I happened across this product today that I thought might have some value to higher ed. It's called a SlingBox. What it allows you to do is to watch what comes over your TV connection from any internet connection in the world. The box is plugged into your internet router at home, then into your TV signal receiver. It can then broadcast TV over the internet. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it basically creates a video stream of pretty good quality that you can watch from any computer that has the SlingBox player s/w installed. It works on both Mac and PC and will even work on cell phones and palm devices. Here is the link:
http://www.slingmedia.com/
(Watch the videos on the site. I like the one with the mime.)
It's fairly cheap, too, starting at $129, $179, and $229 for the Pro model, which has the capability to be able to control the channel like a virtual remote), and send out HD video even over a DSL connection. Customer reviews are for the most part very favorable.
I was wondering whether something like this could be set up in a classroom to send video content to a computer set up elsewhere to receive and record the signal and prepare it for further distribution. Might be an interesting addition to Apple's Podcast Producer, or what TNS has been looking for to record Polycom conferences.