ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996                 TAG: 9605160136
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER 

HOTEL ROANOKE TO UNVEIL CUTTING-EDGE COMPUTER LAB

HOTEL OFFICIALS hope to attract more conference business with a high-tech cyberport and equipment.

In a room that Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center named for the nation's fifth president, computer experts have built a cyberport on the information highway.

The James Monroe room - until now just one of the hotel's many meeting rooms - has become a computer and videoconferencing laboratory. Hotel officials hope to lure more conference business with the high-tech gear, which can be rented by the day.

The Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission has an open house planned today, showing off the equipment from 1:30 to 2 p.m. The lab is on the conference center's lower level. The event will be open to the public.

With more than 20 Macintosh computers and a giant screen that acts as a monitor, the laboratory can be a classroom for those who need to brush up on computer skills. Tiny cameras at each work station and special wiring will allow those in the laboratory to see and speak with an instructor at a camera-equipped computer in a different city or state. The instructor can see the students, too.

"They are on the leading edge," said Jerry White, director of member services at the International Association of Conference Centers, a St. Louis trade group.

Virginia Tech, whose real estate foundation is a co-owner of the hotel, paid the $115,000 cost of the computer gear, said Woody Weaver, the conference center's systems administrator. The lab is expected to be used extensively for Tech's continuing education programs.

Few of the corporations, organizations and government agencies that rent rooms at the conference center request computers, but the need is expected to increase.

"The demand is increasing in that area and we're very excited about it," said Sheri Decker, conference center manager. "We just hosted the Virginia Society for Technology and Education, which held a technology conference, and at any given time we probably had 35 to 40 Internet connections up and running."

Before getting the computers, the hotel rented computers from an outside provider for groups visiting the hotel. They were hooked to the $12 million conference center's sophisticated wiring systems. The lab is wired to the Internet and e-mail; users will bring their own software.

The cost for using the new lab will be $50 per computer per day, plus conference fees. Internet access is $35 per computer per day. The conference fee is $44 per person per day for use of a meeting room, lunch and refreshments during breaks.

LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Wayne Deel Staff    With cameras and microphones mounted 
          on their computers, Erma Williams (front) and Woody Weaver talk to 
          each other while their pictures are displayed on computers. color.