I had the opportunity to visit Pete Royer in his spacious office in Hutchinson earlier this week. Pete shares his space with a colleague, multiple computers and monitors and stacks of assorted stuff that tech coordinators rely on to get through the day. Blandin Foundation helped to fund the acquisition of digital recording equipment so that Pete can record multiple video conferences at one time. He was able to show me a sample of a Chinese language class originating from Hopkins with participating students from multiple districts (see picture and note the Chinese instructor). One of the ironic things about making site visits on technology projects is that the use of the technology is so exciting, but the electronics that make it possible are so boring to look at! While a rack of electronics may have multiple purposes, to my untrained eyes the boxes all look alike! Nevertheless, Pete is extremely excited about the opportunities that the new equipment enables, especially combined with some new Adobe streaming video software that they are just installing. Pete recently posted some information elsewhere on the Blandinonbroadband blog about how to view some of the video conferences that they have on their public server. Check them out! Of course, advancement on one side of the network infrastructure places strain elsewhere. Video storage capacity is next on Pete’s agenda.