TANDBERG Edge HD at the ISTE 2010 SIG IVC Playground

Background: The SIG IVC Playground at ISTE 2010 featured six videoconferencing islands. Participants tried out two HD units and four desktop videoconferencing solutions. We used a pirate theme to make the learning and exploration fun. At each island, attendees had to talk to people in mystery locations to figure out where they were and which content provider they were.

In this blog post, I share the experience at the TANDBERG HD Edge island.

Tandberg Edge Setup

Tandberg/Cisco provided the HD equipment that was used in the playground and in the SIG IVC room throughout the rest of the conference. Several Tandberg staff from the booth came by to help out at this island during the playground as well.

In this picture, Amy Spath from NY is the pirate guide. She is behind the attendee and has a parrot on her pirate hat.

We used the Promethean board display and projector (supplied with the playground) as a screen and method to show the video from the HD system. These systems are more often set up with carts in schools as shown in pictures here.

In the picture above, note the equipment. The microphone (designed for room systems) is sitting on the stool. The remote control for the system is in the participant’s hand. The camera is to the right of the Promethean board on a small table. The videoconference system itself (sometimes called the codec) is on the floor to the left of the Promethean board. These are typical basic components of all videoconference hardware solutions.

This picture gives a better view of the codec on the floor to the right and the camera on the table to the left. The participants at this island just got a special prize because they found the pirate at The Mariners’ Museum!

At this island, participants dialed out to:

  1. Center for Puppetry Arts
  2. The Mariners’ Museum
  3. Royal Botanical Gardens
  4. Baseball Hall of Fame

I Learned

  • Since my daily job is connecting my schools (with Polycom VSX 7000s and Viewstations) to lots of similar systems around the country, including all different kinds of Tandberg systems, I didn’t really learn anything new. This island worked successfully and steadily just as I would have expected!
  • Also, as expected, this island handled groups of people much better than the desktop videoconferencing islands.
  • One thing I wanted to learn though, is how to use the far end camera control to change the layout of the conference when dialed into a Codian bridge. We did have a Codian from REMC 1 on the list of places to dial, but I never got a chance to play with it and figure it out. Too busy solving other problems and issues with the playground. Do you know? Please comment!

What about you?

Did you make it to the ISTE IVC Playground? Or have you played with Tandberg Edge HD before? What would you add?

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