Can You Hear Me Now

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Can You Hear Me Now?

• Videoconferencing for Communication, Education,
  and Telehealth

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Overview

• Demonstration
• What is videoconferencing?
• Uses for videoconferencing
• Videoconferencing protocols
• Hardware and software
• Hands-On Play Time

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What is Videoconferencing?

• Real time interaction (seeing and hearing) with
  other people located with one or more remote
  sites
• Components
• Viewing equipment (computer or TV)
• Camera(s)
• Microphone(s)
• Network or phone line

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Does It Work?

• To paraphrase Mae West
• When its good, its very, very good.

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Uses for Videoconferencing

• Collaboration with colleagues
• Education
• Distance learning
• Collaborative learning with 2 groups of students
  at different schools
• Telehealth
• Patient care
• Family support

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Videoconferencing Protocols

• H.320
• Broadband over a dedicated line (T1, ISDN)
• Very fast
• Very expensive
• H.323
• Uses the regular Internet (IP)
• Cheaper
• Slower, and runs into Internet congestion

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Videoconferencing Protocols

• H.324
• Plain Old Telephone System (POTS)
• 56K analog
• For family support situations
• H.323
• De facto Internet standard
• Good enough for many applications

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Videoconferencing Protocols

• SIP
• Session Initiation Protocol
• Used by new video chat programs
• Windows Messenger
• Apple iChat
• May eventually replace H.323 as protocol of choice

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Types of Videoconferencing

• Multi-point
• Multiple sites
• Point-to-point
• One-to-one communication

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Hardware

• High-end 1000 per site
• Medium-range 500 - 1000 per site
• Low-end under 500 per site

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Hardware High-End

• Videoconferencing bridge systems maintained by
  a telecommunications department
• Allows multi-point access
• Polycom ViewStation for multi-point conferences
  using the bridge
• 4000 - 6000 per site

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ViewStation
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ViewStation
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Hardware High End

• Advantages
• Excellent quality
• Good enough for telehealth and meetings with
  colleagues
• Disadvantages
• Requires scheduling bridge
• Computer application sharing (i.e., PowerPoint or
  Web) not good quality

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ViewStation Our Experience

• Used for monthly conference calls for distributed
  HEAL team at 3 institutions
• Utah ViewStation
• UCLA ViaVideo camera (lower end)
• Oklahoma -- ViewStation
• Like being in the same room with Okla.
• Video occasionally freezes with participant using
  a cheaper ViaVideo camera
• Excellent for meetings where participants talk
  but dont try to look at a computer together

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Access Grid

• Internet II videoconferencing system

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Access Grid

• Internet II
• Consortium led by 206 universities working in
  partnership with industry and government to
  develop and deploy advanced network applications
  and technologies,
• Internet2 is recreating the partnership among
  academia, industry and government that fostered
  todays Internet in its infancy.
• The primary goals of Internet2 are to
• Create a leading edge network capability for the
  national research community
• Enable revolutionary Internet applications
• Ensure the rapid transfer of new network services
  and applications to the broader Internet
  community.

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Access Grid

• An ensemble of resources to support group
  communication
• Large format multimedia
• Visualization environments (virtual reality)
• Over 150 institutions participate
• Requires investment in hardware and personnel to
  set up

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Access Grid
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Access Grid Our Experience

• Required many more months than expected to
  install
• Campus networking issues
• Once working, we conducted a collaborative
  meeting with 5 institutions

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Access Grid Innovative Uses

• University of New Mexico Project TOUCH, Dale
  Alverson, M.D.
• Collaborative distance learning in a virtual
  reality environment
• Video clip 3826 4830
• Slides
• Set-up page

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Hardware Medium-Range

• Personal desktop system Polycom ViaVideo II
• Camera and built-in microphone
• Proprietary software
• 500
• For point-to-point only
• Can sit on your desk for spontaneous calls
• Excellent data and application sharing software
• No Macintosh version!

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ViaVideo Our Experience

• Works very well for point-to-point meetings IF
  your Internet connection is fast
• Would not work for a distance ed Utah Germany
  due to poor connections

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Hardware Low End

• Consumer level cameras
• iSight (Macintosh) (149)
• Logitech Quickcam (50-100)
• Headset with microphone

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WebCams Our Experience

• Works well to see the other person using low-end
  software (NetMeeting or VRVS)
• Quality headset is important

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Choosing a System

• Purpose
• Communicate one on one with colleagues?
• Distance learning with multiple sites?
• Telehealth?
• Budget
• Institutional support

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Software

• Free
• NetMeeting
• Virtual Room Videoconferencing System (VRVS)
• Proprietary
• Polycom ViaVideo software
• Access Grid
• Uses a version of VRVS

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Software

• NetMeeting
• Comes with every PC
• On Windows XP, find it by running the program
  conf
• Use with any camera and microphone headset
• Includes data sharing application
• Does not seem to have many firewall issues

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NetMeeting
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NetMeeting Our Experience

• Conducted distance education class between Utah
  and California using NetMeeting
• Utah instructor had Polycom ViaVideo
• California students saw video with NetMeeting and
  had microphone to communicate with Utah
• Worked well except for a few minutes of Internet
  congestion
• Example of using low-end software

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Software

• Virtual Room Videoconferencing System (VRVS)
• www.vrvs.org
• Multi-point meeting room
• Uses servers (reflectors) across the country
• Free
• Use with any camera and microphone headset
• Has data sharing application
• Works on PCs or Macintosh
• Can have set-up issues

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Software VRVS (Vic and Rat)
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VRVS Our Experience

• Mixed experience
• Wanted to use it for collaboration with 8
  libraries
• Only 6 could get it to work completely due to
  firewall issues
• Sound quality sometimes poor
• But it shows promise for free multi-point
  conferences

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Mixing and Matching Technologies

• Many different configurations, to name just a
  few
• ViaVideo Camera with VRVS software
• WebCam with VRVS Software connected to Access
  Grid
• ViewStation with participants using ViaVideo
  cameras, other ViewStations, or Access Grid

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Resources

• Videoconference Cookbook
• Dale Alversons talk at InfoFair

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Questions

• Questions?

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Hands-On Play Time!