1. INFN Videoconferencing Report CERN, 2004 April 29 th CSMM Working Group Stefano Zani INFN CNAF

2. INFN Seats INFN is spread all over Italy and it is composed by 25 seats (Departments, and laboratories). There is a Videoconferencing Working Group referring to the INFN’s Computing Committee composed by 10 people (But... Less than 3 FTE!) Every seat is equipped by (at least) one Videoconferencing device since early 90’s (94-95). INFN is phasing out H.320 and almost every seat is now H.323 compliant. The INFN MCU Service is based on a Polycom MGC 50 with 12 User ports in H.320 and H.323 (Transocding and Continuous Presence ready).

3. Codec Devices Aethra, Polycom, Picturetel, Sony… In the end ’03 all the old “RollAbout” not IP reday devices (14) have been upgraded with the Nex-T Gold Kit: General Characteristics Kit Nex-T - “ GOLD” ISDN 6 x BRI 768K ISDN 1 x PRI 2048K (Generally not used) IP 2048K MCU IP/ISDN x 7 Users XGA IN/OUT - Dual Video

4. Multiconferencing INFN has its own Managed MCU since Year 2000. The MCU service is assured 5 days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and it is available in “Best Effort” during week-end and Holiday Time. Managed by 3 people at less then the 30% of their time. Very basic Web based driven E-Mail booking system.

5. Use of the Multiconference Unit The MCU is commonly used for official meetings between 3-4 different sites connected in Audio/Video and 2 or 3 people connected only in audio (Phones or Cellular phones). The MCU is used for more than 1000 Hours per year. No GateKeeper are used quite now. –GDS?, ESNET System?, Nothing?

6. VRVS 1 INFN’s Reflector (Installed in Bologna at CNAF) managed by INFN’s people but with a strong effort of the VRVS Team. VRVS is used very often by working groups and people from experiments (like for example CMS collaboration) for weekly and in many cases daily meeting. Every participant uses his own pc to join the conference using mbone applications (Vic and Rat). –In few cases we join conferences from meeting rooms. –And we never used it for H.323 Meeting (Quite now..). We are going to provide a new bi-processor server to upgrade our old one.

7. Video Streaming Live streaming and Video on Demand Production System : Real 8 Server with 60 users license –We are trying to buy an Helix Server spending a reasonable amount of money (Arguing with Real Networks for the pricing policy...) –We are testing Microsoft Windows Media as an alternative and we are going to test Apple Quick Time or Darwin Server.

8. Video Streaming Live streaming and Video on Demand For the Live Streaming AND ARCHIVING of Scientific a Technical events.. INFN Multimedia Group –5 People –3 Professional Cameras –1 Mobile “Regia” –4 computers for the acquisition task.