Video Conferencing in Higher Education

TIF Telecoms Technology Members Evening26th November 2008

John Boland, Chief Executive, HEAnet

Outline of Presentation

• HEAnet and its Network Infrastructure

• Video Conferencing Services for HE & R

• Case Studies

• Future Directions and Plans

Members of HEAnet Ltd

• 7 Universities• 13 Institutes of Technology• Dublin Institute of Technology• Tipperary Institute, NCI, NCRI• HEA, NUI, NCAD, NQAI• CAO, HETAC, IRCSET• HRB, EPA, RIA >>>>>>>• In excess of 150,000 user community• DES / 4000 Schools accessing the infrastructure

Ireland’s National Education and Research Network :

•Providing high quality Internet Services to Irish universities, Institutes of Technology and the research and educational community, including all Irish primary and post-primary schools;

•Playing an essential role in facilitating leading edge research involving national collaboration amongst Irish researchers and students and internationally with HE&R community across the globe;

“HEAnet is at the cornerstone of developing Ireland’s knowledge economy”

INEX

Belfast

CitywestDublinGalway

Limerick

Cork

Rate of Network Growth

Network Traffic

• National and International Dark Fibre Network• Irish Internet Traffic Record 5.32 GBit/s• Over 12,000 concurrent viewers on Budget Day

Video Conferencing Services for Higher Education &

Research

Video Conferencing Services• Network• GDS• Gateway

• MCU• Video Conferencing• Archiving

Global Dialling Scheme

• International Video Conferencing Dialling Scheme

• HEAnet hosts National and Global Root Servers

• Allows simple dialling of national and international Video Conferencing endpoints and services

ISDN Gateway

• Allows legacy Video Conferencing endpoints & telephone users to avail of HEAnet’s Video Conferencing services

POTS GDS

IP Network

Multipoint Controller Unit (MCU)

• Host up to 40 concurrent High Definition calls

• Webcast virtual meeting rooms

• Unlimited number of virtual meeting rooms

• A unique video stream for each participant

Video Conferencing Archiving

Case Studies

• Video Conference Archiving– Tyndall Institute– Conway Institute– Weekly Lecture Archiving

Case Studies

• UCD – School of Medicine– 4 Sites connected at HD– Multiple other sites viewing webcast– HD Medical Imaging

• Design Week Ireland: Reform ‘08– 3 Site HD Event– Cork School of Music– Carlow IT– Guest Lecture from Professor in Germany

High Definition Conferencing

CIF (352x288) V's HD (1280x720)

Telepresence

• Multi-screen High Definition• Immersive Experience• True Eye-to-Eye Contact

• Bandwidth not excessive• Low latency is key

High Definition VC

HD Video Conferencing Tender

• Recognition that Video Conferencing can play a vital role• Cost effective and environmentally friendly • Facilitating collaboration between staff, researchers and students in

the Higher Education community.

• HEAnet pushing HD video conferencing as standard platform for large HE & R institutions

• To promote the use of video conferencing, we are procuring a number of High Definition Video Conference end-points, for installation in client meeting rooms.

• Meetings• Conferences (Remote presentation)• Distance Learning• Music Classes• Lifelong learning• Employee Orientation• Training• Interviews

Video Conferencing Uses