MADISON, Wis. – April 29, 2009 – Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, today announced the winners of the fifth annual Rich Media Impact Awards during UNLEASH 2009, the third annual Mediasite conference. New this year are two awards that recognize prolific use of webcasting and enhanced student experience through rich media.
The RMIA were launched in 2005 to showcase excellence in the practical and creative integration of the Mediasite webcasting platform in education, business, health and government. The awards honor organizations that have demonstrated measurable improvements in accessibility, cost savings, efficiency and productivity.
“With the RMIA we give special recognition to the successes of our customers who have pushed the boundaries of rich media with work that demonstrates creativity, innovation, cost savings and excellence across diverse organizations,” said Rob Lipps, executive vice president of Sonic Foundry. “We look forward to supporting these achievements and sharing with them in their commitment to bridge time and distance and share knowledge not only throughout their organizations, but around the world.”
An on-demand webcast catalog of finalist presentations, as well as honorable mention submissions and honorees from past years, is available. Winners were announced at a special awards dinner Tuesday, April 28 in Madison, Wisconsin during UNLEASH 2009, the company’s third annual Mediasite User Conference. An on-demand webcast the awards ceremony is available at www.sonicfoundry.com/awards.
2009 Rich Media Impact Award Winners
NEW Prolific Use Award: recognizes an organization that has dramatically scaled its rich media program to achieve a broad deployment across its enterprise or record number of presentations, views or audiences. The 2009 winner is Fox School of Business at Temple University, which uses Mediasite to power its TUCAPTURE initiative. Used by every Fox undergraduate program, every Fox academic department and expected at every TU campus and overseas, TUCAPTURE records more than 300 hours of online lectures per day.
NEW Student Impact Award: recognizes an individual student, as well as his/her college or university, whose educational experience has been enhanced through rich media. The 2009 winner is Jenna Lombardo, a student at Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center. According to Jenna, Mediasite has improved her educational experience by providing unique online learning opportunities and the opportunity for time-shifting that is not possible in a traditional classroom setting.
Enterprise Award: recognizes an organization who improved its business outcomes through rich media communication. The 2009 winner is Russell Investments, a global investment company that uses Mediasite to share knowledge inside the organization. To efficiently deliver messages from experts to its workforce, Russell creates webcasts that combine a question and answer format with multiple cameras and live switching. The result is both engaging and informative to the end user.
Excellence in Education Award: recognizes a higher education institution that enhanced learning and outreach through rich media. The 2009 winner is Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which operates a robust campus-wide educational environment with Mediasite as its core component. Used by all departments for academic, clinical, outreach and in-service education, Mediasite has changed the educational landscape of the campus. As testament to this claim, the Institution has built a library of over 3,700 presentations, and recently achieved the mark of 101,000 total Mediasite views per year.
Facility Design Award: recognizes a Mediasite customer and/or professional AV design or consulting firm that created innovative rich media rooms and facilities. The 2009 winner is Ashland University Instructional Technology Support Group. The University has doubled the amount of online presentations it creates each year. IT’s answer to streamlining the process was to create a technology enhanced observation classroom, with full Mediasite RL recorder integration, permanent mic installation, auto camera tracking of presenters, and SMART board functionality recording into Mediasite.
Global Reach Award: recognizes any successful initiative that connected the international community through rich media. The 2009 winner is Florida State University GEOSET. The Global Educational Outreach (GEO) initiative uses new technology to provide outstanding Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) teaching material. GEOSET aims to create a global network of participating sites who deliver valuable downloadable teaching material created by the best science and technology experts and educators via Mediasite.
Government Award: recognizes a local, state or federal government initiative that implemented rich media for training and outreach. The 2009 winner is The Center for Rural Development. During an initiative to bring live Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday celebration presentations to students in southern and eastern Kentucky, heavy snow and frigid temperatures closed schools and postponed scheduled performances. The Center used Mediasite to record Lincoln presenters and stream to schools across the region.
Healthcare Award: recognizes an organization that implemented rich media to benefit health and wellness. The 2009 winner is Ontario Hospital Association. OHA is a provincial non-profit organization that serves 159 member hospitals across the province of Ontario. OHA uses Mediasite to foster communication and professional development with all hospitals across the province.
Rapid ROI Award: recognizes an organization that used rich media to quickly achieve a measurable ROI in its training, communications or outreach initiatives. The 2009 winner is The Schallert Group. The group’s business training and Destination University curriculum reaches small business owners in over 100 cities in the United States, reducing their experts’ need to travel by over a third.
Scholastic Achievement Award: recognizes a school district or other organization serving the K-12 educational community that harnessed the power of rich media to improve communication, learning and outreach. The 2009 winner is Memphis City Schools, which uses Mediasite to train its employees and provide timely support and communication to parents and community members.
Finalists will also be showcased on the Sonic Foundry website and in advertising in the June/July issue of Streaming Media Magazine as well as other publications throughout the year.
Since its introduction in 2003, Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite has set the standard as a transformational communication medium for delivering critical information and sharing knowledge. The patented Mediasite webcasting and content management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of rich media presentations that combine audio, video and accompanying graphics for live or on-demand viewing.
For the complete list of past RMIA winners visit www.sonicfoundry.com/resources/impact-awards/past-winners.
About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.
Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Madison, Wis., Sonic Foundry (OTC: SOFO) is dedicated to transforming how the world works and learns through innovative and scalable technology solutions. Sonic Foundry’s brands include Vidable® and Global Learning Exchange® which help unlock a smarter, more connected world for learners, workers, and entrepreneurs everywhere. For more information visit www.sonicfoundry.com.
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