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7.1.2009 - 7.1.2010
PrudentCloud Blogger Subraya Mallya interviews Barry J McConatha — Manager, Information Technology for Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy

In conjunction with the Starbak interview we had a chance to sit down with the Barry J McConatha — Manager, Information Technology for Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy, one of Starbak’s customers.

SM: Tell us a little bit about your school ?

BM: As you might already know we, Harrison School of Pharmacy, are part of Auburn University. We set out to be one of the progressive schools using the latest technologies and attract students to our school. We have about 150 students per class, plus graduate students, for a total of about 500 students on campus.  (4th year students are on rotations).  HSOP, is sort of the technology test bed and early adopter of technologies within the larger Auburn University with advanced communication and video technologies being adopted in its classrooms and labs.

SM: Why Starbak? What were you looking for specifically that led you to buy Starbak?

BM: A critical factor for choosing Starbak was their ability to record
content in a dual stream mode (H.239). We were using videos to record classes and had a library to maintain them. Students used those videos. But the whole recording, maintenance process was cumbersome. We wanted to move into real time streaming and archiving of our classes online so students can attend the classes online and if they missed they can go back into the archive and attend them later. Some students wanted the ability to go back and see the video again to catch something that they might have missed during the live session. Starbak provided us an integrated platform to capture, stream and archive video. With Starbak portal, users could access the archives on their own. This worked very well with what we wanted.

SM: So in addition to recording what else do you use Starbak for?

BM: We use Starbak for Faculty interviews, Staff training, Student functions like graduation, practical exams, recording drug information.  Faculty interviews can be reviewed by anyone who missed it, to make decisions. Practical exams are recorded for later grading. Student functions are a hit. Parents can now view the graduation ceremonies, if they missed it for some reason.

SM: How big is your infrastructure now? How long do you store videos?

BM: We record upto 8 hours a day of video – around 500 GB per semester.  At any point in time we will have up to 2 semesters worth of video in our archive. Then we recycle the videos. We have 10 encoders installed that create videos for us. We have been using Starbak for 2 years now since its deployment and it has just made a big difference.

SM: What else can you tell me about Starbak that I have not heard from Starbak team or you?

BM: Starbak has become such a critical part of our infrastructure that, if it is not available for a short duration, we will have students calling us repeatedly. The main thing I want to highlight about Starbak is their customer support. As I mentioned, students have taken a liking to the Starbak and it makes it important that we make it available all the time. Greg and his team has been simply great. They have provided fast turnaround on things when there were any issues. They have shipped and replaced parts overnight when needed so we did not have to lose the service. It has been refreshing.

SM: With all the great things Starbak has provided what else are you looking forward to?

BM: We currently make the videos available to students on their laptops. In future, we would look to the possibility of providing the same on iPhone, Blackberry and other Smart phones.

SM: Thanks Barry. Appreciate your time in sharing your experience with Starbak.