• The Institute--Focuses on education, training and academic services
• The Barco Library--Provides reference and information services and archival management
• The Demonstration Academy--Designed with state of the art presentation spaces and technology for displaying and explaining to local, state and national leadership the current and future applications of cable telecommunications for home, business, industry, government and education
• The Museum--Recognizes the cable telecommunication industry’s heritage and perspectives on the future
• The Center Programs--A creative media voice designed to plan and produce the programs and messages of The Center.

Let’s take a look at each of these components in a little more detail:

The Institute was named after the founder of Telecommunications, Inc., Bob Magness. It is also known as The Magness Institute, and is a joint venture between The Cable Center and the University of Denver. It is affiliated with other institutions of higher education throughout the world. The Institute provides education, research, community services and other scholarly activities for and about cable telecommunications. The Institute also disseminates information through conferences, journal publications, links to library resources, and through attendance and sponsorship of professional conferences and industry forums.

Already, the Distance Learning Studio, a portion of the institute, has been home to a joint effort between the University of Denver, C-SPAN and The Cable Center. Nearly 30 DU students attended class twice each week at The Center — a class which was taught from C-SPAN studios in Washington, D.C. via a live, two-way broadcast-quality link. Another class will be taught this fall, and additional opportunities will be evaluated throughout this five-year pilot program.

Housed within The Institute are the following three chairs focusing on three distinct disciplines of The Institute:

• The Leo Hindery Chair and Director of The Magness Institute–The Leo Hindery Chair is a joint appointment with The Cable Center and the University of Denver that will direct the activities of The Magness Institute. The Hindery Chair is the head of The Magness Institute, supervising and directing all programs originating from The Institute with the exception of those directly under the leadership of the Cox Chair in Customer Service and the Levin Chair in Programming.

Some of the Programs of the Leo Hindery Chair and Director of The Magness Institute include:

• The Anna and John Sie Chinese Executive Media Management Program–Through an affiliation between The Cable Center, DU, and Encore International, the Chinese Executive Media Management Program is a six-week course at DU followed by two weeks of travel to meet with media company executives and regulators in other parts of the U.S. Participants from China take part in discussions and programs designed to provide exposure to U.S. business and communications skills, and to facilitate interaction to promote the development of international cable relations.
• The Bob Magness Institute On-Line Learning Programs–The Cable Center has teamed with Jones International University (JIU) to deliver academic and professional development certificate programs worldwide, via the Internet. JIU has customized several certificate programs, including those focused on marketing, human resources, public relations, finance, and general management executives, to address the specific needs of employees in the broadband communications industry.
• The Julian Brodsky Executive-in-Residence Program–The Julian Brodsky Executive-in-Residence Program provides leaders in the telecommunications industry with a prestigious forum through which they will interact with administrators, faculty, and students at universities around the U.S.

• The Amos B. Hostetter Chair of Communication at the University of Denver and The Cable Center–The Hostetter Chair is a partnership between The Cable Center, C-SPAN, and the University of Denver. Designed to develop and implement university courses that use the television delivery systems of The Cable Center and C-SPAN, and to develop a strong and effective teaching and learning model that uses television and technology in a classroom setting.

Programs of the Amos B. Hostetter Chair of Communications

• The C-SPAN Global Distance Learning Program–Through a partnership with The Cable Center, DU, and C-SPAN, The Center is offering this innovative, television-based distance-learning pilot initiative utilizing archived C-SPAN programming. The project will link DU, and eventually other universities, to Washington, D.C. for courses focusing on the effects of cable television and modern communications technologies on political communication and the political process. The course will be broadcast using the capabilities of the Demonstration Academy’s Robert L. Johnson Distance Learning Studio.

• The Jonathan M. Levin University Chair in Cable Television Programming–The Jonathan M. Levin Chair is a joint appointment with The Center and the University of Denver who will be the academic and administrative head of The Cable Center’s Programming Initiative. This University Chair will direct all programming activities, including the development of innovative scholarly and outreach programs and the creation of the programming archive and catalog. The Chair will also serve as The Center’s representative in the cable programming community and will create curriculum for affiliated universities that highlights the impact of cable programming in the television, business, political, and societal arenas.

Programs of the Levin Chair in Programming

• The Jonathan M. Levin Programming Leadership Endowment–The Levin Programming Leadership Endowment provides The Center with the financial foundation for activities at The Center that utilize cable programming. The Endowment focuses on the following five main areas:

1. The creation of the largest physical and electronic repository of original cable programming.
2. Preservation of cable’s original programming and the establishment of protocols for on-going preservation and cataloging.
3. Providing cable programming as an integral resource for industry, scholarly, and general educational use.
4. Instituting programs to celebrate the quality and raise the level of awareness of cable’s impact on society.
5. Enhancing program creation and production with the objective of identifying new talent to ensure continued programming innovation.

The library is designed to be the primary resource in the world for information on the heritage of the cable industry–its television programming, technology, business models, and its entrepreneurs are all represented through a variety of print collections, current electronic resources and databases, and archival and special collections. There is a librarian on staff.

