Category Archives: Technology

One Videoconference System per Child

Did you see this in the Wainhouse Research Bulletin a few weeks ago? Be sure to click the link to see the picture!

MIT Launches One Videoconferencing System per Child (OVPC) Nicholas Nery of The Manchurian Institute of Technology thinks everyone in the world should have a videoconferencing system.
The world famous professor, author, researcher, and diplomat has launched the non-profit OVPC organization to design, manufacture, and distribute the world’s most affordable videoconferencing system, priced at less than $100 and aimed at youngsters in the developing world. With moisture-resistant seals and a crash-proof hard drive, combined with built-in WiFi, colorful cables and connectors, solar panels for mobility and power generation in remote areas, and a high definition camera, this hardly-no-frills system supports 720p video and Siren-14 stereo audio. Prototypes of the SIP-based, H.264-compliant device are due to ship in Q4-08.
The company is concentrating on serving populations in underdeveloped and/or war-torn regions of Western Africa, South East Asia, and Texas.

Texas at the end of the paragraph surprised me. If any of you are involved, please comment and tell us more about it!

There’s also an interesting commentary on this development on the OLPC News site. I hope that those involved can imagine more instructional educationally engaging experiences besides just this:

Imagine entire country’s classrooms, full of children, in a massive multiplayer online conference.

Good that someone’s thinking about the bandwidth implications too:

I just hope that SES Global can handle all that data traffic on its donated bandwidth or there will be a lot of disappointed children (and adults).

So far, we’re still working on access to videoconferencing in each school. One of my superintendents wanted to know how to get VC in all the classrooms, even though it’s highly unlikely (at their present use rate) that they’ll ever do more than one VC at a time. Do you see a time in the future when every classroom at least has VC? Do you think the vendors will ever make desktop VC low cost that has audio designed for a classroom and maybe camera presets too? is that too much to ask for a low cost desktop system? What do you think?

What's Up with Upgrades?

It seems like this is the third year in a row that sometime in March we have really weird H.261/263/264 dialing conflicts. We upgrade software, and all of a sudden bridges are crashing, sites just ring & ring and won’t negotiate, and one site can take down the whole conference. Is it just me or is this happening to you too?

When you do a lot of connections with multiple vendors’ units involved in the call, once in a while you get caught in between upgrades. The upgrade of one vendor breaks the connections with another vendor and they haven’t fixed it in their latest version yet. Has this happened to you?

It seems like it’s never a good idea to upgrade anything in the middle of the school year. However, sometimes we want to upgrade to fix a problem. It seems like a no-win situation.

That’s my rant for today! 🙂 Do you have any words of wisdom? Please comment!

Microsoft $300 Videoconference System?

Reading my VCInsight news and found this announcement from the March 17 issue:

At VoiceCon Orlando 2008 this week, Microsoft Corp. announced broad availability of its conferencing solutions and continued customer and partner adoption of its Unified Communications platform. Polycom and TANDBERG videoconferencing systems (74% of the installed base of room systems) will work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. In a keynote address, Microsoft revealed that it has plans for the OCS Server to handle High Definition video and that the company is developing a HD videoconferencing camera with TANDBERG, priced for the masses at $300.

This sounds really intriguing. It sounds like a desktop type unit, but I wonder if it would have audio that could work in a classroom?  It sounds like it might require the OCS server, which might be a complication for schools. Still, it’s nice to know the vendors are competing over a low cost videoconference system, which should continue to benefit K12 education.

Fixing H.239 Settings

I’ve “muttered” here before about H.239 and the various problems with it (H.239 and MCUs and this post). Today I had a compelling reason to make it work and room in my brain to figure it out! Honestly, that’s half my problem with this technology. Just no time to figure it out! 🙂

Today I figured it out. I found the setting on our Polycom VSX 7000s to make sure H.239 is turned on. It’s under System, Admin, Network, Call Preference, and you want it checked.

I also found the setting on my conference template on the TANDBERG MPS MCU. It’s called “dual stream” and has to be turned on.

