They're using it in Olin Library, in engineering classrooms and in the Centennial Room at the Vet School. It's in the Cornell Store, Willard Straight Hall and the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. It's on Libe Slope and the Arts Quad. What is it? RedRover, Cornell's new wireless network.
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| E.D. Intemann, resident lighting designer for the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, uses RedRover in the Class of '56 Flex Theatre to send updated lighting instructions for The Rez Sisters to the main computer in the light lab. Intemann will soon be able to write and update light cues for an entire show from any location with wireless access. Robert Barker/University Photography |
Available to the Cornell community since August, RedRover is rapidly gaining the attention of students, faculty and staff. They are using it to surf the Internet, read e-mail, send in assignments and synchronize previously unnetworked computers. They are toting their laptops out of their offices and dorm rooms and into nontraditional workspaces, with all of their folders, documents and e-mail right at their fingertips.
For faculty and staff, RedRover is boosting productivity. In Carpenter Hall's Engineering Library, reference librarians Jill Powell and Mary Patterson praise its convenience and time-saving aspects.
"We do not work at just one desk," said Patterson. "RedRover allows us to work at the reference desk, at our desks in our office and in the stacks without losing any continuity in our work. When we travel, our files and e-mail travel with us."
"When I teach in Olin Hall, I now have access to the web on my own computer," said Powell. "In previous years, I had to contact a network administrator, figure out how to change the IP address and go to Olin Hall several days in advance to make sure my laptop would work. With RedRover, those days are gone."
Farther down the Cascadilla Gorge in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, RedRover is transforming the paper-based process of entering and updating lighting cues for theatrical productions into a one-touch, synchronized computer process.
In the past, all changes made to the lighting during rehearsals were manually entered into the computerized lighting board. Then they were entered into the light lab's computer to update the lighting paperwork.
"Now we've synchronized the computer in our light lab, which generates all of our lighting paperwork, to the laptop we use in the theaters," said E.D. Intemann, resident lighting designer for the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. "When we're in rehearsal and making changes to the lights, the changes we enter are automatically uploaded to the light lab's computer, thanks to RedRover."
What's next is connecting the light lab's computer to the theater's lighting board, so that all lighting changes made on the laptop go directly to the lighting board. Mechanical engineering major David Johnson '03 is assisting Intemann with this project.
"Eventually, we hope to automate the entire process. Notes will be shared on a server, so work done at home can be updated in the theater instantaneously," said Johnson. "The goal is that with wireless access, an entire show could be written and updated from any location."
For students, RedRover's strongest features include the ease of setting up the initial account, its strong signal strength and the convenience of not having to hook up to cables and jacks.
"I use RedRover constantly between classes for checking e-mail, reading the news and accessing bus schedules. I haven't plugged an Ethernet cable or phone cord into my laptop in the three weeks I've had it," said film major Aja Regall '03.
Library research, the web and e-mail draw Kimberly Noethen to RedRover. A Ph.D. candidate in education, Noethen said: "I find that I can have much more choice in where and when I do what I need to do online. Now I sit with a cup of coffee in one of those comfy chairs at the Olin Cafe, enjoying the beautiful view while I'm online."
Aaron Michael McGowan '03 prefers wireless on campus because it's more private than using a kiosk or going to a computer lab. Engineering undergraduate Ken Lau finds RedRover valuable for looking up information during class. When out on the Arts Quad accessing the wireless spillover from the surrounding buildings, however, Lau has learned not to walk and use RedRover simultaneously.
"You've got to watch where you're going."
RedRover is funded by the university and Cornell University Library and managed by Cornell Information Technologies. For more information, visit http://www.cornell.cit.edu/redrover . Cornell colleges or departments interested in becoming part of RedRover can e-mail redrover@cornell.edu.
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