The Georgia Tech Cable Network (GTCN) is the on-campus television provider of the Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

 in Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. Established in 1995, GTCN serves the on-campus buildings, especially Georgia Tech Housing.

Content

They have a 123-channel lineup, 24 of which are HD, and two of which (channels 20 and 21) they generate content for themselves. In particular, they have a show called "Ramblin' Research" that shows professors' research and personal interests. In addition, they show many recent movies. The network is also part of the Georgia Tech Emergency Notification System.

Dish Network

Dish Network

Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

 provides most of GTCN's non-original programming. The service also rebroadcasts several Atlanta-area high-definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 channels. The source of this high-definition content is not Dish Network; it is instead taken directly from local over-the-air broadcasts. GTCN also has one of the widest selections of international channels of cable networks in the United States.

History

The Georgia Tech Cable Network was initially established in 1995, and had 54 channels. There was an interactive show called TutorVision, where Georgia Tech students called in questions to be worked live on TV. Other past shows include Tech Shorts and Dr. Staff, humor shows about life at Georgia Tech.

GTCN used to broadcast WREK-FM, Georgia Tech's student-run radio station, on channel 17 from 2003 to early 2009. According to then general manager, Trey Rhodes, the station was “never really notified about [GTCN taking us off the channel], no warning beforehand at all." The station management had an agreement with GTCN that they would be receiving another channel for their new HD content, but instead were demoted to background music for the channel guide. Carol Pulliam, the general manager of GTCN, defended this decision by stating that demoting WREK-FM would allow for the creation of three more HD channels on the network.