University of Wisconsin - Extension

Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) will originate a live Internet2 transmission of a University of Wisconsin-Madison hockey game to Anchorage, Alaska. The contest will air on the University of Alaska educational channel. This will be the first time a Big 10 or Western Collegiate Hockey Association sporting event has been delivered via Internet2.

Besides airing in Alaska, the game will be shown on tape delay at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on WPT.

"We're proud of our role in helping this new technology become a useful tool for public television broadcasters looking for a more efficient way to deliver programs to the public," said James Steinbach, WPT director of programming and production.

Internet2 is a broadband Intranet system. In February 2000, a group of university television licensees that have access to Internet2 through their campuses received permission from the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development to experiment using Internet2 for moving video streams and related files. This project has been given the title, Reforging the Links.

The amount of action in hockey will make this a demanding test of Internet 2 video, according to WPT engineers. At WPT, producer Deb Piper and engineer Paul Stoffel are making things happen, working with David Devereaux-Weber and Kent Hooker at UW-Madison's Department of Information Technology.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Extension. WPT celebrates and connects the people of Wisconsin through programming on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHLA-TV/La Crosse, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.