Videoconferencing equipment

Codecs
Multi-point control units

The equipment required depends on how many students you want to participate in a Motivate conference. Generally, whole classes, or groups from two or three schools take part, and these notes are based on that assumption.

Please note: we cannot include schools using videophones, webcams or pc-based videoconferencing systems, as they cause the MCU bridge that we use to crash.

videoconferencingYou will need:

  • a stand-alone videoconferencing codec to transmit and receive the videoconferenced images and sound - this MUST be h323 compliant
  • a data projector/screen, interactive whiteboard, plasma screen or large TV to display the video images and a good audio system are also essential

You should also have available:

  • a computer so that students can use PowerPoint, Excel, etc, in their presentations

videoconferencingNotes:

  1. We always do a preliminary test to establish that we can connect before giving any school or other centre a confirmed place on one of our conferences.
  2. We limit the number of endpoints to ease management of interactive tasks, and to ensure that students don't sit passively listening (even to other students) for too long at a stretch.

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Codecs

Tandberg Vision (price range £4,000-6,000)

Features:

  • quick and easy to set up and service
  • connects directly into a scart connector on standard television monitors
  • audio and video of high quality
  • range of ITU standard codecs

This unit is very quick to master and is essentially the newer version of the codec that we use for our broadcasts from Cambridge. There are extra ports for VGA data in and out enabling direct connections to a laptop or PC for power-point presentations, and easy connection to a data projector for large screen projection. Additional audio in/out sockets enables additional microphones/radiomics to be connected.

http://www.tandberg.net/products/video_systems/index.jsp

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Polycom viewstation SP (price range £4,000-6,000)

Features:

  • slightly more complicated than the Tandberg to set up
  • connects directly into a scart connector on standard television monitors
  • audio and video of high quality
  • range of ITU standard codecs

The main disadvantage is that it is not possible to add extra microphones except those supplied by Polycom. These are then "daisy chained" together and while they are good for a boardroom, their layout is not best suited to the classroom.

http://www.polycom.com/products_services/1,1443,pw-4353-4428,00.html

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Sony PCS11P (price range £3,000-6,000)

At the moment, we have limited experience of this unit although we tested an earlier version in the early stages of Motivate. One problem was that the small remote control unit had more buttons to press and this can cause things to go wrong. Also, we don't know if this unit has a web interface - Sony don't mention it. We are also unsure about the facility to add microphones. However, we intend to contact Sony directly to arrange testing, and will then update this page.

http://bssc.sel.cony.com/Professional/markets/market_10010.html?m=10010

Summary

All these units will connect adequately with Motivate broadcasts and will also match the required UKERNA MCU criteria.

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Multipoint control units

We always have more than one school/centre participating in our conferences, so we use the Ukerna MCU facility at Edinburgh. This is now also available to schools and FE colleges, and is a free service.

You can also obtain your own MCU unit, which you may find this useful if you want to make multipoint calls from your school. For the Sony range, this will cost an extra £1-3k, for the Tandbergs it will cost an extra £9k.