|
The role of conditional access in distance learning in Latin America
The Latin American market presents particular challenges for dissemination of education material. its geographical distances and territory (jungles, mountains and rivers), the underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of telephone lines and the unequal development between urban and rural areas. As a result, distance learning methods are rapidly gaining popularity.
Satellite communication tools are the ideal solution to overcome these challenges, providing wide distribution of data at the lowest possible cost.
In common with many of the other users of satellite communication, distance learning has two problems to overcome; who will cover the costs and how can confidentiality be maintained in the environment of corporate education?
Conditional access ensures a solid business case in both of these important areas.
Conditional Access allows a broadcaster to control who sees his programmes.
An operator broadcasting content by any distribution mechanism (satellite, cable, terrestrial) can control viewing rights by encrypting this content before transmission. This means that content is scrambled during its distribution and requires a decryption mechanism at the receiver side to enable viewing. This is done with a set top box and a ‘smart card’, which can be authorised by the operator at any time. A subscribers’ programme entitlements can thus be modified over the air in a matter of seconds.
Funding of Distance learning
There are several ways to raise the finance for educational courses. Conditional Access makes it possible to open up an important new potential revenue stream, enabling education providers to broadcast course materials directly to their individual students. Considerable travel time is thus saved for the student while the educational establishment can cover a larger area with potentially, a self-financing approach.
Successful deployments of this approach can be seen in the provision of financial and MBA courses across Brazil to students sponsored by their employing companies.
Privacy of Distance Learning
In accordance with “best practices” of current management thinking, leading Latin American companies place a high priority on training more employees, in more places and more regularly. Through this approach, companies can develop skills and knowledge within their organisation to give them competitive advantage over other players.
Conditional Access can offer companies the high degree of security needed for the distribution of such valuable information.
The Developing uses for Conditional Access
The first Conditional Access systems were deployed in the world of leading pay-tv operations. These were large, complex systems, requiring teams of technicians to maintain and run them. A large initial investment of capital was necessary, followed by considerable continuing maintenance and operational costs.
In line with almost all technologies Conditional Access has benefited from the technological advances made over the last twenty years. Although the actual security principles at the foundation of the system have evolved rapidly, the relative price and cost of ownership of these systems have fallen dramatically.
Other, complimentary elements of a broadcasting system have developed equally, such as the compression equipment and set top boxes. This brought about interesting business opportunities for a new type of broadcaster, or rather narrowcaster; focusing on a very specific target audience. Irdeto Access has developed a product specifically designed for the small to medium-sized operators in the DVB market. This compact conditional access system is called Irdeto M-Crypt DVB.
Of particular interest to the distance learning industry is also the more recent and innovative distribution method of IP multicasting, supported by Irdeto CypherCast. In principle it has many similarities with traditional broadcasting, technically as well as commercially.
For the application of distance learning, however, IP Multicasting has several distinct advantages; its efficient use of bandwidth and consequent cost effectiveness is a clear benefit to the operator. The possibilities for interaction between teacher and student are also far greater through this medium. Finally, instructions given through the “sit up and study” stance of a PC have been proven to be far more effective than the “lie back and relax” stance taken when watching a television.
 Top of Page
|
