Mediasite lecture capture technology chosen for creating modern education center

MADISON, Wis. - January 05, 2011 - Manchester Dental Education Centre (MANDEC) has expanded its audience reach by adding Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, Inc.(NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting, lecture capture and knowledge management, to its classroom technology offering.

"The Mediasite webcasting platform allows us to explore more modern educational technology," said Dr. Craig Barclay, director of education for MANDEC. "We've been very much a traditional education center in terms of providing traditional lectures; people show up, listen and go home, or show up for their courses, get some hands-on learning and go home. As people utilize different forms of online learning tools, Mediasite allows those seeking education greater flexibility in how they access it. This learning technology has enabled us to look at other ways of providing education without people having to come into the center."

Open since 1997, MANDEC uses Mediasite to provide postgraduate and continuing education for dentists, hygienists and technicians. From its location on the top floor of a dental school in Manchester, England, MANDEC also webcasts live clinical work from the education center to its delegates. Recently the center has begun using Mediasite to expand the audience for educational content, high-profile speakers and events.

"I believe there's no point in bringing someone hundreds of miles to present a lecture in a small community or a small part of Britain when you can open it up to a much larger audience within the U.K. or all of Europe. Mediasite has offered the potential to have a meeting that can be accessed by far more people than can come to the center," said Dr. Barclay.

Last spring Dr. Barclay organized a meeting in Glasgow, Scotland where several hundred dentists gathered to hear 12 international speakers present on the topic of dental implantology. The keynote speaker fell ill the night before the conference and was unable to give his lecture to the in-person audience. Eight months later, back in Glasgow for another event, Professor Tomas Albrektsson, renowned for his work in oral implants, agreed to deliver his lecture.

"The problem was a lot of delegates that initially came to the spring conference live in various parts of the U.K. It was going to be very difficult for all these people who had come together in March to reconvene in Glasgow in November for a single lecture," said Dr. Barclay.

He turned to Mediasite for a hybrid event solution. Dr. Barclay invited the delegates to existing lecture theaters in London, Manchester and Glasgow, and used Mediasite to live stream the lecture and project it in each of the remote locations over a secure network.

"It's a very clever system. I like the way people off-site can still ask questions of the lecturer through Mediasite's ask feature and we had several people do just that. Professor Albrektsson was impressed that he was presenting in Glasgow and being asked questions from London," said Dr. Barclay. "Sonic Foundry staff was instrumental in helping us make the event a success."

"We are thrilled to support MANDEC's educational technology efforts, and look forward to their continued expansion of rich media webcasting to reach new audiences, both in the classroom setting, professional development and beyond," said Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry.