 In the distance learning department of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, we have always used the most cutting edge technologies available. And as times have changed, so have we. Our department serves a large community spread far and wide across North Carolina, and yet it's important for our teachers to be able to interact with those students as if they were in the same room. How do we do this? Through the magic of video conferencing. It's the future, and it's here today. This is Ms. Nancy. She is a science teacher, and she really knows her stuff. But to get her science lesson out to the eager students many miles away takes a lot of equipment and know-how. Let's see how it works. Here Ms. Nancy uses a computer loaded with drawing software to illustrate her lesson. She can also use this computer to run PowerPoint presentations, access the Internet, and even to communicate in private with a student during her class. Ms. Nancy also has a handy graphing calculator to demonstrate mathematical calculations. And this desk-mounted camera is called a flex cam, which is great for showing experiments, demonstrations, work found in books or handouts, or displaying anything she might find useful to get her point across. If Ms. Nancy needs any special graphics or animations as teaching aids, she can turn to our Cracker Jack graphic arts team. There are three monitors in the distance learning studio. The distance sight monitor shows the students at the distance sight. The program monitor shows what is currently being sent out over the air. And the preview monitor, which shows what's coming up next. In the studio there are hanging microphones, which pick up Ms. Nancy's voice and transmit it out to the distance sight. It's a good idea to think about the mics as always being on or live in order to avoid awkward situations. Scarf makes her look like a chia pet. Several remote control cameras can show Ms. Nancy working at her desk or in other places in the studio, like in front of the green screen. Using a green screen or an effect called chroma key, Ms. Nancy can appear in front of almost any scene imaginable. The studio switcher, which we'll talk about in a moment, simply removes the green wall and replaces it with video from any number of sources. Tools from all the studio sources are fed by wires to the control room through a panel in the wall. Working in the control room is Ms. Nancy's right hand man, Evan, the studio manager. He uses a switcher to choose video sources, select transitions, and integrate effects like chroma key. He skillfully orchestrates the show like a symphony conductor and sends it out to the students many miles away. Evan uses the Crestron touch panel to add to the number of sources at his disposal, such as a DVD player, a VCR, a CD cassette deck, and a bank of still images stored on a computer. Using the Crestron system, he can send some of these signals to TBCs or time-based correctors. The TBCs time the signal, adjusting the video output of certain sources so they can be sent out over the air. The waveform monitor and vector scope are used to examine the color saturation and black levels of the outgoing video signal to make certain it conforms with broadcast standards. Using the sound mixing board, Evan can control the volume, as well as the sound of the outgoing and incoming audio signals. And he can control lights in the studio using the light board. The distance learning programs produced at Science and Math are also streamed over the internet, as well as archived, so students can view the classes later. The AutoPatch is the hub of the control room. This is the piece of equipment that actually routes the signal through a maze of wires when the studio manager pushes the buttons on the switcher. From the AutoPatch, the audio and video signals are sent to the codec, short for coder-de-coder. Using an algorithmic formula, the analog signals are converted to digital, compressing the audio and video into data. The data is sent from the codec to the router to the internet. The data is received by the distance site and decoded by the codec, into a video signal that can be sent to monitors or a video projector, and an audio signal that can be sent to speakers in the room. The approximate cost of getting Miss Nancy's science lesson out to the distance site is, and the cost of Miss Nancy's students understanding the lesson, priceless.