Online Learning Accelerates in United Arab Emirates Amid COVID-19 Outbreak with Ankabut, Mediasite Partnership
Partnership gives colleges, universities, research institutions in United Arab Emirates cost-effective way to start or expand digital learning initiatives with Mediasite
MADISON, Wis.(01 May 2020)
The use of video learning is rapidly increasing in the Middle East due to a new partnership between Mediasite and Ankabut, the United Arab Emirates’ Advanced National Research and Education Network (NREN). Mediasite is Ankabut’s preferred video provider, offering all colleges, universities and government agencies in the region cost-effective services to start or expand their digital learning initiatives, especially vital now as institutions must turn to online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Lecture capture and video learning in the United Arab Emirates continues to evolve, and we are seeing increased demand and expansion of the use of Mediasite in the region, especially during the current climate,” said Rob Lipps, Executive Vice President, Sonic Foundry, the maker of Mediasite. “The UAE market values flexibility for how Mediasite is deployed, and this partnership allows for an in-country, multi-tenant cloud services environment -- a game-changer for the region, because it is creating a reliable, feasible and economical way for institutions to embrace video learning.”
Lipps continued: “We are extremely excited to begin this partnership with Ankabut and look forward to helping even more instructors and learners around the region experience the power of Mediasite to transform the way they teach and learn.”
Ankabut, an initiative of long-time Mediasite user Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, connects schools and agencies together across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It provides IT infrastructure to remove barriers to technology use and empower institutions to incorporate educational technologies in classrooms and training rooms.
The partnership with Mediasite lets the participating institutions connect any number of their Mediasite video capture solutions to Ankabut’s secure, centrally managed Mediasite deployment. This provides institutions a scalable in-country infrastructure to record, deliver and manage video. Institutions can purchase Mediasite directly through Ankabut, which will host the deployment for them.
“Ankabut’s partnership with Sonic Foundry aims at offering the education sector in UAE a video communication platform to be consumed as a cloud software service that leverages Ankabut’s high speed NREN network, as well as Ankabut Cloud Services,” said Fahem Al Nuaimi, CEO, Ankabut. “Mediasite will enable education institutions to optimize costs, improve efficiency and focus on their usage of videos such as lecture capture, video streaming and sharing. The availability of this platform for academic institutions in UAE enhances their distance learning solutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Trusted by 5,200 educational institutions, corporations, health organizations and government entities in 65 countries, the Mediasite video content management and webcasting system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand videos.
About Ankabut
Ankabut is the United Arab Emirates’ Advanced National Research and Education Network (NREN) offering academic institutions connectivity to other education networks around the world. In addition to connecting universities, Ankabut can connect schools and public institutions together across the UAE with an effective cost model. Ankabut also co-operates on a national, GCC, regional and international arena representing the UAE in conferences, exhibitions and forums. Ankabut aims to offer professional and innovative IT services with a focus on the research and educational sector. Services includes Cloud, Connectivity, IT infrastructure, manage service and professional services such as IT Consultancy, Project Management, Licenses, Training and Development. Ankabut interconnects more than 80 tenants with a 10G backbone and 1G access links. It enables a closed community network that allows the transfer of real-time services such as voice and video communication, time-critical services such as grid computing interconnect (cloud computing), public internet services, web hosting (C panel), co- locating, Edu- roam, High Performance Computing (HPC), Learning Management System (LMS), Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI), Mozoon system and Sierra Library Management System.
Ankabut supports initiatives in the e-learning environment, library content and distribution systems and research collaboration. Ankabut believes that identifying these initiatives and offering network, processing and storage support is the best way to develop a collective collaborative approach to research and education. The Ankabut Project is jointly funded by ICT Fund, Khalifa University and member support. Ankabut is managed by Khalifa University, and the CEO of Ankabut is Mr. Fahem Al Nuaimi.
About Sonic Foundry, Inc.
Sonic Foundry (OTC: SOFO) is the global leader for video capture, management and streaming solutions. Trusted by more than 5,200 educational institutions, corporations, health organizations and government entities in over 65 countries, its Mediasite Video Platform quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos. Learn more at
www.mediasite.com and @mediasite.