Once I figured that out, I was able to receive H.239 from a Polycom VSX 7000 with People Plus Content through my TANDBERG MCU to a Polycom VSX 7000 on my desk. Yeah!!

I think testing H.239 scenarios is on my list to figure out too. It would be really nice to know more certainly which units can receive it and which can’t; and how to fix (update settings) ones that can’t that really should be able to! Now for just a little more time…..

Dialing Insanity is Here to Stay

Yesterday I spent some time talking to a sales engineer about how the new Polycom RMX bridge works. What I was most interested in is how the dialing works. The Codian and TANDBERG bridges use some variation of dialing and conference numbers depending on how they are configured. The new RMX is set up that way too. Polycom calls it an “ad hoc” conference bridge, although it can be work in a “scheduled environment” when installed with the ReadiManager SE 200.  This means the only bridge left that allows “direct inward internet dialing” (i.e. call an IP address and get dropped into the right conference) is the Polycom MGC. Please correct me if I’m wrong by commenting below. And if you’re reading this post, please check the comments for the full picture with potentially differing opinions!

Industry Trends
What I found intriguing to this conversation is the general trend of the videoconferencing industry.  A shift is happening from a centralized manager doing all the scheduling (a scheduled environment) to end users able to dial into the MCU/bridge and voila! their conference starts (ad hoc).

I think the other reason for this trend is a concern on the part of some vendors and security people regarding IP address dialing. My sense from reading the Megaconference listserv is that the education market isn’t too worried about this. But someone is, because I’m starting to hear from vendors that dialing IP addresses is a terrible thing. As that message gets to schools that don’t know any better, they’ll install solutions that create islands and difficult dialing.

Dialing History
We used to have ISDN numbers to dial, and they usually worked unless a 700 area code was involved. Then we had IP addresses, and many of us are pretty attached to that method of dialing. The new way is IP plus conference number or extension in some form. And some of us are having trouble adjusting to that. I’ve been fighting it and muttering about it for three years!  (see GDS Dialing, Dialing Insanity, Problems in K12 Dialing, etc. etc.)

Weird Dialing is Here; Now What?
Now that I realize the major players in the industry are all starting to use this IP plus conference/extension number dialing, I know I have to adjust my brain to it. Time to stop muttering. Time to instead think of solutions. So I’m starting to brainstorm some possible ways that we can help each other connect to each other. I’ve learned a few things already that I’ll share here now:

  • Gatekeepers strip off the ##extension if you try to dial IP ## extension. I thought it was just my Tandberg gatekeeper up till yesterday when I learned the Polycom V2IU does it too. Instead, the recommended method is to add extension@IP address to your address book and dial that way. This extension@IP address is called an NXO dial string.
  • Let’s say you’re trying to get a Tandberg endpoint to dial an IP ## extension to connect to a unit behind a Polycom V2IU. Make sure the V2IU is on the latest version. On the latest version you can use a feature called digit manipulation. The Tandberg can dial a * instead of a # and it will still connect.

I have a few other ideas simmering, so stay tuned. If you have any other ideas on how we can collaborate to make dialing each other less frustrating, please comment below. If you have any corrections to my notes here, please comment too!

Understanding and Troubleshooting H323 Networks Workshop

I’ve blogged about this Understanding and Troubleshooting H323 Networks workshop from the University of Wisconsin before here and here. It’s excellent. Now they are offering it again and this time via web/phone conference. If you can possibly scrape the dollars together, I highly recommend it for your networking and technical videoconferencing support staff. Even videoconferencing coordinators like me – educators turned MCU support – can gain something from the workshop, especially if you’ve done a lot of connections to sites outside your network and run into strange scenarios.

They don’t pay me, or even ask me, to advertise this workshop. I’m just sharing it with you because it was such a benefit to me.

Polycom's New Lost Packet Algorithm

It’s been quiet here because I’m living RAP matching night and day at the moment. But…. check this out!

Wainhouse Research has just reviewed Polycom’s new Lost Packet Recovery capability that’s included in the new HDX units. It’s propietary right now, but Polycom is pushing the industry to accept this as a standard. It sure would be helpful in some of my districts!! I hope it comes out soon on the VSX 7000s!

