“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!