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Video Conferencing: From Skype to Telepresence Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. Pankaj Shah, OARnet OHECC, March

Video Conferencing: From Skype to Telepresence Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. Pankaj Shah, OARnet OHECC, March 26, 2009 Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Ohio’s efforts in Multimedia Collaboration and Partnerships. Office of Information Technology (State Govt.).

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Video Conferencing: From Skype to Telepresence Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. Pankaj Shah, OARnet OHECC, March

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  1. Video Conferencing: From Skype to Telepresence Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ. Pankaj Shah, OARnet OHECC, March 26, 2009 Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

  2. Ohio’s efforts in Multimedia Collaboration and Partnerships

  3. Office of Information Technology (State Govt.) eTech Ohio (K-12 and PBS) OARnet (HE) Collaborative Process for Multimedia Services

  4. New Architecture (consolidation of services)

  5. Rates and Services • New Rate • $150-250 per month / per site (Old rate $350-450/month) • Services • Unlimited video conferencing, bridged or point to point • Video NOC services: 7:00 am – 10:00 pm Monday –Friday • Online reservation system available 24 x 7 • ISDN gateway service • Satellite uplink and downlink integration • High definition video bridging • Access to Internet 2 content

  6. Other Allied Services • Video streaming • Conference recording • Transcoding • Digital asset management repository • High-end Telepresence applications

  7. Concierge Service

  8. Example: Cleveland Institute of Music Concerts CIM creates and delivers content for a variety of educational technology applications, including: Music master classes with the Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the New World Symphony Concerts for hundreds of K-12 schools Hi-Def : Two musicians in Columbus and three in Cleveland performed together via high-definition video-stream through OSCnet in June 2007

  9. Example: Remote Use of Scientific Instruments FEI Sirion scanning electron microscope at the Center for Accelerated Maturation of Materials, The Ohio State University 850 Mhz NMR spectrometer at the Instrumentation Laboratory, Miami University FTIR-Raman Microprobe at the Analytical Spectroscopy Laboratory, The Ohio State University Example of shared instrumentation application: remote access of electron microscope

  10. TVRCTelehealth Video Resource Centerwww.telehealthvrc.org 10

  11. Introduction of TVRC Center formed with start-up funds by Ohio Board of Regents Will serve as global hub for online medical education and videoconferencing Modeled after Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) of the World Bank Uses telecommunication equipment and computing technology to support long-distance clinical healthcare Doctors can share “grand rounds” Demos of new and emerging clinical practices Develop standards and coordinate resources Conduct “virtual” clinical trials

  12. TVRC Products and Services Videoconferencing for healthcare Access to health content Telemedicine / telehealth tool kits Global forum – American Telemedicine Association

  13. 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 Note there are a few other systems that do not fit into these categories

  14. 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

  15. 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.

  16. Tandberg Telepresence

  17. Cisco Telepresence

  18. Polycom Telepresence

  19. LifeSize Telepresence

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. 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.

  23. 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 No advertised interoperability 23

  24. Telepresence Interoperability • No Telepresence vendor 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

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

  26. 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

  27. Telepresence Interoperability!

  28. Questions? Thank you for coming!

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