EDUSAT
EDUSAT is the first Indian Satellite built exclusively for serving the educational sector. It was launched in September 2004 by the ISRO. The satellite based distance education system enables virtual classrooms at rural and remote locations across the country. Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) has started two-way audio-video communication through EDUSAT network from 5th September 2005. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) set up a nationwide multi-user educational network in its EDUSAT national Ku – band.
Satellite Interactive Terminal (SIT)
The CEC/UGC network is one of the six selected user networks, operating independently with their user terminals anywhere in the main land of India. It has one main teaching end along with remote Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) and Receive Only Terminals (ROTs). This network has more than 58 SITs located at all EMMRCs, Academic Staff Colleges (ASCs) and in various Indian universities.
EMMRC, Chennai has the unique distinction of having Tamilnadu’s first Satellite Interactive Terminal (SIT) capable of transmitting and receiving two-way audio, video signals under Ku -band of EDUSAT network with Digital Video Broadcast-Return Channel Satellite (DVB-RCS) technology. The Internet Protocol (IP) address of the SIT is 172.19.26.2. The application software is used for interaction between SIT to SIT, HUB to SIT and SIT to SUB-HUB (teaching end).
Video LAN Connection (VLC) media player software is used for streaming and multicasting video and audio at teaching end and for receiving multicast stream at class room end. Net Meeting for point to point / unicast video conferencing can be loaded in personal computer for interaction with SIT terminals and hub through audio-video mode, chat mode and file transfer.Any SIT (including ROT) installed in EDUSAT network may receive any stream with correct multicast IP and port. Hence the Centre is able to receive multicast video stream from five other user networks namely Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), [Central Institute of Education Technology, National Council for Educational Research and Training (CIET,NCERT)], National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR),Vigyan Prasar and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). CEC has put up Learning Object Repository (LOR), Video on Demand (VOD) and e-content modules on various subjects.
It is available on CEC website : www.cec.nic.in and http://172.19.L2/ceclive through EDUSAT network.