Uni Systems conducts a successful transmission of subject material for the Pan-Hellenic Examinations through the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) system
For the fourteenth consecutive year, successful delivery of the subjects.
Uni Systems is the only company in Greece able to provide the VBI system for a secure transmission of encrypted data to multiple receivers via TV signal.
The transmission of subject material for all Pan-Hellenic Examinations to Examination Centres throughout Greece via VBI technology, exclusively provided in Greece by Uni Systems, was again a success.
The EdCast (Educational Broadcast) data transmission system was first installed in the Ministry of Education in 1999. Since then, it has primarily been used for communicating the subject material of the Pan-Hellenic Examinations as well as contents of other state examinations, including the National Foreign Language Exam System and the exams of the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection (ASEP).
This sophisticated data transmission process requires high-level technical expertise. VBI technology transmits information using ERT’s (Greek State Radio and Television) terrestrial and satellite TV signals, which is then decoded simultaneously by 2000 receivers throughout the country.Special coding and decoding software must be used for the dispatch of data packages from the Ministry of Education, as well as for recipients of transmitted files. At the same time, decoders have been installed in schools and Secondary Education Directorates, to transmit the terrestrial analogue, terrestrial digital, or satellite signal to a PC’s serial port.
The great advantage of this One-Point-to-Multipoint system is the simultaneous reception of the same information by all recipients, irrespective of their number and distance from the transmission centre. The software used supports transmissions to all receivers (broadcast), transmission receiver groups (multicast) and transmission to individual receivers (unicast). In addition, and for the purpose of ensuring the highest possible security levels, subjects of the Pan-Hellenic examinations are encrypted by Uni Systems’ encryption-decryption software, build on Safenet's hardware dongles.For the fourteenth consecutive year, the data transmissions and examinations were completed successfully. To ensure a smooth communication process, Uni Systems conducted test transmissions over a period of fifteen days prior to the broadcast, performing system stress tests both at the transmission centre and at receiver facilities. During the official transmission, Uni Systems’ technical experts were on hand to quickly and effectively intervene where challenges emerged due to poor signal reception in some examination centres.
Following the acquisition of and merger with FAST Hellas SA, Uni Systems supports the installed software in the Ministry of Education as well as the TV, telecommunication and IT equipment on ERT premises. In addition, Uni Systems provides telephone services to the Ministry of Education, Secondary Education Directorates and schools throughout the country, while maintaining two monitoring rooms for the purpose of uninterrupted system control.