“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 –$ $6000 per site

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 – 48:30Video clip –SlidesSlides –Set-up pageSet-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) – –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!