The Utah Education Network (UEN) is a broadband and digital broadcast network serving public education, higher education, applied technology campuses, libraries, and public charter schools throughout the state of Utah. The Network facilitates interactive

video conferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

, provides instructional support services, and operates a

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

station (

KUEN KUEN (channel 9), known as UEN-TV, is an educational television station licensed to Ogden, Utah, United States, serving Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. The station is owned by the Utah Board of Higher Education and part of the Utah Educa ...

) on behalf of the

Utah State Board of Regents The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) is the public university system of the state of Utah. It includes each of the state's sixteen public institutions of higher education, including its eight technical colleges. History On March 21, 1969, ...

. UEN services benefit more than 60,000 faculty and staff, and more than 780,000 students from pre-schoolers in Head Start programs through grandparents in graduate school. UEN headquarters are in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

at the

Eccles Broadcast Center The Dolores Doré Eccles Broadcast Center (often shortened to Eccles Broadcast Center) is headquarters of three broadcast stations and a statewide educational consortium. The center houses KUED, KUER, KUEN and the Utah Education Network. Th ...

on the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

campus.

History

The

Utah State Legislature The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term ...

formally established UEN in 1989, but the statewide collaboration of public education and higher education started more than two decades earlier when

KUED KUED (channel 7), branded PBS Utah, is a PBS member television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The station is owned by the University of Utah, and has studios at the Eccles Broadcast Center on Wasatch Drive in the northeaster ...

-Channel 7 signed on the air in 1958. The station built translator towers to beam its signal to remote communities, and eventually the station placed analog

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

equipment on some of those towers enabling two-way

teleconferencing A teleconference or telecon is a live exchange of information among several people remote from one another but linked by a communications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing, and phone conferencing are also sometime ...

for education and government. The system was initially named SETOC (State Educational Technical Operations Center), renamed as EDNET and is now UEN IVC (Interactive Video Conferencing). In December 1986, KULC-Channel 9 (now UEN-TV) started broadcasting as Utah’s Learning Channel, and in 1994 UEN started UtahLINK, the Internet component of the Network. All of those services now operate as the Utah Education Network. UEN-TV and sister station KUED were broadcasting digitally by June 2012, but experiments in statewide digital broadcasting were underway as early as 2004.

Services

Three infrastructure services are integral to UEN’s mission of networking for education. Students, parents, educators, and local communities all benefit from these services. They include: *Networking Services, to extend and maintain UEN’s broadband and digital TV networks, including the UEN Wide Area Network, Internet access and filtering and securing monitoring. *Application Services, to provide video conferencing, library and learning management resources at high efficiency through shared support and statewide purchasing discounts. *Support Services, to assist the users of UEN infrastructure and hosting, including teachers, faculty, librarians and regional support centers.

Funding

UEN is funded by the public through an annual state appropriation, e-rate reimbursements from the FCC’s

Universal Service Fund The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a system of telecommunications subsidies and fees managed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promote universal access to telecommunications services in the United States. The FCC es ...

, and from local, state and federal grants. In fiscal year 2013, UEN funding totaled $38.2 million with about 45% ($17.4 million) appropriated by the Utah State Legislature. Through public/private partnerships with local telecommunications companies UEN sustains local economic development with $16.5 million of Networking Services budget paid to Utah telecommunication providers for leased circuits.

Service area

UEN’s geographic reach stretches from Logan to St. George and from the Grouse Creek to Navajo Mountain. The Network connects more than 1000 public schools, nine state colleges and universities, and eight applied technology campuses. Those connections serve more than 841,000 students, teachers, faculty and staff. (2013). Utah broadband project improves communication at special needs school. The Quilt Circle, (2013 Edition), 9. Retrieved from http://www.thequilt.net/images/stories/attachments/thequiltcircle2013_web.pdf

References

External links