Last year we raised enough money to build some changing rooms…

The year before some crash mats, a couple of “Bobs”, and some much needed impact pads.

This year however we went hi-tech.

Thanks to the efforts of many students and families we were able to raise enough money to purchase a dlna wi-fi  Sony bravia flat screen tv.

Huh?

Yeah, I know it confused me too until I got my head around it. Basically it’s a new wireless 40 inch flat screen tv with its own I.P address.

That means all you do is plug in the power cord, configure some settings, and *presto!*, it’s online without running any network cables.

Cool!

I mounted the new tv out on the wall of the tatami area (training floor), so now in class we can show video examples of kata, sparring and self defense.

We can connect directly to youtube, or the dojo desktop pc, or any other media sharing device that supports dlna (whatever that means).

So now video content is available when the tv is simply turned on without the need to have a video recorder (a what?) or dvd player.

This is really neat because we now have the ability to quickly take hd video with my phone and then stream it back on the new tv for my students to watch and understand what they can do to improve their technique.

Isn’t that cool?

You can get set up like this too. Assuming you have your own dojo, all you need to do is get a wi-fi enabled tv (although you could run cable if you really want), but the most important thing is to ensure dlna compatibility. Otherwise you’ll have headaches like me trying to get the tv to find your media servers, and have to return your tv to Costco for a dlna compatible one.

But here’s the kicker…

Recently I also bought a new T-mobile MyTouch 4g cell phone, which is also wi-fi enabled.  In fact, I can turn my cell phone into a mobile hot-spot, which means it can provide wireless internet access for the dojo.

So now I can do away with my permanent dojo connection/internet provider and simply  provide web access to the dojo network from my phone.

So all the media content streamed from the internet to the new tv does it through this very phone, the one from which I’m writing this blog.

You can get set up like this too to provide a better learning environment for your students. There are a few more tricks I learned getting all this together, like what software works and what doesn’t, how to design and implement your network, etc and can expand on this if anyone is interested.