Students returning to campus may have noticed they already had cable television service in their rooms. This is the result of an agreement Valparaiso University recently signed with Campus TeleVideo to provide on-campus cable television services with more than 75 channels of entertainment, sports, news, local broadcast and educational content. Aside from the entertainment aspects of cable television, this agreement offers exciting educational opportunities for the campus community. Included in the service are 12 foreign language channels that provide educational programming, as well as standard programming.

The foreign language channels include Prosieben and Deutsche Welle (German); CCTV-4 (Chinese) and Phoenix Television (Chinese, Hong Kong-based); EuroNews; JNG TV (Japanese), and a few Latino channels (to be determined).

Another new opportunity provided by this contract is we will have two channels broadcasting local VU content. One channel will feature a scrolling campus announcement listing, while the other channel will broadcast locally generated programming. Details on these are still being finalized.

As part of the new service, all residence hall rooms have been upgraded to receive the customized channel line-up with more than 75 channels. Students in the residence halls no longer have to sign up for cable--this new service is provided free to campus residents as a convenience of occupancy. All that is necessary to receive the service is a cable-ready television set and a coax cable to connect the television to the cable outlet in the room.

Departments may also take advantage of the new service. The only cost to the department is the cost of running the coax cable to the desired location. Departments wanting cable service in new locations should submit a service request to the IT Help Desk. Existing cable hookups were moved over from Comcast to this new service.

To see a complete listing of the channels available, go to www.zap2it.com and enter the zip code 46383. Select “Valparaiso University – Cable” at the end of the cable providers for our area to see the VU channel listing.