Short on Bandwidth? Problem or Dilemma?

Do any of your schools struggle with managing bandwidth so that videoconferences can happen? Mine do. I was reading Doug Johnson’s blog, and realized that his post Problem or Dilemma may assist with this issue:

[Dilemmas are] conditions that can only be managed, not solved because they involve conflicts in values. Because of individual priorities and “problem frames,” it is impossible to deal with these issues so that everyone gets what she/he desires. So how are these situations best dealt with? Personally, I like using my advisory committee (or a task force) comprised of all stakeholders effected to fully air the issue, suggest actions, and make a recommendation. Does everyone always like the result? No. But everyone knows why it has been made and has had a chance to have had their concerns heard.

Read the full post. How is bandwidth a dilemma? I have schools where they make an announcement (or send an email) for everyone to stay off their computers from 9:00-10:00 or whenever because a videoconference is going on. That’s pretty extreme, and those of you lucky enough to have fiber would never dream of such a situation. But it happens. In another district, due to internal networking, three schools have to stay offline to do a videoconference! Do you think these schools see videoconferencing as something they want to do on a daily or weekly basis? Certainly not! Just enough to meet the requirements of the RUS grant, or just enough to satisfy those teachers interested in using it. Just imagine the feeling about videoconferencing in these buildings! Having a conversation as Doug described is certainly one great way to get everyone involved in the issue.

What other ideas do you have?

GDS Dialing Journey

What is GDS?
Last year about this time, we started working on getting on the Global Dialing Scheme. GDS is basically a gatekeeper neighboring structure that allows endpoints to register to their local gatekeeper. Their local gatekeeper is then connected into a hierarchical global structure. This way, in theory, you can neighbor with just one gatekeeper, and then connect with anyone who is also connected to GDS by dialing their GDS e.164 number.

The concept is very slick, and in some ways provides a solution to the interesting dialing schemes and VC islands that cause problems for our projects.

Why GDS?
Since we keep increasing our  connections with the UK, I’ve wanted to get on GDS so that we could connect directly without having to go through the Janet/JVCS MCU.

After experimenting with GDS unsuccessfully in January and February 2007, I left it alone for several months. This fall, I finally opened a ticket with Tandberg to get it up and running. With a few settings here, and an upgrade there, here a little, there a little, now it works!!

GDS in Real Life
In the process of experimenting with GDS connecting to the UK, I discovered that many of their gatekeepers are still configured only to allow calls to and from Janet/JVCS and not from those outside the country. This explains why I’ve had trouble with GDS and the UK. However this morning we tested a call for an Eco-Conversations project coming up, and this particular area in the UK allows incoming and outgoing GDS calls.

So, the upshot is, the new Collaborations Around the Planet & Read Around the Planet database collects GDS numbers as well as IP addresses. While there are still many schools that don’t use GDS, it’s yet another way to make a call work. Because of that, I think it’s worth the trouble to get it set up.

The next question is, how do I get on? First check with the Internet2 contacts in your state/area. If that doesn’t get you anywhere, try the Internet2 Commons. And if any of you reading my blog have additional tips on how to get on GDS, please add in the comments section!

Pet Peeve: Accurate Names on Endpoints

Here’s a little thing that sometimes drives me crazy. Especially when I’m bridging a more than one event at a time.

When an endpoint outside my network dials into my bridge (Tandberg MPS MCU), the bridge displays the H323 name or the system name set on the endpoint. I really like it when the name accurately describes the endpoint – the name of the school, or “district name mobile unit” or something useful like that.

What’s frustrating is having a conference full of just numbers. 123678, 543723, etc. Those are fairly useless. Then I have to pay attention and write down their number if I need to mute them or force video to them; two functions I do a lot when facilitating MysteryQuest and ASK programs.

So, do me a favor if you’re participating in one of our connections. Make sure there’s a good useful name on your endpoint! It’s usually set in System Settings or H323 Settings. Thanks!!