Haivision today announced that its award-winning Furnace™ IP video distribution system will integrate with Moodle™ and Blackboard®, two widely adopted university learning management systems (LMS), enabling students and course instructors to access live and on-demand video content as a supplement to their coursework.

“Learning management systems like Moodle and Blackboard are essential tools in the university learning environment, providing an online ‘workspace’ for students to access course material, collaborate with other students and faculty, and manage their schedules and course assignments,” said JoAnne Gaudreau, vice president of marketing at Haivision. “The demand for video is growing very quickly and has become a critical component in the educator’s content mix. With the new Furnace integration, access to secure live and on-demand video content is fast and simple with a single click on the Moodle or Blackboard desktop. As a result, students and instructors no longer have to visit the media lab or library, then locate and load the physical media in order to present or watch video.”

Available as a plug-in for Moodle or an extension for Blackboard, the new integration enables Haivision’s university customers, using Furnace 6.1 or later versions, to integrate their live channels and video-on-demand offerings into either LMS. By presenting the proper credentials, instructors or students can securely access any video content stored on the Furnace server. Metadata tags available in Furnace 6.1 enable content to be classified by subject, course, or any other search term so assets are visible automatically to students enrolled in a certain course.

Combining its “zero install” cross platform InStream™ player and its security framework for linear content distribution over multicast, Haivision’s Furnace IP video distribution system is renowned for delivering real-time broadcast video to all desktops and set-top boxes throughout facilities and across campuses. Furnace offers a high degree of control over media access and delivery, empowering administrators to establish what video is available to each viewer and how the content is viewed. Additionally, any active player can be controlled in real-time in order to change all channels to a house broadcast or to issue emergency alerts. Furnace allows administrators granular control over the media within a campus and a harmonized experience for all users.

Targeted to campus media lab specialists, university administrators, or instructors, the Furnace Moodle/Blackboard integration will be available for download to Furnace customers, free of charge, from the Haivision website or from the customer’s Moodle or Blackboard sites. The integration will be available by July 2012.

About Haivision

Haivision delivers advanced technology for streaming, recording, managing, and distributing secure IP video and interactive media within the enterprise, education, medical/healthcare, and federal/military markets. Haivision is a private company based in Montreal and Chicago, with technical excellence centers in Beaverton, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and Hamburg, Germany. With a global sales and support organization, Haivision distributes its products through value-added resellers, system integrators, distributors, and OEMs worldwide. More information is available at www.haivision.com.