Apreso Podcast debuts

Anystream today unveiled Apreso Podcast, an enterprise podcasting solution that enables institutions of higher education to make any lecture -- anywhere on campus -- available for playback on Apple iPods, iTunes, or any MP3 player. Apreso Podcast lets universities easily offer lecture review by automating the many complex tasks required to capture, encode, manage and distribute lecture podcasts. Apreso's hands-free, around-the-clock operation is achieved with Apreso Content Manager, which acts as a rich media command and control center for lecture podcasting. Anystream plans to offer Apreso Podcast as a $10,000 site license to enable schools of virtually any size to deploy lecture podcasts campus wide. Apreso Podcast requires Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2 (availability information was unavailable).

Included with both Apreso Podcast and Apreso Classroom, administrators can use Apreso Content Manager to schedule semester-long audio lecture capture and to specify where, and how, each lecture should be published.

The system's enterprise design also ensures that the lecture podcasts integrate seamlessly with key university systems, appearing with a recognizable icon in Blackboard/WebCT course pages or within pre-defined content categories in iTunes U for students to synchronize their iPods for playback at any time.

"Apreso Podcast turns technology used primarily for personal consumer entertainment into a powerful publishing tool for colleges and universities," said Mark Jones, Anystream vice president of education products. "It's an innovative way for educators to deliver valuable course content that matches the on-demand, mobile lifestyles of their students."

Apreso's open architecture and XML-based API also enable universities to easily integrate with in-house developed course management systems and podcast servers.

by MacNN Staff