Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA and Honolulu, HAWAI’I — American Samoa Community College on Tuesday switched on a ground-breaking new digital platform that will stream 3D holograms of UH academics to deliver classes and engage with ASCC students in real-time.

Running on Hawaiki transpacific submarine cable, which directly connects American Samoa and Hawaii, and using technology from Canadian tech firm ARHT Media, the HoloCampus solution is the first of its kind in the Pacific, and is expected to spur new thinking and approaches to education throughout the Pacific Islands region and the world.

“HoloCampus is a culmination of the vision and hard work of many people inspired by the challenge of harnessing technology to provide American Samoa’s young people with access to the best opportunities for advancing their education, and creating a better future for them and their communities.” said Governor Lolo M. Moliga.

“The partnership between Hawaiki and American Samoa has delivered on its promises to bridge the digital divide in our Territory. Having ready access to high speed internet is already helping high school and college students with their learning, but the ability to have academics from around the world literally beamed into ASCC classrooms offers an exciting glimpse into what education and learning will look like in the future.”

ASCC president, Dr. Rosevonne Makaiwi Pato noted that HoloCampus will also spur new opportunities for American Samoa to more effectively share knowledge and insights from the US territory with University of Hawaii students and academics, and potentially more academic institutions in the region and throughout the world as the technology is deployed more widely.

“This technology has the potential to completely reshape how we in American Samoa — especially our young students — interact with and share perspectives and experiences with other students, teachers and schools throughout the region and the world,” Makaiwi Pato added.

American Samoa Community College students who attended yesterday’s opening ceremony in the ASCC Multi Purpose Center building to launch the new digital platform that streams 3D holograms of University of Hawaii academics, to deliver classes and engage with ASCC students in real-time. [photo: FS]

The college and University of Hawaii are working together to create specific course programs running on HoloCampus, which could lead to students in American Samoa being able to earn credits and grades towards UH degrees, with UH academics and students benefiting from greater access to the college and its teachers, learning and resources.

"HoloCampus enables a remarkable new approach to distance learning,” said UH president Dr David Lassner, adding: “We expect that our work with ASCC will spark new ideas and approaches for academic collaborations across the Pacific and beyond.”

The launch of HoloCampus comes just 13 months after the Hawaiki cable went live in American Samoa, resulting in a dramatic increase in connectivity on the US territory.

“Deployment of the Hawaiki Cable in July 2018 has provided the businesses, communities and people of American Samoa with previously undreamt-of connectivity, speeds and reliability,” said Lewis Wolman, CEO of ASTCA.

At the front table, [l-r] Congresswoman Aumua Amata, ASTCA chief executive officer Lewis Wolman, and Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP chief operations officer and executive director Ludovic Hutier - and others yesterday during the opening ceremony at the ASCC Multi Purpose Center building to launch the new digital platform that streams 3D holograms of University of Hawaii academics to deliver classes and engage with ASCC students in real-time. [photo: FS]

“Today’s launch of HoloCampus is a great example of the sorts of applications we’re now capable of delivering, to drive improvements in everything from education, to healthcare, government services, business, and academic research collaboration.”

Students and officials at today’s HoloCampus launch received an important lecture on the subject of ‘sustainability and resilience’; a theme which has special significance for the people of American Samoa, and Pacific Islands nations more broadly, especially as they face challenges like growing plastic waste and more dramatic weather systems brought about by climate change.

The live streamed hologram of University of Hawaii professor Dr. Christopher Shuler speaking  yesterday to a small group of VIPs and students at the Hologram classroom on the second floor of the ASCC Multi Purpose Building. The live hologram was streamed from the UH campus in Honolulu and Shuler’s demonstration of HoloCampus lecture - streamed lived from UH - discussed the cause behind groundwater contamination on Tutuila resulting in the boil water notice. [photo: FS]

How does HoloCampus work?

Holograms are created using ARHT’s patented ‘capture studios’, which allow people and 3D ‘content’ to be broadcast live, virtually anywhere, in HD or 4K, on myriad devices, with virtually zero latency.

A speaker can see the room via a video signal back to the capture studio and speak to students responding to their questions and reactions in real-time.

Streaming on platforms like Facebook and YouTube is quick and easy, while broadcasts are also able to be recorded to the cloud and shared after the event.

In November last year ARHT helped London’s Imperial College become the world’s first academic institution to offer live holographic lectures.

Speaking at the launch in Pago Pago, Hawaiki Executive Director and COO, Ludovic Hutier emphasized the importance of international connectivity for Pacific Islands nations and territories.

“For many years, the Pacific Islands have suffered from the double tyranny of distance and overpriced bandwidth but the launch of Hawaiki cable has unlocked the market by providing broadband connectivity at competitive price to all customers. Today, we are celebrating both the first-year anniversary of Hawaiki and the launch of HoloCampus, which demonstrate our tremendous progress to date. We are honored that ASTCA, ASCC and UH all accepted to join forces with Hawaiki and build this 3D telepresence learning platform, which will revolutionize the way we learn in the Pacific.”

“We believe connectivity is an enabler of socio-economic progress and have designed our transpacific cable to connect all Pacific Islands located next to the cable route. With branching units immediately available for New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga, we have great opportunities to replicate American Samoa’s success in all these locations.”

ARHT Media CEO, Larry O’Reilly said the company is “very proud to collaborate with Hawaiki, UH, ASCC and ASTCA in helping bring forward such an innovative initiative for education in The Pacific”. “Our holographic technology is a powerful enabler for education and connecting academic institutions throughout the world, and we look forward to seeing more universities, colleges and schools taking advantage of its many benefits.”

ABOUT HAWAIKI SUBMARINE CABLE LP

Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, owns and operates the Hawaiki submarine cable system (Hawaiki). Hawaiki is the first and only carrier-neutral submarine cable linking Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the U.S. west coast. For more information, visit www.hawaikicable.co.nz or connect with Hawaiki on Twitter and LinkedIn.