A new television network presenting programs from 33 college stations will begin airing on the Internet next month.
Prashant Chopra, chief architect with Campus EAI Consortium, said the Open Student Television Network is television created for students by students. The OSTN is powered by Internet 2 and Campus EAI Consortium, a nonprofit technology group of more than 100 colleges and universities led by Case Western Reserve University.
"What the OSTN is doing is creating a channel like MTV or Comedy Central where the institutions of the students themselves are producing them themselves," Chopra said.
WHOO-TV, the University's television network, is currently under reconstruction, but Cavalier Broadcasting President Grant Kidner said he hopes to have a new and improved version of WHOO-TV up and running by the beginning of next year.
"We shut it down because we didn't have any new content," he said. "If you tune into the station now, it is just going to be static, because we didn't want to run all the reruns that we've had for the past three years."
Kidner said WHOO-TV will be in production more frequently once the University provides Internet 2 access in the Cavalier Broadcasting room, which would allow the University to be a part of the OSTN. He said he expects to have Internet 2 in the Cavalier Broadcast room in the next few years.
The OSTN would allow University students to broadcast creations to every institution involved with the network. The University could broadcast student programs to other universities via the OSTN, Kidner added.
"For next year, we are looking to have independent student films and music and broadcast that to students," he said. "We have been working on this all semester. We've been trying to get copyright licenses, and we've worked out how to play music on the air."
Kidner said he has been in contact with The University's Film and Media Society about student films to broadcast. He added that Cavalier Broadcasting, the student group which creates WHOO-TV, hopes to obtain films that other independent students have produced.
Chopra said over a hundred institutions are involved in the OSTN, and more than 35 actually are producing shows and programs.
Chopra said he thinks the OSTN pertains to students more so than mainstream networks.
"A lot of the television shows on MTV or Comedy Central, for example, are telling people what to think, what to wear," Chopra said. "This environment is more like what the students really think and what they are really wearing."
Chopra said he eventually wants every institution in the country to become involved with the OSTN.
Kidner said he is enthusiastic about the future of WHOO-TV.
"If students want their stuff on TV, then they should be able to take advantage of the resources," he said.
Kidner said WHOO-TV will broadcast student creations next year.
Internet college television to debut Network to air programs from 33 college stations next month, WHOO-TV to produce more frequently
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