Tag Archives: Vendors

Don't Miss the ISTE SIG IVC Playground: Early Bird Reg Ends May 1

This year at the ISTE Conference there will be an interesting new playground: a videoconference playground, complete with pirates, treasure maps, and gold (chocolate)! The SIG IVC playground runs Wednesday morning from 9 am to 1 pm.

Come search for treasures to enrich your classroom! Join video conference experts from around the country as they share their expertise in content and hardware to use with H.323 video conferencing. Connect with zoos and museums that offer video conference content to schools, as well as an author and other experts! See the latest in HD technologies. If you are interested in globalizing your classroom, this is the playground for you! Come and learn from practitioners and walk away amazed.

You’ll get hands-on time with various videoconference options, while you dial out to IP addresses to discover who is at the other end. Don’t miss this fun experience at ISTE, as well as other great videoconference workshops and sessions.

Register Quick Before the May 1 Early Bird Deadline!

Installing a New LifeSize Room

Today was an exciting day! New equipment installations are always exciting! We were lucky enough to have a school eligible for a grant through Views On Learning to receive a new LifeSize Room system, plus really cool Ergotron cart and 50 inch display. Rolling the system down the hall in the school created quite a buzz!

This was my first opportunity to really test out a LifeSize unit. I did present from one in Nebraska last year, but didn’t get to really play with it.

Here’s the cart. Isn’t that a great cart – I love how lightweight it looks. Seems like it won’t be too hard to push around either. The display mount has some kind of cool technology that you can easily just move it up or down without any knobs or handles.

Of course we tested it fine to my office Polycom units, my Tandberg bridge. Registered it to our gatekeeper, tried out our dialing plan. Everything worked seamlessly.

I had to have a picture of the remote so I can assist the teachers when they call me on the phone needing help in a panic!

Hooking up the cables. It’s got an S-Video in, so we can use an existing document camera in the school. Here they are connecting the computer.

Testing sharing the computer (Mac login screen) with the other site.

Just like the new Polycom HD units, you can easily swap the layout of your picture in picture etc. on the screen.

H.239

If you’ve been reading this blog very long, you know that I have serious issues with H.239, so I was pretty nervous about how this would work. Of course it worked great to a Polycom HD unit with H.239 turned on. But what about when you connect to a unit that has H.239 turned off? Every other unit I’ve seen just complains and says the far site cannot receive the computer screen. Then you’re out of luck. One of the reasons H.239 really annoys me and I tell my schools never to buy the extras for H.239.

But. Wonder of wonders! I tested sharing the computer to my Polycom VSX 7000 with H.239 turned off. It sent just the computer. No errors or complaints!

I tested sharing the computer through my Tandberg bridge with H.239 turned off. Voila. It still sent just the computer. No errors.

Yay! Yay! I think this is the piece I’m most excited about.

It’s sooooo frustrating to have schools in MysteryQuests and other events where they want to share their computer and they think they can, but then it doesn’t work.

Hollywood Elementary has quite a few videoconferences this spring, so I’ll be looking to see how stable this unit is and how it interacts with other units in all the different types of calls that we’ll be doing.

Thank you to Views On Learning for the incredible opportunity to be part of this grant!

And thank you to Kevin Clark for taking the photos.

Interviewing Women Business Executives

Three of the executives participated from California.

Last Friday afternoon we had several local classes participate in a Polycom Special Event. Students from business, management, and economics classes interviewed four Polycom women executives as a celebration of Women’s History Month. The students had prepared great questions:

  • Did you know this job existed when you were going to school?
  • Were you always interested in this field?
  • What skills and/or abilities were really helpful to you in this job?
  • Why is following your skills and interests so important in choosing a job?
  • What are the most difficult aspects of your job?
  • Did you need to know a lot about technology?
  • Explain how technology has changed the way you do your job?
  • How will the job outlook and advancement affect your career plans for 5 years from now?

Students appreciated the opportunity to talk to women in the work force to hear about their experiences and their advice for high school students.

Thank you, Polycom, for offering these special events to our students!

Exploring Videoconferencing Options

Cross-blogged with the Official MACUL Conference Blog.

Yesterday Danielle Letter (TWICE Prez-Elect) and I led a SIGTC workshop together. We explored a little collection of different videoconferencing options. The group was especially interested in:

  • DimDim for a free AdobeConnect-like product
  • Polycom CMA for meetings, professional development; we were all inspired by the vision of Saginaw ISD (guest speakers Rod Rock and Aaron Schippert)
  • Vidyo was very exciting and everyone was jazzed to talk to Craig in Alaska
  • I was excited to hear Aaron Schippert praise the $20 Hercules web cam. Must try it out myself!

Wiki Resources
Instead of a PowerPoint presentation, we made a wiki, and kept adding to it throughout the workshop. Check it out here.

REMC Bid Buy
Don’t forget, also, that there are several deeply discounted videoconferencing systems on the REMC Bid Buy.

