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On April 4, alt^I sponsored a video conferencing summit to plan and implement a video conferencing strategy for ASU. The results of that summit, and subsequent interactions with campus users of video conference technology, is a 20+ page document of suggestions and resources for successfully implementing video conference technology within your college/department. The document is publicly available at http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhc473jx_8879dkpm. Additional contributions to the document are welcomed and encouraged. Please send suggestions to videoconf-q@asu.edu.

 

Video Conferencing Services

alt^I provides centrally supported video conferencing services to the ASU campus community. alt^I maintains an Accord MGC-100 multipoint control unit (MCU) which functions as a multimedia processor and an h.3xx gateway capable of supporting both H.323 (IP) and H.320 (ISDN) based conferencing. The MCU facilitates multipoint video conferencing as well as allows sites with different frame rates, connection speeds, audio algorithms, resolutions and network protocols, to transparently connect with one another. alt^I staff also provide technical consulting services to the Provost's offices at East and West campuses, as well as Executive Provost's administrative staff on Main campus to assist in maintaining their conferencing equipment. More...

Desktop Video Conferencing

alt^I staff have been evaluating desktop conferencing products for at least five years. Early investigation centered around VRVS. While VRVS is still available, and continues to see wide usage in the research community, it is not as user friendly as some of the commercial applications now available. Only recently, have desktop video conferencing applications evolved to the degree that they can be considered reliable and, potentially, a viable part of the campus communications infrastructure. This is due largely to increases in processor speed, and the development of better video and audio codecs. Our current investigative efforts are focused on mature commercial applications. We continue to stay abreast of the latest video collaboration technologies such as MSN, Yahoo, Google, and Skype Video, as well as others, but we are currently concentrating on more in-depth analysis of a smaller subset of commercial offerings, with a focus on including campus-wide participation in these small pilot projects. More...

 

Access Grid

The Access Grid is a network of resources that supports large-scale distributed collaboration. The technology, used by both commercial entities and I2 research institutions, takes advantage of extremely high-speed, high-bandwidth IP-based networks to create multipoint interactive environments. The Grid developed out of a project led by Argonne National Labs. Additional details on this effort are available at the Access Grid website. More...