New Configuration

Continuing education classes and the required OSHA training will be conducted through video conferencing. The following are the considerations for this type of communication technology. Video Conferencing will reduce corporate expenses in travel and personnel down-time while traveling. All video broadcasts will be initialized from the corporate office in Dallas.

Hardware Considerations:

System type. One of the first decisions made, in considering videoconferencing systems, is whether to buy a PC-based, portable, rollabout or installed system. These systems can be mixed on a network, and choices will be determined largely by the size of the group participating at a given location. While any can be used by one or two people, the PC-based systems are meant for one; portables for two to eight; rollabouts for three or four to perhaps 15; and installed systems for five or six on up to 20 - 30 or more.

The size of the monitor or projector used relates closely to group size. Though most videoconferences today take place using rollabout setups that come complete with 20" - 35" monitors, an economical installed system using an LCD or CRT projector will be a much better solution for larger groups.

Bandwidth. In any teleconference, the video and audio signals must be compressed to move through telephone lines in real time. The quality of the resulting image and sound is determined by the size, or bandwidth, of the telephone connection and the quality of the codec (or compression/decompression device) and the compression algorithm it employs.

Connection. Most videoconferences today travel over a single ISDN line, which moves data at 128 kilobytes per second (or 128K). At this bandwidth, decompressing to 15 frames per second video results in a clean picture, but noticeable blurring of any person or object in motion. Reproduction of motion improves with two ISDN lines (256K), but three lines (384K) is generally considered the minimum in applications where motion is critical, and 384K or higher at 30 frames per second is what is needed if you will transmit videotape. 384K is the bandwidth most often used in corporate meetings where quality must be high, but it is possible to transmit at 1.5 megabytes per second using a full T-1 line, or 768K using six ISDNs or half a T-1. These bandwidths are commonly used in educational applications, as T-1 lines are available to nonprofit organizations at greatly reduced rates.

Compression algorithms are the software schemes that determine a codec's ability to fit what would be a huge amount of data into the relatively small capacity of an ISDN line. At one time, each codec manufacturer had its own proprietary standard and one brand of equipment could not talk to another. Today, however, the industry has come together to set standard algorithms, which allow smooth communication between systems. Some vendors, offer proprietary algorithms that operate in addition to the standard. Their codecs are set up to sense what systems they are linked to and choose the highest quality algorithm available to all the systems in a conference.

The algorithms the new system will recognize is an important consideration. Current systems all recognize the H.320 standard, but within that standard, both H.261 and the new H.263 video compression standards may be recognized.

Audio quality. Research suggests that participants in a videoconference will perceive identical video pictures of higher or lower quality, depending on the audio quality. Perceptions aside, in a lower-bandwidth transmission, an acoustically imperfect room, or in a situation where one or two participants are connecting via a PC or telephone, audio quality can drop to the point where participants are incomprehensible. To avoid these problems, the system should include full-duplex audio and digital echo cancellation. A critical specification for judging audio quality is frequency response, although, to a large degree, you'll need to judge a system's quality by hearing it during a demonstration.

Other Considerations:

Multiple monitors or projectors. Generally speaking, the conference will go better with a two-monitor system where one monitor can keep eye contact at all times with far-end participants, while using the second to preview what is being sent. Whether that's a document being set up on the document camera or the output of the camera trained on the speaker, it will always know what is going on with the people conferencing and know what is being sent them. If only one monitor is available, a picture-in-picture system can also work well and generally the inset screen is used to show what's going out from the other system.

If making multiple-location calls, there are two options. A voice-activated switching device that will automatically show the location where someone is speaking, or the "continuous presence" to split the screen and show a continuous image of each location in the conference. These choices are not a function of the system, but of the bridging system used. Note, however, is the expectation is to use the continuous presence option often, plan for a larger than usual monitor or projected image, or the multi-screen images may get too small to be useful.

Multiple cameras can also be helpful, particularly if there is a situation (such as a distance learning classroom) where a presenter is in an area separate from the rest of the group.

A robotic camera will help if the presenter might move around, as such cameras can follow him or her automatically. This is normally an add-on to an installed system, but some portables and rollabouts use a voice activated camera to move the camera to the vicinity of the group member speaking.

Preset camera positions allow the presenter to zoom and tilt the camera to four or more positions before the meeting begins, focusing in, say, on a particular speaker or zooming back to show the whole group. Then, with the touch of a button, the presenter can move to that spot at the right times in your conference.

A document camera is a must in most videoconferences, allowing a presenter to make slides, transparencies, books or reports part of the flow of the meeting.

