PC conferencing

Audio conferences
Visual content sharing
Video conferences
Accessories
Multipoint video conferences
Homes, hotels and on the road

Audio conferences

A number of internet services such as Skype and others allow direct PC to PC audio communication, without using a telephone or incurring telephone costs. Many of these services are limited to low quality and/or 2 party conversations. For multi-party audio conferences please refer to the conferencing products listed below, or elsewhere on this web site for telephone conferences.

Conferences with visual content

There are typically one or more desktop or laptop computers present at most ends of any conference. Adding visual content, even to a telephone conference, can be very valuable so that people at the remote end/s can see material (powerpoint slides etc) that is being presented and discussed during the meeting. Consider using the PCs in the rooms to distribute the visual content live to the remote participants, even for telephone conferences. There are many pieces of software that will do this, such as the products listed below or others such as NetMeeting.

If it is impractical to ensure that the same software exists on PCs at all locations, consider using a web-based conferencing service such as WebEx. This will run on any web browser and will exploit whatever communications options are available at the sites.

Video conferences

ITS supports the following standards-based software which enables audio and video communication with any H.323 compatible internet video communication systems including room systems, stand alone appliance and other software packages:

• Polycom PVX for PC
  a full function video conference system supporting both live video and associated visual presentation content.
• XMeeting for MAC

To setup videoconferencing on your computer, you will need to contact your local faculty or divisional IT support or if you do not have IT Support, please contact the ITS Service Desk.

Accessories

To select suitable audio and video accessories for your PC or laptop please refer here.

Review soon

Choice of supported and recommended videoconferencing software will be reviewed in early 2010, in conjunction with the ICE programme.

Multipoint video conferences

Standards-based software such as PVX, XMeeting and other similar products can participate in multipoint video conferences involving and/or by the same method as for any other standards-based video conference appliances and room-based systems. Please refer to elsewhere on this web site for details.

Homes, hotels and on the road

Videoconferencing from home, hotels and on the road is possible but is generally of limited performance due to capacity limitations of domestic and commercial internet services, in particular: the uplink from ADSL and other domestic services is inadequate for sending decent picture quality from homes. Similarly (3G) mobile network internet connections should be avoided due to performance and unexpected cost reasons.