Digital Britain - will increase vc use

Video conferencing services could be accessible from any UK location in the near future if current trials of high speed fibre networks in several British cities are successful.
The northern city of Leeds will be the testing bed for a high speed fibre network which could provide speeds ten times faster than the current national average. Telecommunication AQL completed the first phase of its roll-out of super fast broadband to the centre of Leeds last weekend, providing business customers with download speeds of up to 100 megabytes per second and upload speeds of up to 20 mbps.

Leeds involvement in the future of UK broadband comes hot on the heels of similar trials in Manchester. In the same week as AQL made their announcement, fibre wholesaler FibreCity announced that they would be launching a similar trial on the south-coast in Bournemouth.
In Manchester, the Northwest Regional Development Agency said that it would be funding a limited roll-out of similar services in the busy Oxford Road area, which would act as a 'testbed' for digital services and business models.

These trials are part of the Digital Britain strategy promised by both major political parties. Currently, one of the major obstacles to wider use of videoconferencing technology and telepresence services is the limited capabilities of the UK's communications infrastructure.
In the near future, the high speed connections required for real-time video conferencing could become commonplace - massively expanding the reach of such services, allowing for businesses and individuals to use the technology. Every city in the UK could become linked to any location in the rest of the world - perhaps even smaller towns and villages.

Applications in Education

US Professors leading the way in video conferencing

Professors at the University of Kansas have been making use of a combination of teaching methods, from traditional class-based learning to more innovative learning methods via video conferencing technology.

Director of Instructional Development and Support, Susan Zvacek, comments that the University has been making more use of video conferencing classes and is hoping to increase their video conferencing facilities further - to add to their existing classrooms with video conferencing capabilities.

As well as for long distance learning, the University is planning to use the technology in the future to offer additional courses, as video conferencing reduces the need for multiple teaching spaces, allowing students to access lectures at home or in their halls of residence.

Zvacek commented of the University's new focus: ''I suspect that the University will move towards a combination of technologies that would involve online coursework as well as video conferencing technology.''

As well as the University of Kansas, other US education establishments such as Princetown and Berkeley are implementing video technologies to supplement their teaching quality. Back in the UK, Oxford and Cambridge Universities are starting to embrace video content by publishing lectures online, in a bid to move towards digital lecturing.

Video conferencing creates a seamless communication platform between a student and teacher, allowing students from a variety of locations to benefit from a Lecturer or Professor's knowledge, without having to travel onto campus. Such lectures are ideal for those who live in remote areas or who suffer from physical disabilities, as they allow an individual to digest knowledge in the comfort of their own space.

Video Conference Exorcism

Interesting video conference application stories Part One

The first one in an occasional series of interesting application stories, as and when I come across them.

I read today about an exorcism by video conference. Kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri held an exorcism ceremony, to banish a dybbuk (the soul of a dead person who has invaded a live one) from a young man in Brazil in December 2009.

A man from Brazil claimed that a dybbuk had entered him. Reports state that voices began to emerge from the Brazilian man, even though his lips were not moving. The voice was saying, among other things, "The end is close," and, "I sense many sins," in a language other than the man's native tongue of Portuguese. He cannot speak any other language. It is also stated that the man spoke through his stomach not his lips. His wife also said that he had been talking in a foreign language in his sleep as well.

The man's friends approached a number of senior Rabbi's to help. The request ended up with Rav Dovid Batzri, the renowned mekubal who has expertise in this area.

However as he lived in Brazil, Rav Batzri's assistants arranged for him to be able to be in video contact with the Brazilian man via Skype, an internet video conference tool.

And you can see a video of it here.
http://matzav.com/video-rav-batzri-attempts-dybbuk-removal-via-dybbukvision%C2%AE

Apparently it did not work and the man will now travel to meet the Rabbi in person, but perhaps it would have, if he had chosen to use an Eyenetwork video conference facility instead of a rather poor connection through skype. We have 33 video conference facilities in Brazil which you can use for many other purposes than simply business meetings!

'How to Videos'

Eyenetwork has produced a series of "How to video conference" videos. These videos feature our very talented staff and we have received some very positive feedback from our customers and affiliates.

They can be found on you tube:

How to have a video conference interview - featuring Tancrede and Shelly. Employeers are increasing using video conferencing to interview candidates. This video shows you hints and tips for a successful video conference job interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB8igBMlOMs

How to book Eyenetwork - featuring Grethe, Rebecca and Lisa. How to use the Eyenetwork website to search for a video conferencing facility and how the booking process works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KllOYpsEl0s

How to have a successful video conferencing meeting - A guide to setting up a video conferencing meeting room, camera, sound, positioning, hints and tips for a successful meeting and some helpful etiquette pointers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8j_1Q37Xk


and on our resources page

http://www.eyenetwork.com/resources/information-and-downloads/

Hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

Cisco to buy Tandberg

News that Cisco will be buying Tandberg was announced last week. Because of Eyenetwork's niche in public room hire, we are often unaffected by video conferencing industry news, but this announcement feels extremely welcome.

Cisco have already excited the industry with their excellent (but proprietary) Telepresence products. Now with Tandberg an important part of the Cisco family, we can look towards a massive increase in high definition video conferencing end points. Also it seems that Cisco will now take seriously the issues of interoperability amongst networks and codecs: Tandberg has consistently shown commitment to interoperability throughout its Telepresence offering and has a large range of video conferencing products covering all budgets.

To achieve optimum use by businesses it is necessary for all Telepresence units to be interoperable regardless of manufacturer, and the ability to link with traditional video conference units is essential. Then maybe some of our bureaus will upgrade to Telepresence suites, at the moment there is no incentive for them to spend such a large amount of money when they can only connect with a limited amount of end points. The public room hire market is about the ability to connect everywhere regardless of equipment; and this explains why to the surprise of many in the industry, meetings over ISDN still comprise of 70% of all our bookings: guaranteed quality with no packet loss or firewall issues.

Before long, we will get to the point that Henry Ford reached when he started producing millions of cars. The production and demand forced a massive upgrade of the world highway infrastructure. So what we now need is for telecommunications companies to add significant volumes of HD quality, low latency broadband, at affordable prices. And then the revolution in video communications, the one we have been waiting for such a long time, will really take off!

The Legal Profession

Video conferencing is now common in courts around the world. It is also used by barristers, lawyers and solicitors pre-trial to take witness testimony or liaise between the different parties involved.
We have extended the information on our sister website to give the historical context of video conferencing and its current use within the legal profession in various countries. See http://www.videoconferencing-legal.com/ for more information.

Charities use more vc

Most international charities have offices around the world. Oxfam, Wateraid, Smiletrain and many others are clients of Eyenetwork. International HIV Aids Alliance in particular approached us to help them find a way of meeting without travelling. Their mission is to support communities to reduce the spread of HIV and to meet the challenges of AIDS with particular but not exclusive interest in the African continent. To ensure smooth and fast decision making they need regular meetings with many offices at once.

Eyenetwork's global spread meant that we were able to offer video conferencing facilities in all requested locations, including more hard to access locations such as Benin, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Cameroon. Our multipoint service was used to connect more than 2 locations at the same time, see our video conference multipoint pages for more information.