About CampusTours

CampusTours.com was created in 1997 as a worldwide Web directory of virtual college tours. In 1999 CampusTours was acquired and rolled into the diverse college company College Enterprises Inc./iCollege Inc, and in 2000 iCollege Inc was acquired by the course software company Blackboard Inc (NASDAQ: BBBB). In 2001 CampusTours was spun out as a separate company as Blackboard made preparations for an initial public offering. CampusTours subsequently moved most operations to Auburn, Maine where it is located today as a private company.

CampusTours Productions

In 2002 CampusTours began creating virtual tours for colleges and universities nationwide through the CampusTours Productions branch of the company. Initially tours were constructed as stand-alone multimedia presentations, but as clients demanded a robust tool to control and revise the presentations, the CampusTours MultiMedia Engine was born. The CampusTours MultiMedia Engine is now in its fifth generation, and now offers both a client-based software application and a Web-administered application. The MultiMedia Engine is currently the only Adobe Flash content management application designed specifically for academic virtual tours, interactive maps and multimedia presentations.

The MultiMedia Engine

An extremely powerful and infinitely configurable piece of software, the MultiMedia Engine is a unique content management application in that it is continually redesigned in order to conform to the designs, concepts and functional specifications of the rich media applications that CampusTours clients demand. Not only does the MultiMedia Engine give institutions direct control over every aspect of their presentation, it includes features and entire modules specifically designed for academia:

• Interactive Map Engine provides full content management features to any existing or newly created rendering of campus. Features include the ability to import new map graphics at any time, automatic resolution image slicing using Zoomify technology, define, edit or remove hotspots, link hotspots to any size collection of media including videos, photos, text etc., search map topics and buildings, infinite graphical layers capability (show emergency call boxes, dormitories, place icons for parking, essentially any graphic overlay), gesture control, print map in current state, zoom/pan, map inlay control and more.
• LinearTour Engine provides an intuitive interface for creating and editing complex Flash animations comprised of background music and/or narration coupled with photographic animation and/or video. Best described as "Ken Burns" presentations, LinearAnimations give schools with limited budgets a powerful tool for creating compelling narrated photographic animations and video montages. The LinearTour Engine gives schools the full capability to edit, extend or even create new animations at any time at no additional cost.
• InteractiveVideo Technology gives schools the ability to create depth behind institutional overview videos. InteractiveTeasers animate out of the videos to alert users to additional content pertaining to the topic currently being discussed in the video.
• CoordinatedVideo Technology allows institutions to easily and inexpensive remove and update virtual tour guides, without requiring re-shooting of all b-roll or tour content video. By separating the tour guide commentary video from the content video and providing robust content management of both video streams and even the coordination between them, CoordinatedVideo Technology ensures that your guided tour can be kept up to date without needing to be entirely re-created every year.
• StatFrame Tour Traffic Tracking Service is the only rich media traffic analytics tool that can report on the complex behavior of Flash Rich Media Applications. With StatFrame you will know what's being viewed - and what's not - in your tour.
• Content-Managed Map/Video Coordination permits the interactive map to track, zoom and highlight buildings or locations in precise coordination with videos. This feature allows CampusTours clients to not only depict students enjoying the new campus cafeteria, but also to move the map and highlight the cafeteria on the map as it is mentioned in the video. And when CampusTours clients add new videos, or want to highlight something new on the map, they simply enter the MutliMedia Engine CMS and tell it what on the map they wish to highlight, and precisely when the highlight should occur during the video.

Technical Requirements

The MultiMedia Engine system now offers both a client software application and a Web application. There are several different options for the configuration of the software:

1. CampusTours Template Tours (Unified Template, Presentation Media Template, CIMS Interactive Map System and the new AnyTour Virtual Tour System) remain based on client software. The content management application in these instances is installed on a single networked XP/Vista PC which communicates with the Web server via FTP. Beginning in Fall 2009, CampusTours clients will have the option of upgrading to the JAVA version of the MultiMedia Engine software, which will permit use on MACs as well.
2. CampusTours Custom Tours now have several different implementation options:
• In institutions where the tour will be updated by only one department the content management and server software may be placed on a single networked PC which communicates with the Web server via FTP.
• A school may also have CampusTours host the content management system and/or the tour, logging into the system to make updates via the Web.
• The institution may choose to install the software on a new or existing server with the following technical specifications:
• Sun GlassFish Application Server or Apache/Tomcat
• MySQL 4.1 or higher
• JRE 1.5
• 10GB of free disc space
• 2GB of RAM or higher