Whether it’s video of a faculty meeting, consultation with off-campus researchers, or just a video chat, ,the ability to record and review video for later viewing has become essential. Consequently, the need to store such video conferencing content has become critical.

“You have to ask yourself the question about what kinds of presentations you wish you could have more people attend,” says Brock McGinnis, sales manager at entertainment technology house Westbury National Show Systems in Toronto. “It’s a video world. That’s become the preferred method of getting information for young people.”

With cloud-based sharing services directed towards higher education like iTunes U, video content storage is growing across higher education. This is due at least in part to the fact that prices are lowering at a time where the technology is becoming simpler for in-house professionals to maintain. Content storage systems typically run about $20,000 to $25,000, says McGinnis. The recording device becomes an end point on the call and a ceiling camera helps to capture the full discussion, and IT departments can easily make presentations available on company intranets.

“When you do it, IT people don’t have to convert anything, which is a big selling point because web streaming can be a real barrier for a lot of IT departments. This is a great way to have [an institutional] DVR,” McGinnis says.

Still, the the technology is new enough that many administrators don’t know it exists until they are told about it by colleagues, consultants, or integrators. But that’s no different than most other new technologies, says McGinnis, who expects that will change as decision makers across in colleges and universities across the country become more familiar with the technology.

“They’ve been video- and audio-savvy, and now they’re becoming more storage- and streaming-savvy,” McGinnis says.