August 29, 2005

by Charles Waltner, News@Cisco

Earlier this month, future video journalists visited Cisco Systems.

As part of Cisco's co-sponsorship of the eSchool News Student Video Discovery Awards, Cisco hosted a trip for the competition's winners to the company's San Jose, Calif., headquarters. The winning students participated in an insider's tour of Cisco's industry-leading Media Network, where Cisco creates and produces a wide variety of digital video for streaming over its public Web site and the company intranet.

For the contest, hundreds of high school students from around the country submitted their best video work demonstrating their creativity, production and editing skills. The awards were presented at the National Educational Computing Conference this June in Philadelphia. Other sponsors of the Video Discovery Awards included Discovery Education, Apple Computer, Avid Technology, Macromedia, and NEC.

The contest highlights the growing importance of video technology in education and society. Each of the winning teams came from schools with extensive digital media production resources and active video journalism programs.

The visiting students included the first place team of Doug Waters, Charles Horne and Erik Archibald from Parkland High School in Allentown Penn.; the second place team of Kyle Kelley, Brian Stevenson, and Mike Dumont from South Burlington High School in Burlington, Vt.; and the third place winner Jen Campbell of Northeast High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fl.

Lynn Osborne, Cisco's education marketing manager, said Cisco sponsored the awards as part of its long history of support for education.

"It's important for people to know that our technology is a means to an end," Osborne said. "Converged networks are changing the way video is produced and delivered. Most importantly, they are helping to improve education."

During their trip, the students visited the company's state-of-the-art Executive Briefing Center, and toured the Cisco Media Network, including its several studios and the control rooms. Veteran executives, production managers, and technicians offered the students their insights on careers in the film and video industries.

Dean Whitlow, a director at the Cisco Media Network, emphasized the importance of trusting other team members, such as sound engineers and film editors, to boost quality.

"It might be tough to let go, but everyone has a part to play," he said. "The director can't do everything and needs to rely on specialist to improve on what he's trying to make."

Adam Hessler, manager of the Cisco Media Network, explained how Cisco coordinates and transmits video production throughout its worldwide operations from studios in North Carolina, London, England, and Sydney, Australia.

"We get to push the limits of global communications," Hessler says. "It's always a challenge to ensure we are putting all the technical pieces together to deliver the best quality content. And with the further development of rich media technology, there are many more changes in store."

Hessler says that being able to deliver video over IP has made it possible for companies such as Cisco to greatly expand its production operations, noting that though the Cisco Media Network budget has not changed over the past six years, the facility now does about 10 times more video content than in the past.

The ease and cost of video production is now opening up a whole new world of possibilities for schools as well. Dr. Priscilla d'Annibala, the director of information systems for the Parkland School District and the chaperone for the first-place team, said her school district now has video news programs in most of the schools, even at the elementary level. She says digital video communications have become so inexpensive that the schools in her district even broadcast over the Web events such as Christmas plays.

d'Annibala says classes in video production give educators another way to teach. "Kids learn differently and have multiple intelligences: visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and written. Video is just one more way to spark their interest."

While the students dream of becoming the next Francis Ford Coppola or a big-wig TV producer, the visit to the Cisco Media Network studio provided them a nuts-and-bolts view of corporate video production for Web-based delivery.

"Before I visited Cisco I didn't think of myself as a techie but more of an artistic visionary," said Brian Stevenson from South Burlington High School, "But now I can see I need to know as much as possible about digital technology and networking because its importance to film and video continues to grow."

The highlight of the visit came when the staff at the Cisco Media Network studio offered the students an opportunity to produce a video report from one of the studios. Working with the Cisco team, the high-energy teenagers interviewed each other about their career interests and the experience at Cisco.

"Our hope is that they get inspiration from their tour of Cisco," Osborne said. "Seeing the facilities here may open their eyes to the possibilities for their careers. They can further experience how technology and creativity go hand in hand."

Inspiration is one thing all the students seemed to have, as student Jen Campbell expressed best in her interview: "When I have a camera in my hand, I feel I can do anything."

Charles Waltner is a freelance journalist in Oakland, Calif.