ViPr's intuitive graphical interface is easy to master, making first-time users expert video communicators with minimal training. ViPr's real-time, delay-free operation provides educators with a rich multimedia experience, providing immediate distance learning and school benefits. Lake Washington is adding ViPr to its existing Wide Area Network, which is based on Gigabit Ethernet.

"With ViPr, our staff simply calls each other just as they would on a telephone. Such ease of use and high visual and audio quality reinforce our educational mission with new methods of classroom and administrative collaboration," said Dr. Chip Kimball, Lake Washington's assistant superintendent and chief information officer. "ViPr helps our managers make quicker, better decisions instead of waiting to schedule a meeting. We finally have a video conferencing technology whose reliability and feature set can support pervasive use in distance learning and education."

Lake Washington teachers will employ ViPr strategically in the distance learning educational process. Using ViPr's always-on and virtual presence capabilities, team leaders from different schools can easily collaborate on academic projects and Master Teachers, which are experienced teachers who mentor other teachers, can have an immediate and more effective impact on distance learning and educational issues.

Lake Washington School District is the fifth largest district in Washington with 46 schools across 72 square miles and almost 24,000 students. ViPr's 15-way conferencing feature will help school staff and administrators devote more time and effort to improving the distance learning and overall educational process.

ViPr combines the immediacy of a telephone call with the impact of audio and video, utilizing digital high-fidelity audio and DVD-quality video in an integrated video telephony platform that provides distance learning users with an experience they perceive as virtual presence. ViPr pioneered the use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology and remains the only SIP-based multiparty desktop video telephony platform.

ViPr is the only multiparty video telephony platform that eliminates the Multi-point Control Unit (MCU), a costly device that traditional video conferencing products require for multiparty calls. The MCU also introduces delay that makes real-time video telephony nearly impossible. Eliminating the MCU allows ViPr to deliver critical communications and distance learning courses, allowing participants to perceive every gesture and vocal nuance with digital accuracy. Additional information can be found at http://www.marconi.com .