Qatar rising

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The tiny Gulf state of Qatar is fast developing a reputation for world-class sporting, education and cultural venues housing cutting-edge AV technology and infrastructure. Aaron Greenwood reports from Doha.

With a rapidly growing population of just over 1.2 million, the second-highest GDP in the world and the third-largest natural gas reserves, Qatar is one of the wealthiest and fastest developing countries in the GCC.

The tiny Gulf state has taken an arguably more measured approach to development, investing billions in establishing world-class sporting, education and cultural facilities in a bid to carve its own niche in the region.

Qatar houses more higher education institutions per head of population than any other country in the Middle East, many of which are satellite campuses of prestigious American universities including Georgetown, Northwestern and Weill Cornell Medical College.

The drive to transform Qatar into a knowledge-based society is spearheaded by the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit institution founded in 1995 by the Qatar government to develop world-class scientific, training and higher education facilities in Doha.

The Qatar Foundation is responsible for a sprawling area in ‘New Doha’ that houses the major universities, Qatar Science and Technology Park and upcoming Qatar Convention Centre, which is set to be one of the largest exhibition venues in the Middle East when it is completed in 2010. The government’s commitment to positioning Qatar as a leader in scientific and cultural pursuits is reflected in its ambitious approach to ensuring these facilities boast the latest cutting-edge AV and IT technologies and infrastructure.

Qatar Foundation Education City-based Texas A&M University and Georgetown University are but two of these facilities to have implemented the latest AV technologies across classrooms, lecture halls and other areas within their respective campuses.

Cutting-edge videoconferencing technologies are standout features of both AV installs, completed by leading Qatari systems integrator, TechnoQ.

The Georgetown University School of Foreign Service is the first organisation in the Middle East to install a Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX HD) high-definition videoconferencing system.

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In practice, the remarkable technology enables Georgetown students in Qatar and Washington DC to interact in real-time in a ‘virtual environment’. In terms of interior design, both classrooms are mirror-images of the other, even down to the physical placement of desks, seating rows and the dimensions of each classroom.

The system also enables lecturers to display supporting content on the respective plasma screens at both locations concurrently.

“Polycom sells the entire package to clients and completes the install,” explains Rob Tognoli, senior quality control engineer for TechnoQ.

“They’ve pretty much got it down to an exact science, in terms of configuring the rooms. The installation takes about a week, but the end result is brilliant.”

The technology enables professors and other class leaders to make virtual eye-contact with students in the remote location, thanks to strategically placed microphones and a unique twin-lens camera system, which blends and processes the resulting images in a panoramic environment.

The system also employs HDX audio processors with the signals handled via DSP, separate to the codec. It operates over IP ensuring zero latency.

The university uses the facility on a daily basis, explains Cheong Eng Siong, Georgetown University’s audio-visual manager.

“Most afternoons you can’t get a slot,” he says. “It’s definitely proven its value. In addition to working with our main Washington campus, we also regularly link up with universities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“It is difficult in terms of securing quality broadband links within these markets, but quite often we’ll try and locate satellite links to ensure we don’t have any drop-outs. Ideally, we’ll run a 4Mb/s line.”

Siong believes videoconferencing technologies such as the RPX system could force a seismic shift in the higher education system in the Middle East.

“Students here are collaborating with their peers based in the US on tutorials, and receiving lectures from US-based professors all in a real-time virtual environment,” he says.

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