PAIUnet Announces Statewide Availability of SAFARI Montage

Exceptional Video-on-Demand Content Available July 1, 2010

Harrisburg, PA (June 28, 2010) - The Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units, PAIU, is pleased to announce that, beginning July 1, 2010, SAFARI Montage Video-on-Demand will be available to all public schools in the commonwealth connected to its high-speed network, PAIUnet.

“This is an exciting announcement and illustrates why PAIUnet is such an integral tool for Pennsylvania schools. Without PAIUnet’s high-speed, broadband infrastructure, we would not be able to provide SAFARI Montage video content in this capacity,” said Mark Hoffman, Director of Instructional Materials and Technology at Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22. “The content available through SAFARI Montage will supplement curriculum with cutting-edge digital resources that will enrich our students’ learning experiences.”

SAFARI Montage will be available to all PAIUnet-connected public schools at no cost for school year 2010-2011 through an Act 183 grant awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to the Intermediate Units. Following the first year, schools will have access to SAFARI Montage at discounted pricing.

SAFARI Montage is the award-winning Video-On-Demand and Digital Media Management solution for schools designed to cut costs by utilizing intelligent digital media delivery, while facilitating visual instruction and learning in the classroom. SAFARI Montage servers come preloaded with educational video titles from the industry's leading video publishers, including Schlessinger Media, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, Scholastic, Disney Education, BBC and more. In addition to preloaded content, SAFARI Montage enables the state’s Intermediate Units to upload their own video content for seamless distribution. SAFARI Montage, based in Wynnewood, PA, delivers an entire education solution of visual instruction resources, digital media management, and digital rights management tools for the classroom from one central system, enabling a total approach to teaching, learning and achievement for 21st century learners.

PAIUnet is a private internet for K-12 education in Pennsylvania. It is a safer, faster and less expensive alternative to the public Internet and offers schools improved access to shared educational services. Schools still use the public internet to exchange information with organizations that aren’t on PAIUnet, but the benefit of using PAIUnet between member schools is that it provides the same information without the clutter of the traditional internet.

Pennsylvania schools will see tremendous cost-savings as a result of the partnership between PAIUnet and SAFARI Montage. By working as a consortium, Pennsylvania’s Intermediate Units have leveraged the size of the state to purchase SAFARI Montage at a price point that represents significant savings for all participating entities. Also, because the content will reside on central servers located strategically throughout the commonwealth, individual schools will not be required to purchase, manage, and maintain the required infrastructure to support the content. By working together, Pennsylvania schools connected to PAIUnet not only can share the content available on SAFARI Montage, they can do so in a much more cost-effective way.

PAIUnet will be making additional announcements about the services available through this high-speed network throughout the summer and fall. Please stay tuned for more information.

For more information about PAIUnet, please visit www.paiunet.org.

For more information about SAFARI Montage, please visit www.SAFARIMontage.com.p>

###