Videoconferencing in Scotland
Most Scottish HEIs have installed at least one ATM based videoconference
studio, and several have also installed a second one. Funding for the
ATM based videoconference studios was provided by SHEFC.
Click to obtain Information
about videoconference facilities throughout the JANET network,
including how to book a videoconference, location of facilities, and
availability of studios.
A key part of the equipment in the Scottish ATM-based videoconferencing
studios is the CODEC (COmpressor/DECompressor), which is made by K-Net
Ltd. The Scottish MANs VideoConferencing Network (SMVCN) development
team worked closely with K-Net and as a result the facilities offered by
the Cellstacks are a significant improvement on previously available
systems. One advantage of the new systems is that the audio is 'mixed'
all the time. Technically, 36-site conferences are possible, and when
several sites are connected it is very useful that, with mixed audio,
all sites hear all other sites all the time; murmurs of encouragement
and so on can be heard. This makes the conference much more realistic -
sites don't 'disappear' when they aren't holding the floor.
At present there are 27 sites registered on the SMVCN network, and in
addition there can be 36 ISDN2 or 12 ISDN6 sites in a conference. The
multi-site conferences are made possible by the Multi-point Connection
Unit (MCU), which also makes sure that all sites automatically see the
person who is talking most consistently.