• The CTAM History of Marketing Endowment–The Marketing Endowment of The Barco Library supports an archive that includes print materials, awards, and various other marketing pieces from the campaigns of cable-related companies. The Endowment creates an opportunity for The Center to collect, preserve, and catalog marketing information through The Cable Center learning stations and the web site.

• The Robertson Family Collection–The Robertson Family Collection focuses on cable’s impact on freedom of speech and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The collection will contain books, articles, videos, conference proceedings, and other materials focusing on:
1. The Institute--Focuses on education, training and academic services
2. The Barco Library--Provides reference and information services and archival management
3. The Demonstration Academy--Designed with state of the art presentation spaces and technology for displaying and explaining to local, state and national leadership the current and future applications of cable telecommunications for home, business, industry, government and education
4. The Museum--Recognizes the cable telecommunication industry’s heritage and perspectives on the future
5. The Center Programs--A creative media voice designed to plan and produce the programs and messages of The Center.

• Programming Archives–An important component of the Special Collections and Archives of The Barco Library is the Programming Archive, a leading physical and electronic repository of original cable programming in digital format.
  
• The Hauser Oral History Program–The Barco Library’s Hauser Oral History Program is the worlds leading resource for information about the people who led the Industry in the broadband communications revolution. These first hand accounts-- from industry leaders and pioneers--trace the history of cable from its beginnings to the present, and provide primary source material for research, study, and teaching.
  

Forming the first cable museum in history, The Cable Center has started the ongoing process of collecting artifacts. With everything from power supplies to outdated transmitters, the museum is growing rapidly. These are first hand accounts from industry leaders that trace the history of cable from its beginnings fifty years ago. They provide primary source material for research, study and teaching. The Cable Centers technology and artifact collection is visible through a panoramic glass curtain wall. Selected artifacts will be highlighted along the glass wall in a rotating program to make the entire collection available for display.

The meeting rooms at the Demonstration Academy are unique because they host world-class broadband, audio, video and computer equipment. This high-tech equipment is designed to reach any part of the world to offer both educational and industry-specific initiatives.

The goal of the Demonstration Academy is for members of the cable and business community to utilize and view cutting-edge technologies that may be deployed in their own respective cable systems. The conference rooms have the capability to provide live, two-way video conferencing between the room and two distant locations simultaneously. Individuals using the briefing room for example, which contains two wall-mounted remote-control cameras, can receive and send live pictures and other applications anywhere in the world. In addition, clients will have the ability both to play back pre-recorded audio and videotapes and to download and integrate high-tech computer graphics for multimedia presentations. Another unique aspect of this room are the cameras. They are located behind the panels in the walls and cannot be seen. So if you are conducting a focus group, the cameras won’t intimidate the participants because they are not visible.

The Demonstration Academy consists of these rooms:

• The Robert L. Johnson Distance Learning Studio--Originates a series of educational programs designed for distance learning opportunities.
• The John V. Saeman Executive Briefing Room–A multi-purpose room designed for conferences and seminars on technical innovations, cable and telecommunications regulation and other cable-related industry activities.
• The Demonstration Forum–Provides an interactive presentation platform designed to outline and summarize the latest technological developments in the cable telecommunications industry.
• The Prestige Cable TV Headend–Monitors hundreds of channels of programming being distributed internally to offices and conference rooms, operate interactive exhibits of advanced cable services, demonstrate new cable products, produce multimedia programs and transmit an assortment of digital programming.

The Center also has a large theater, The Rigas Theater. This indoor theatre has a seating capacity of 200 people, and was designed primarily to host premiers of made-for-cable productions and as a facility for live panel discussions and lectures. In addition, events in the Theatre can be videotaped using cameras connected directly to the Distance Learning Studio Control Room, or can be sent by fiber-optic cable to AT&T’s Digital Media Center for live distribution via satellite.

Nestled between The Center’s Drendel Gardens and the University of Denver’s athletic playing fields is an outdoor amphitheatre consisting of a projection kiosk, sloped grassy seating area and stage. Designed to accommodate 200 people, the Robert S. Rogers Amphitheatre will be used to involve the community and university students in cultural experiences during the summer season. Classic films and live performances will be presented to local residents free of charge on a regular basis. Stage lighting, audio reinforcement and projection screen will be erected on a temporary, as needed basis.

With 300-500 thousand visitors expected each year, the cable center plans to fully utilize its 74,000 square feet. The new University Hill light rail is also being installed right across the street from the center, providing convenient access for the public. With industry giants like Jim Turner, John Malone, Dan Ritchie, and Sharon Magness supporting an institution like the cable center, it will truly give the cable industry a "global presence" here in Denver.

Kelly Robbins is a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. She has over fifteen years of corporate writing experience and currently writes the home-based business column for the Denver Business Journal. Kelly specializes in sales letters, e-mail, newsletters, fundraising letters and feature articles. She can be reached by phone at 303/460-0943 or via e-mail at RobbinsResources@att.net.