Transcript Videoconferencing presentation - Eccles Health Sciences Library

“Can You Hear Me Now?”
Videoconferencing for
Communication, Education, and
Telehealth
Overview






Demonstration
What is videoconferencing?
Uses for videoconferencing
Videoconferencing protocols
Hardware and software
Hands-On Play Time
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
Does It Work?
 To paraphrase Mae West:
 “When it’s good, it’s very, very good.”
Uses for Videoconferencing
 Collaboration with colleagues
 Education
– Distance learning
– Collaborative learning with 2 groups of
students at different schools
 Telehealth
– Patient care
– Family support
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
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
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
Types of Videoconferencing
 Multi-point
– Multiple sites
 Point-to-point
– One-to-one communication
Hardware
 High-end = > $1000 per site
 Medium-range = $500 - $1000 per site
 Low-end = under $500 per site
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
ViewStation
ViewStation
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
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 don’t try to look at a computer together
Access Grid
 Internet II videoconferencing system
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
today’s 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.
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
Access Grid
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
Access Grid – Innovative Uses
 University of New Mexico – Project
TOUCH, Dale Alverson, M.D.
– Collaborative distance learning in a virtual
reality environment
– Video clip: 38:26 – 48:30
– Slides
– Set-up page
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!
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
Hardware – Low End
 Consumer level
cameras
– iSight (Macintosh)
($149)
– Logitech Quickcam
($50-$100)
 Headset with
microphone
WebCams – Our Experience
 Works well to see the other person using
low-end software (NetMeeting or VRVS)
 Quality headset is important
Choosing a System
 Purpose
– Communicate one on one with colleagues?
– Distance learning with multiple sites?
– Telehealth?
 Budget
 Institutional support
Software
 Free
– NetMeeting
– Virtual Room Videoconferencing System
(VRVS)
 Proprietary
– Polycom ViaVideo software
 Access Grid
– Uses a version of VRVS
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
NetMeeting
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
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
Software – VRVS (Vic and Rat)
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
“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
Resources
 Videoconference Cookbook
 Dale Alverson’s talk at InfoFair
Questions
 Questions?
Hands-On Play Time!