Video Conferencing

An advanced High Definition Video Conferencing service is available for use in various locations within the SGUL site. Teaching room 12 has been equipped for up to 25 people, and has special curtains to aid good sound reproduction. Next to this is a specialised room suitable for 4-5 people, which again is curtained with acoustic walls. The units can be set-up in the any of the lecture theatres, and many other rooms around the site, just contact AV Support for details. We have 3 fully flexible and portable Tandberg videoconference systems.

This is not just a ‘talking-face’ technology. The units allow simultaneous two-way communication, and synchronised transmission of a second video stream. This allows the use of software such as Microsoft's PowerPoint during your presentation. A second camera can be attached to the unit, enabling three dimensional objects to be viewed in detail. The Far-End user may experience some of loss of detail whilst using video, DVD, or VHS technology due to the increased frame movement of these technologies.

It's easy to plug in a laptop and use your own computer, or we can make one available. With prior booking we can install specialist software if required for your presentation.

The system allows direct connection to multiple sites via an IP address. Similar to making a telephone call, you dial a series of numbers that relate directly to the codec/computer at the far-end, typically these addresses look like this, '194.82.50.40'. The quality achieved can be quite impressive; this is down to the use of higher bandwidths, which have become possible with the improvement of the internet’s infrastructure. The standard protocol used with IP Video Conferencing is H.264 video via H.323 call signaling, this provides a very robust and secure connection.

When using the Internet Protocol (IP) all communication is free from telephone call charges, making the technology very economical, and cost saving when compared to the expense of traveling to off site meetings.

We have run several successful conferences with links to Australia, Hong Kong and the USA. The only limiting factors are issues relating to Firewall settings, and the available bandwidth at the host site. The University’s ICT department have authorised our systems and JANET has given us 'Quality Approved' status. JANET run ‘Quality of Service’ tests every six months to ensure the systems are registered and kept to a very high standard.

JANET offers a free national booking service with which we are signed up to and more importantly offer further ‘Bridging Services’ which allows multi point conferencing between IP or ISDN (digital transmissions over Public Switched Telephone Networks). This supplements our own Codian 12 port Bridge, which allows up to twelve separate sites to join a conference. Our facilities also allow recording and streaming of Video Conferencing sessions.

Many systems are also able to join this high quality service via standard PC and Mac based conference software, please contact  AV Support (+44 020 8725 2602) for further details.

 
AV Support
Level 4 Hunter Wing
St George's University of London
Cranmer Terrace
London
SW17 0RE