Telepresence and How it Fits In with Other Kinds of Video Conferencing

Bob Dixon, OARnet and Ohio State Univ.

OARTech, April 8, 2009OARnet, Columbus, Ohio

Note there are a few other systems that do not fit into these categories

Levels of Videoconferencing– Web Conferencing

• PC and small camera • Collaboration tools such as Skype, Elluminate,

Dimdim….• Fair quality

– Standard H.323 Video Conferencing• Most common type today• Good quality

– High-Definition H.323 Video Conferencing • Like HDTV• Excellent quality

– Telepresence• HD, plus appearance of being in the same room

Ohio Board of Regents Telepresence Grant

• Grant to OARnet to investigate feasibility of Telepresence among Ohio universities

• Evaluate all available systems

• Install 2 pilot systems and MCU

Telepresence Systems

• All currently offered systems were investigated.

• All were found to be too expensive for most applications. Typically $250K and up.

• Some are proprietary, and incompatible with all others. HP, Cisco.

• Some require special or vendor-managed networks. Cisco requires that they certify your network.

• Some are standards-based and will become interoperable. Polycom, Tandberg, LifeSize.

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Tandberg Telepresence

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Cisco Telepresence

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Polycom Telepresence

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LifeSize Telepresence

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Who Uses Telepresence?• Typically corporate executives, for whom cost is no object.

• Rarely used in education. A recent poll shows fewer than 10 in USA.

• Reasons for little education use:

High cost, including purchase, installation and operation.

Typically not suitable for more than a few people at once.

May be incompatible with existing video conf equipment.

Will not dedicate a room to something that is rarely used.

High bandwidth and network quality required.

Requires multiple rooms.

• Standard high-definition video conferencing can do most

things that telepresence does, at much less cost

and complexity.

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The Telepresence Kit Approach

• LifeSize Corp was the first to offer low-cost high-definition video conferencing.

• Now they have offered an inexpensive kit version of Telepresence.

• $70K, including installation and one year maintenance.

• Installation by ID Solutions, of Indianapolis

• OARnet has installed 2 of these as a pilot program, funded by the Board of Regents, as affordable examples for other Ohio universities.

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Multipoint Telepresence Conferences

• Any video conference with more than two locations requires a multipoint control unit.

• We purchased a Codian 12 port HD MCU.

• Costs $54K.

• Supports 4 locations of 3 screens each, or any combination of 12.

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Interoperability of Levels of Videoconferencing

– Web Conferencing• Essentially no interoperability. Collaboranza! 2006• https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/Collaboranza/Home

– Standard H.323 Video Conferencing• Complete interoperability. Megaconference 1999-present• http://www.megaconference.org• 10th Anniversary Megaconference Nov 6.

– High-Definition H.323 Video Conferencing • Complete interoperability. Gigaconference 2005-2006• http://commons.internet2.edu/gigaconference2005• http://commons.internet2.edu/gigaconference

Telepresence Teraconference 2009• Little advertised interoperability

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Telepresence Interoperability

• Only one Telepresence vendor (Teliris) claims interoperability with any other Telepresence vendor.

• Some Telepresence vendors are natively H.323 compatible (eg - LifeSize, Polycom, Tandberg), making full TP interoperability possible in the future. Full VC interoperability exists now.

• A few vendors have limited interoperability gateways to non-telepresence VC systems (Cisco, HP).

• Telepresence systems typically use special dedicated MCUs.

• Telepresence systems typically do not use gatekeepers; hence they can call only via IP address. No Global Dialing System.

• Telepresence systems typically use proprietary control systems, to simplify operation. Eg - Crestron, AMX

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Conceptual Telepresence System

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Codec

Proprietary Control System

Codec

Codec Codec

Codec

Codec

Proprietary Control System

Location A Location B

Interoperable Telepresence System

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Codec

Codec

Codec Codec

Codec

Codec Bypassed or

ModifiedProprietary

Control System

MCU

Gatekeeper

Bypassed orModified

Proprietary Control System

Location A Location B

Telepresence Interoperability!

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Questions?

Thank you for coming!

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