Penn State Dance Marathon (Thon) Multicast
Description
Thon is a dance marathon hosted by the Interfraternity and the Panhellenic Councils of Penn State in an effort to raise money for Four Diamonds Fund. Four Diamonds Fund is a non-profit organization that allocates financial support to families with children fighting pediatric cancer. Each year, hundreds of students dance non-stop for nearly two days to call attention to pediatric cancer and the need for more research. In 2007, in its inaugural year at the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC), Penn State students raised $5.2 million for the Four Diamonds Fund. Emerging Technologies (ET) was able to participate in Thon once again by engineering the connectivity necessary for streaming Webcast and multicast of the event to all Penn State campuses throughout the Commonwealth, including the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, to media outlets across Pennsylvania, and to world-wide Internet users.
Since 2005, the Thon multicast has been a cooperative effort of the following campus organizations and units, as noted in the "Collaborators" section of this page, below. All of these groups worked together to enable multicast and Windows Media and QuickTime streams of the event over the Internet. For more information on the specifications, please refer to the "Resources" section of this page, below; photos of Thon dancers, the BJC, and the multicasting equipment are also available in the "Resources" section.
This year, Thon was held the weekend of February 16, 17, and 18, 2007. Since the entire event takes months of planning and preparation, ET staff members began a dialogue with the Thon Webcast personnel in October 2006. They contacted Telecommunications and Networking Services (TNS), of ITS, to request the backbone connection for the BJC. Notably, TNS has short-term, Integrated Backbone connections available for Penn State events, and because of the philanthropic nature of Thon, TNS graciously waived the fee for the connection. After the backbone connection was turned up on February 12, ET staff configured and tested the equipment and its connectivity to ensure that it would be ready by the day of the event, enabling the crew to "plug and play."
Publications
Three Partner to Increase Thon's Reach
Worldwide Webcast of Thon Supported by ITS
Resources
Thon multicasting specifications page
Photo album
Primary ET Contacts
Dave Beyerle and Chris Hubing
Collaborators
Thon Technology Committee
College of Communications
Penn State Public Broadcasting
Auxiliary and Business Services
Telecommunications and Networking Services (TNS), also of ITS
The collaborators listed here are reflective of those involved every year; however, it should be noted that collaborators can change from year-to-year. In the past, The College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Penn State Hershey Medical Center have contributed to/participated in this effort.
Expected Deliverable(s)
N/A; see the description above for details.
Level of ET Involvement
High; annually.
Initiative Start Date
November 2004; continuous on an annual basis.