[LINK] Government teleconferencing

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Tom Worthington wrote:
> At 11:08 AM 12/03/2009, Scott Howard wrote:
>> ... Yes, I've used Telepresence, and it is everything it's hyped up to be and
>> more! ... The end result is something you have to experience to believe. ...
> 
> I assume that this will be sort of thing which the Department of 
> Defence will get for its virtual reality command rooms. The way their 
> tender was worded it made it sound like the holo-deck from Star Trek 
> <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/02/virtual-reality-for-commanding.html>.
> 
> However, I hope that the government also invests in some lower cost 
> tele-conference systems which can be more widely deployed. The DoD 
> RFT required their hi-tech system be compatible with lower-capability 
> systems. It would also be useful to have some units in carry-on 
> luggage size hard cases for remote and emergency use 
> <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/08/portable-learning-centre.html>.
> 
> Room N101 at the ANU was equipped with wall sized screen, three high 
> resolution video projectors, cameras and a ceiling covered with 
> microphones. You could have a video conference with dozens of remote 
> locations and anyone in the room could talk to anyone remotely using 
> the Access Grid <http://www.accessgrid.org/>. But the system was so 
> complicated, it was not used much. I found a netbook with Skype much 
> more useful.
> 
<snip>

The two way Skype video conferencing worked extremely well on the eeePC (built
in camera and microphone) over the Access Grid worked extremely well!
See my documentation here:
<http://www.ramin.com.au/linux/eeepc-video-conference.shtml>

However, I agree with Jan about the Audio being more important than the picture.
And there is also an issue of bandwidth. My experience with International
multipoint consumer Video Skype is that picture and audio cut out, participants
could hear me clearly, I couldn't  hear them, so had to rever to text.

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202