A telephone add-in allows audio-only participation by people using standard telephones. (Generally one person can connect using a standard phone line; multiple telephone connections are possible using a bridging service.)

A videotape input can also be quite useful, but remember, at lower bandwidths fast-moving images may be quite blurred at the far end of the conference.

A PC interface will allow the addition of PowerPoint slides, diagrams or other PC images into the conferences, in much the same way a document camera would.

A dataconferencing link allows conference participants to sit down at their own PCs and collaborate on a document or spreadsheet. An audio or audio and video connection completes the link lets collaborators speak to each other and see each other while they work.

Hardware Configuration Decision for Videoconferencing:

Each office will be supplied a rollabout setup with a 32' monitor. Each computer will be connected to the LAN utilizing Windows NT 4.0. Each computer will have a Pentium processor with 166MHz for the standard compliant H.323 connections, 32 MB of RAM and10 MB of hard disk space

Each will be TCP/IP Winsock compliant with an IP address.

To send video, each will be equipped with a desktop color video camera and video capture card.

To send audio, each will be equipped with a microphone with a 16-bit or better sound card and driver.

To receive audio, each will be equipped with speakers with 16-bit or better sound card and drivers.

Headquarters: The Dallas office will be the origination of all transmission for training. In addition to the above hardware configurations, they will also have robotic camera to follow the speaker and A PC interface which allow the addition of PowerPoint slides, diagrams or other PC images into the conferences.


Software Considerations

A software program is needed that is compatible with the current technological infrastructure.
enabling real-time interaction over the intranet. This program will need to be fully standards-compliant with features including full color video, audio, application sharing and whiteboard.
Additionally, the program needs to be cost effective, accessible from anywhere and needs to be compatible with other video desktops including Microsoft® NetMeeting™ , Intel™ Proshare Video System, Intel® TeamStation™ , and PictureTel LiveLan™ for conferencing outside the intranet with others, .i. e. clients and vendors.


Software Decision for Videoconferencing:

CU-SeeMe Pro provides:

Multiple video windows can be viewed simultaneously and participants can collaborate and share information with up to twelve conference participants in real-time. Users can share applications on their computer and work together by allowing other conference participants to see the same information on their screens. CU-SeeMe is also:
Cost-effective
Accessible from anywhere
Business-quality audio and video and easy-to-use application sharing
Group conferencing capability via with added feature of MeetingPoint™

Cost of Hardware and Software:

$7500 per location @ 60 locations - $450,000

WEB-BASED COURSES CONFIGURATION CONSIDERATIONS


Employee training for word processing, spreadsheet, and database management as well as Lotus Notes instruction can be accomplished through a few different delivery methods.

Web-based courses with topics ranging from beginning word processing to advanced database management and Lotus Notes can be placed on the corporate intranet.

These courses require the employee to download a plug-in and install it on their PC or notebook. This plug-in acts as a manager for the courses the employee enrolls in through the campus site. It tracks the employee's grades, number of times accessing the course, the dates of access and periodically updates the employee's training record. The employee can choose from web-based courses that are required to be accessed while on-line, or downloadable courses that can be accessed without being online. All of the courses have been licensed from outside vendors, which results in some courses being very generic in nature. Occasionally, training must still be provided to address the gaps that exist. The majority of the courses do, however, provide basic skills that can be improved through on-the-job training and peer interaction. Most courses have assessments that are provided at particular intervals, along with an overall assessment at the end. Employees can take these assessments as many times as they want, with the opportunity to improve their scores.

Distributed CD ROM Training

Through the CD ROM training delivery system, employees can receive a CD ROM with 20 to 30 of the courses that are on the intranet campus. These CDs can be made available through a corporate education center or by departmental management. Employees install a plug-in that resides on the CD similar to that of the intranet campus plug-in. An advantage is that employees are able to access a CD when no internet connection is available.

OSHA Safety Training

These courses can be presented in a compressed video format. These courses are a combination of presentation slides, generally in Power Point or similar presentation software, and compressed audio and video of the actual presentation. The instructor is video taped giving the presentation in front of a target audience while assistants note slides, time counts, and student questions. The video portion is then edited for video and audio integrity after compression and coordinated with the slide presentation. Student questions and answers are noted on additional slides for each segment and incorporated into the course. The course is then produced in either a downloadable format from an intranet site or CD ROM. The cost for an eight-hour course is approximately $16K. Since the course content will be relatively static, only minor updates will be necessary to maintain compliance with OSHA requirements.

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