Utah Valley University enjoys VT as remote interview solution
Established in 1941, the Utah Valley University, with over 40,000 students, is the largest public institution in the state of Utah. It’s Studios and Broadcast Services department professionally produces all of the campus events – such as conferences, lectures or commencements – and streams them out to larger audiences if needed. We had a chat with TJ Finlinson, who recently used Video Transport as a remote interview solution.
It was flawless for us, it was great, it was so nice, easy. The quality was much better, latency was way lower.
How did you find out about Medialooks Video Transport?
The first time we connected with a remote guest, we ended up using Microsoft Teams because they had just released their NDI features. We haven't had great luck with it, because you can't control it as much as you want. So, after that I was on the hunt for something better. I've been experimenting with NDI and that led me to you guys.
What was the specific job Video Transport is used for?
It was for a lecture series hosted by our President, Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez. She invites the most prestigious guests to talk to our students and the community. It was a lecture series on cyber security. The guest that we invited was Graham T. Allison.
We published our link, sent it to him, and never had any problems during the event. He wasn't super savvy, technically, but it was easy for him to click the link, and give the permissions in his browser for us to receive his audio and video signal. We're a traditionally built studio – so, our setup was bringing in that video feed, and sending it out via SDI. The show was an hour and a half, and we delivered it to YouTube. That was our final destination.
What did you like most about the product?
I think the video quality is probably my favorite feature. It looks better than other video services out there – like Skype or Teams. We have great bandwidth here at the university, but you don't know what bandwidth the guests are capable of. Having a high-quality low-bandwidth solution is pretty sweet.
Also, it was easy. It's better than all the other options. We're happy about that.
How would you explain this product to a friend?
It's a technology that allows us to connect with a remote person, or send a signal to a remote person over the public Internet. And then convert it into whatever signal I need to produce a professional show.