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How To Set Up a Video Conferencing Facility
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Business New Haven
11/10/2003
By: Mitchell Young
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The growth of video conferencing has been predicted for years. Now - at long last - those predictions are beginning to be borne out.
New and more mature video and telecommunications technologies, increasing travel costs and security concerns are among the market drivers most often cited.
Perhaps the greatest growth factor, however, has been the increasing need for more and better communication as work efforts get more complex and work groups become dispersed.
The first step in establishing a video conferencing facility is identifying its prospective uses:
o How many people will need to communicate at one time?
o How many sites must be connected, and how often?
o Will you need to present information generated from your computer or from hard-copy presentations?
The assessment of uses comes before the fun, whiz-bang technology, but includes determining the speed that your "calls" will travel - a critical factor in the quality of your presentation.
Every video-conferencing system includes a telecommunications interface. And while there is growing interest for video conferencing systems for IP communication over the Internet and company networks, IP systems currently account for less than 25 percent of systems.
The most common approach is to send the video over a BRI, ISDN line. This digital service is provided by your local telephone company and is widely available. The standard minimum configuration for quality video conferencing is two channels of 64,000 kilobytes per second, or a 128k system.
Current video-conferencing technology provides quality images and audio with this speed. But systems designed to this standard are often considered "entry" level. Most "business"-level systems begin at 344kb.
The BRI ISDN systems are the current mainstay because the phone companies can guarantee the quality of the connection - something that can't currently be done on the Internet.
Many companies that would have adequate IP networks still aren't ready to use network bandwidth for applications they may not consider as "mission critical" as e-mail and other uses.
These business-level systems which range from $6,000 to $16,000 depending on features, bring together six BRI ISDN phone lines to seamlessly create a single dedicated connection. The user simply dials in one number to the conference site and all the lines will work in unison, creating the total bandwidth.
Many "compact" systems can be configured to divide that bandwidth between two monitors, one showing a PowerPoint presentation, for example, and the other the presenter.
Most smaller systems will likely be configured for "point to point" conference calls or for connection to a few locations at a time. Wide-scale conferences can still be achieved by working through "bridge" networks.
Like their brethren in audio conferencing, video conferences can be organized for a large number of participants when necessary through these services.
In the early days of video conferencing, companies would almost always dedicate a room for these facilities. This approach is no longer the most common approach for many users.
With portable "rollable" systems ranging from $5,000 and up, companies can deploy video conferencing in a wide variety of uses throughout the organization. With the reduced size and costs, smaller businesses and corporate departments have begun to use video conferencing as well.
These "compact" systems can be configured to provide simple face-face service or for much more complex applications. Typical small-scale usage today is for conference calls with five to ten people. The systems can comfortably support as many as 25 or more people, however.
What about lighting, acoustics, etc.?
Not to worry. Operating a current systems is similar to working a camcorder. What you see and what you hear is what you get. If it's loud in the room, that ambient noise will be what comes across on the other side as well.
Echos and ambient noise are controlled by echo cancellation and noise reduction technology in most quality units, however.
The bottom line: A quality meeting environment for an in-person meeting will likewise translate into a more-than-adequate video environment.
The heart of any system is the "codec," or video decoder, that compresses and decompresses the images on each end, combined with microphones a digital camera and output, TV monitor, plasma or projection TV.
What about image and audio quality?
Clearly, the system and the connection have the greatest impact on quality. But properly configured, today's units can provide the business-class service that companies and organizations need to replace or supplement in-person meetings.
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