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Telepresence and How it Fits In with Other Kinds of Video Conferencing

Telepresence and How it Fits In with Other Kinds of Video Conferencing. Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. OARTech, April 8, 2009 OARnet, Columbus, Ohio. Note there are a few other systems that do not fit into these categories. Levels of Videoconferencing Web Conferencing

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Telepresence and How it Fits In with Other Kinds of Video Conferencing

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  1. Telepresence and How it Fits In with Other Kinds of Video Conferencing Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. OARTech, April 8, 2009 OARnet, Columbus, Ohio

  2. Note there are a few other systems that do not fit into these categories Levels of Videoconferencing • Web Conferencing • PC and small camera • Collaboration tools such as Skype, Elluminate, Dimdim…. • Fair quality • Standard H.323 Video Conferencing • Most common type today • Good quality • High-Definition H.323 Video Conferencing • Like HDTV • Excellent quality • Telepresence • HD, plus appearance of being in the same room

  3. Ohio Board of Regents Telepresence Grant • Grant to OARnet to investigate feasibility of Telepresence among Ohio universities • Evaluate all available systems • Install 2 pilot systems and MCU

  4. Telepresence Systems • All currently offered systems were investigated. • All were found to be too expensive for most applications. Typically $250K and up. • Some are proprietary, and incompatible with all others. HP, Cisco. • Some require special or vendor-managed networks. Cisco requires that they certify your network. • Some are standards-based and will become interoperable. Polycom, Tandberg, LifeSize.

  5. Tandberg Telepresence

  6. Cisco Telepresence

  7. PolycomTelepresence

  8. LifeSize Telepresence

  9. Who Uses Telepresence? • Typically corporate executives, for whom cost is no object. • Rarely used in education. A recent poll shows fewer than 10 in USA. • Reasons for little education use: High cost, including purchase, installation and operation. Typically not suitable for more than a few people at once. May be incompatible with existing video conf equipment. Will not dedicate a room to something that is rarely used. High bandwidth and network quality required. Requires multiple rooms. • Standard high-definition video conferencing can do most things that telepresence does, at much less cost and complexity.

  10. The Telepresence Kit Approach • LifeSize Corp was the first to offer low-cost high-definition video conferencing. • Now they have offered an inexpensive kit version of Telepresence. • $70K, including installation and one year maintenance. • Installation by ID Solutions, of Indianapolis • OARnet has installed 2 of these as a pilot program, funded by the Board of Regents, as affordable examples for other Ohio universities.

  11. Multipoint Telepresence Conferences • Any video conference with more than two locations requires a multipoint control unit. • We purchased a Codian 12 port HD MCU. • Costs $54K. • Supports 4 locations of 3 screens each, or any combination of 12.

  12. Interoperability of Levels of Videoconferencing • Web Conferencing • Essentially no interoperability. Collaboranza! 2006 • https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/Collaboranza/Home • Standard H.323 Video Conferencing • Complete interoperability. Megaconference 1999-present • http://www.megaconference.org • 10th Anniversary Megaconference Nov 6. • High-Definition H.323 Video Conferencing • Complete interoperability. Gigaconference 2005-2006 • http://commons.internet2.edu/gigaconference2005 • http://commons.internet2.edu/gigaconference Telepresence Teraconference 2009 • Little advertised interoperability

  13. Telepresence Interoperability • Only one Telepresence vendor (Teliris) claims interoperability with any other Telepresence vendor. • Some Telepresence vendors are natively H.323 compatible (eg - LifeSize, Polycom, Tandberg), making full TP interoperability possible in the future. Full VC interoperability exists now. • A few vendors have limited interoperability gateways to non-telepresence VC systems (Cisco, HP). • Telepresence systems typically use special dedicated MCUs. • Telepresence systems typically do not use gatekeepers; hence they can call only via IP address. No Global Dialing System. • Telepresence systems typically use proprietary control systems, to simplify operation. Eg - Crestron, AMX

  14. Conceptual Telepresence System Codec Codec Proprietary Control System Proprietary Control System Codec Codec Codec Codec Location A Location B

  15. Interoperable Telepresence System Codec Codec MCU Bypassed or Modified Proprietary Control System Bypassed or Modified Proprietary Control System Codec Codec Gatekeeper Codec Codec Location B Location A

  16. Telepresence Interoperability!

  17. Questions? Thank you for coming!

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