Digital Middletown Project Underway

In an attempt to determine the impact of high-definition content delivery on education and home life in America, wireless networking equipment manufacturer, Proxim (Quote, Chart) is providing the wireless backbone for a research project being conducted by Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Muncie—dubbed "Middletown, U.S.A." in a groundbreaking sociological study published in 1924—is generally considered to be a perfect example of a typical American city. As a result, it has become the most studied city in America, and was, therefore, considered an ideal testing ground for this new wireless project.

Dubbed "Digital Middletown," this latest research involves three stages, the second of which was recently deployed. The first stage provided select individuals with high-bandwidth wireless access from their homes to the Internet and to Ball State University’s systems, via Proxim’s Tsunami point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access systems and point-to-point wireless Ethernet bridges.

The second stage connected two Muncie elementary schools to the university—over a distance of seven miles—using Proxim’s Tsunami 100 Wireless Ethernet Bridge and Tsunami QuickBridge. The schools participating in the study received notebook computers, plasma screens and videoconferencing equipment, as well as wireless printers, speakers and access points, compliments of Gateway and Ball State. The schools can now access high-definition content, including 26,000 video clips owned by United Streaming, (a Discovery Channel affiliate) and media files from the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

The third stage of the project will see Ball State expand its delivery of wireless connectivity and content delivery to several hundred homes near one of the elementary schools to further test the impact of access to high-definition content on home users. Proxim was chosen for this phase as well, in part because expanding its network is relatively simple.

By Naomi Graychase

Full Story: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3492861