UH and American Samoa launch HoloCampus 3D learning platform 

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/2P5GJzS

WHAT: The launch of HoloCampus, a remote learning program, using a state-of-the-art platform allowing transmission of 3D holograms to beam a live broadcast of a lecture from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa into a classroom at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) in Pago Pago, running on the Hawaiki submarine cable, which recently celebrated the 1 year anniversary of its connection to American Samoa.

WHO: UH President David Lassner

           American Samoa Governor Lolo M. Moliga

           Congresswoman Aumua Amata

          Representatives from Hawaiki, ASCC, American Samoa Telecommunications Authority and ARHT (Augmented Reality Holographic Telepresence)         

          UH Mānoa Water Resources Research Center researcher Chris Shuler presented a lecture on “Sustainability and Resilience” at UH and appeared as a 3D hologram at the ASCC 

HOW: The lecture will be broadcast via the Hawaiki submarine cable, the 15,000 km, 67 terabit fiber optic cable that connects New Zealand, Australia, American Samoa, Hawaiʻi and the United States. It has also been designed with branching units to Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

WHERE: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Kuykendall room 205 and American Samoa Community College, Pago Pago

OTHER FACTS:

• This digital platform is the first solution of its kind in the Pacific enabling thousands of students in American Samoa to have access to a world-class education and redefining how schools and universities connect and collaborate in the region. 

• American Samoa Community College and UH are working together to create specific course programs running on HoloCampus. 

• The HoloCampus solution was developed in partnership with the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) and Toronto-based firm, ARHT (Augmented Reality Holographic Telepresence).

• Holograms are created using ARHT’s patented "capture studios," which allow people and 3D ‘content’ to be broadcast live, virtually anywhere, in HD or 4K, on myriad devices, with virtually zero latency.

• A speaker can see the room via a video signal back to the capture studio and speak to students responding to their questions and reactions in real-time.

VIDEO: 

BROLL (1:35)

1 shot: Lassner intro to HoloCampus

1 shot: American Samoa audience

1 shot: HoloCampus

2 shots: American Samoa audience

7 shots: UH production studio

SOUNDBITES:

David Lassner, UH President (:18)

“It’s a really interesting and compelling example of how researchers from one place can learn about problems and opportunities in other places and have an opportunity to really share much more effectively than through our traditional academic mode of communication which is scholarly papers.”

Chris Shuler, UH Mānoa researcher who lectured via HoloCampus (:15)

“Technologies like this I could really see being a benefit in potentially you know opening up kind of a certificate program or something to bring to the students at ASCC and provide some of the courses that they don’t have the capacity to teach there.”