Look at the videoconferencing section for speakerphones for Skype, and Polycom QDX and HDX systems ranging from $3600 to $8000. I heard there was a LifeSize unit on the REMC Bid Buy too, but it’s not on the website right now. Maybe it will be added soon.

Just a few more resources for you if you are considering videoconferencing for your school/district.

MACUL's Phenomenal Support of Videoconferencing

Cross-blogged with the Official MACUL Conference Blog.

Today as I was riding up to the 2010 MACUL Conference, I was thinking how lucky we are in Michigan to have consistent support for the TWICE videoconferencing sessions at our ed tech conference, year after year after year…

Sometimes I listen to VC buddies in other states and I can’t think of very many (any?) that consistently and annually plan to have a videoconference session at every single breakout time slot during the conference.

So this is a thank you from a long time TWICE board member, and videoconferencing fan, who loves to see this particular technology supported and promoted every year. Thank you MACUL!! And thank you to the MACUL support staff and volunteers who sometimes stand on their heads to make VC work on the conference network!

A MACUL Conference Success Story

Selection from Read Around the Planet Image Gallery
A selection from the Read Around the Planet photo gallery.

Sometimes it’s nice to know the results of the conference. And once in a while, it even gets in the paper! Here’s a story from Owosso, MI:

  • Computer teacher attends MACUL conference.
  • Stops by the TWICE room, learns about videoconferencing and CAPspace (TWICE’s social networking site for videoconferencing).
  • Gets access to videoconferencing (Polycom PVX)
  • Signs up for Read Around the Planet
  • Luckily gets one of the 13 (out of 1950) UK partners
  • Gets written up in the paper.

And it all started at the MACUL conference!

Cool, huh?!

If you’re at MACUL this week, don’t forget to stop by the TWICE room for a videoconference session! Gallery Overlook G!

The Shake Up in the VC Market

Are you following all the interesting developments in the videoconferencing market? Here’s an interesting review and analysis of the changes coming down the pike. I highly recommend that you take some time to read it. Here are a few snippets to convince you to read further:

The future of videoconferencing is the software-based codec running on general purpose (albeit high end… for now) general purpose processors connected to a low-cost, high quality HD camera via a USB 3.0 connection. The $20,000+ plastic-camera-on-the-TV-set-on-the-desert-cart dedicated videoconferencing appliance is a business model with the lifespan of an alcoholic fruit fly chain smoking unfiltered camels. The singularity approaches.

[imagine that]…all of the sudden you can purchase a fully functional standards-based HD videoconferencing end-point at every Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart in the world…..

This is great news for schools, as I’ve been looking for the H323 (standards based) desktop-ish classroom VC setup (for less than $1000) for over a year now. It really bothers me that all these 21st century classrooms are getting installed without videoconferencing! Tricked-out classrooms with no VC! It’s a travesty! But maybe with a Logitech camera and good echo cancellation mic plus great desktop h323 software it’s actually possible! We won’t have VC in every classroom or school until it is much cheaper and readily available. Purchasable by teachers with little instructional grants from various organizations, or easily acquired with existing tech funds.

So, in my opinion, bring those changes on! We need lower cost easier standards based VC to bring all the great existing VC content to more schools!

Tandberg Road Show

This morning I took a trip up to Van Buren ISD (which just was awarded a RUS grant – congrats!!). They are hosting the Tandberg Roadshow. (By the way you can see where the Road Show will be next here.)

The audience here is mostly tech coordinators from the surrounding districts. Many of them are expecting to get VC as part of their new RUS grant.

The program began with an introduction to VC by Doug Meyer at CILC. He gave an overview of content providers, collaborations, professional development, and of course the CILC Content Dollar Bank.

Then we headed off to the Pro Football Hall of Fame to learn about their programs and had a nice overview, plus a little history of the Detroit Lions.

Lance Ford was the next guest speaker and he told us the story of the Howell videoconference story beginning with a foreign language class. Their courses are supported by Moodle and Rosetta Stone in addition to the live videoconferencing. Fun quote: “those standards are weighing on teachers like a wet blanket on a hot August afternoon.”  His examples included content providers, Mote Marine, Great Barrier Reef, as well as collaborations – book clubs with Canada, DNA experiments, connections to Norway, etc. Students creating a field trip (the KC3 program) is another major part of their programs. Lance showed a video clip of students onsite at a local museum dressed in costume teaching about the westward expansion. Lance’s superintendent asks him to have a matching dollar for every dollar the district spends. They call it “leveraging” dollars. Lance uses grants to match other grants to get even more funds for technologies.

Next we heard from Stephanie about the grant program Tandberg will help you (for free) write grants to get videoconferencing. Finally we got a tour of the truck with all the equipment. I had some good time networking with the tech coordinators as well, many of whose districts are members of our REMC. Great morning & very informative!

Dear VC Vendors: Please Fix Dialing

This post has been simmering in my brain for a while, especially after another season of Read Around the Planet and all the dialing challenges that come with it. I know that my technical knowledge is not complete, and this may not be accurate within a few months or years. Still, I think it needs to be said. I invite anyone who would like to correct me to please use the comment feature to add your knowledge and opinions, especially the vendors.

