Today I'm participating in a discussion with TODD Video Network Management. UEN is very interested in TODD's TC Reliance Video Manager 6.0. Our problem is how to deal with legacy (analog and mpeg) video streams while moving the UEN network to IP (H.323 for now) video solutions.

The question of what UEN will become is big and unanswered. IP video gives districts and schools much more flexibility. Whatever the future holds it is clear that the video network will no longer be closed and proprietary.

TODD provides software that promises to allow UEN to control legacy and IP video devices from a web interface. Scheduling under this scenario will become decentralized and more dynamic. Technically speaking, this development provides a great deal of freedom. But how does it address the issues raised to control/meet academic needs? That is the key question and key ideas need to deal with these academic requirements.

This situation is likely a very good example of how technical capabilities often drive organizational actions. Is that always a good thing? Probably not. In fact, technology driving the "business" is hardly ever good. But it happens all the time. That's why we find ourselves overspending and under-achieving on a business level.

An interesting aside. TODD uses Outlook for scheduling and integrates into CA Unicenter for expanded management capabilities. UEN uses Groupwise and HP Openview. Also, our current MCU is the Accord. TODD supports the Cisco product. These differences are going to make our collaboration much harder. Not to mention the fact that the TODD software is way more expensive than we can afford. At least in the current economic climate............
10:57:06 AM    comment []