the Eastview High School Class of 2005 will be able to watch the school's graduation ceremony live from anywhere in the world.

According to Eastview video and multimedia specialist Tyler Krebs, students have been broadcasting live and recorded shows over the Internet for four years. Until now, however, bandwidth limitations didn't allow many people to view a show at the same time.

Thanks to some help from Cisco, a California-based network technology company, bandwidth won't be a problem on graduation day.

Cisco installed a system at TIES, an education-focused technology consortium, that will allow Eastview's graduation production to be broadcast from one of TIES' servers, rather than a District 196 server.

“For something like this, we're talking about family and friends who can tap into the ceremony without actually being there,” Krebs said.

A perfect example, Eastview exchange student Gergo Smuta's parents in Hungary will be watching at 2 a.m. local time.

The broadcast will be produced by students in the school's “The 4cast” class, which produces a daily announcement show that airs live on the Internet all year long. Krebs said the crew of about 10 juniors will be running cameras, directing and handling video and audio for the ceremony.

Krebs said the crew has the ability to broadcast whether the ceremony is outdoors or in the gym.

“We've been doing this kind of thing all year, so we're confident that everything will work without a problem,” Krebs said.

People can view the graduation ceremony at www.district196.org/evhs.

Aaron Tinklenberg is at av.thisweek@ecm-inc.com