The Problem of Dialing

So here goes. As the vendors try to find ways around the limitations of IP address dialing, firewalls, etc., they are creating a nightmare of dialing problems for those of us who use VC to connect 95% of the time “off net”, off our network, and with schools around the world. Here’s my view of the current situation.

Polycom IP##Extension Format

Polycom’s firewall traversal unit means that outsiders dial the IP of the unit and then ## with the alias of the endpoint behind the firewall. This allows for one public IP to be shared with other units. This is true for the V2IU, and I don’t know about the new Video Border Proxy. In addition, the RMX uses this format for it’s meeting rooms, and the MGC can be set up this way for meeting rooms as well.

However, here’s where it doesn’t work:

  • Tandberg endpoints can’t dial this format
  • Tandberg MCUs can’t dial this format
  • Anything registered to a gatekeeper can’t dial this format because gatekeepers strip off the ##extension.

Currently on the RMX, if someone can’t dial the IP## Extension, and you can’t dial out to them, there’s no way to get them into the conference.

TANDBERG Extension@IP Format

TANDBERG endpoints behind a border controller are dialed using the extension@IP format.
Here’s where this doesn’t work:

  • Polycom endpoints can’t call that format
  • It’s intermittent with at least my TANDBERG MCU. It worked before Read Around the Planet but then since then I can’t call 3 different places in 3 different states that use this format. Haven’t had time to open a ticket yet, but it’s annoying that nothing changed that I know of and it just quit working.

TANDBERG Codian Far End Camera Control

On the MCU side, the Codian MCU, recently bought out by TANDBERG, most often uses an entry room where the enduser uses far end camera control or tone dialing to enter the correct conference. It remains to be seen how TANDBERG will adapt the Codian technology. The far end camera control method works on most endpoints, except:

  • Getting far end camera control to work through another MCU is problematic at best. The tones or far end camera control usually aren’t passed from one MCU to the other.
  • Some legacy endpoints such as VTel (yes those are still out there in schools)

School Scenarios

Now I can just hear in my head all you techies telling me, why are you doing endpoint to MCU to MCU to endpoint dialing? Why are you dialing off net? Why don’t you just dial out to these problematic sites? Why doesn’t everyone just get rid of those “legacy” units? Well, here’s what’s happening in schools.

  • Dial out only. Fairly often, techs are nervous about NATing a static IP for H323 videoconferencing, so they only allow dialing out. If you can only dial out and you can’t dial the other site’s weird dialing, then what?
  • Dial out only through MCU. Many educational service agencies have a WAN where their schools can only connect out through the MCU. Hook two schools together this way, and you have to do endpoint to MCU to MCU to endpoint. A large number of my calls are like this. Sometimes not even by technical necessity, but because it’s easier to support the local schools by scheduling calls for them.
  • Dialing Predominantly Offnet. I wish I could just drill it into engineer’s heads that if a school or district is getting videoconferencing for enrichment/content providers/collaborative projects etc, they will do almost ALL their calls off net. But the vendors seem to be thinking mostly about internal corporate communications on a corporate network. All the while they enjoy and promote big events such as Read Around the Planet and Kids Creating Community Content which require offnet dialing to outside schools.
  • Legacy Lasts a Long Time. We also tend to get VC equipment and expect it to last 10 years. VC is still most often purchased with grant funds (not sustainable) and schools can’t drop $6-10K every 3 years or so to upgrade their VC equipment. It’s just not happening!

Gatekeepers

Some sales guys have told me that dialing should only happen through gatekeepers. I realize that the higher ed / Internet2 / Megaconference community has the Global Dialing Scheme (GDS) which sometimes helps. However:

  • Schools not familiar with GDS don’t want to neighbor to each other’s gatekeepers. Imagine in the two weeks of RAP, the huge participating schools with 120 connections. That’s 120 different sites to call in two weeks. Should we neighbor to every single other site we connect to. It’s insane to expect this.
  • Many small schools just get an endpoint only. They don’t have an educational service agency or statewide network to connect to a gatekeeper and get on GDS. How will they dial?

It’s not realistic to expect that the K12 VC community would be able to do dialing through gatekeepers only. The necessary structure isn’t in place, and probably won’t be anytime soon.

Dear VC Vendors: Please Fix Dialing

So, this is my plea to the vendors. Please think of us in the K12 community where we make most of our calls off our network. Surely corporate customers need to call off their network too. When will H323 videoconferencing work like a phone (platform independent, just works)?

I don’t know what the answer is. But dear vendors, would please get over your proprietariness and make the dialing work between all H323 endpoints? Please!

Submit for Video Champions Award by Feb. 13

Did you know TANDBERG is running a Video Champions Award?

The Video Champion Awards will honor organizations that are demonstrating positive impact and influence in video communications. Entrants will be awarded for innovations that break through conventional processes and highlight new ways of using video communications to help organizations, teams or individuals achieve their goals.

Hurry and apply!