Vassar Technology Today |Conference system makes learning truly global

Matthew Leung Managing Editor

In fall 2005, a group of Vassar students and a group of German students sat down to discuss the Holocaust, thousands of miles between them. The distance was bridged by an Internet connection, a camera, and a plasma video screen. Weeks later, Associate German Professor Jeffrey Schneider sat in that same room under the overhead studio lights with his students to talk to a group of German actors who were in a Schiller play.

“The course in German drama was taught at four different colleges in America,” said Director of Academic Computing Services Steven Taylor, who helped coordinate the installation of the system. “We had the video conferencing system set up so that students in those colleges could talk to each other and to some of the actors in Germany.”

At the special requests of Schneider and Associate Professor of German Studies Silke von der Emde, Computing Information Services (CIS) paid more than $25,000 from July 2005 to August 2005 to install a camera with a TV screen in a College Center room, attach one microphone in the front of the room and one in the back, and to hang a microphone from the ceiling. Then the Office of the Dean of the Faculty paid $1,500 dollars to paint the room, to install new lighting, and to put in a new carpet.

“We wanted the room to look professional and presentable in the video,” said Taylor. “[Silke von der Emde] told us they really wanted a video conferencing system, and people have asked casually over the years.” The investment, however, was for the long-term. “Most other schools have a video conferencing system, and we can communicate with any schools that have a similar system or even a webcam,” said Taylor.

The Polycom VSX 7,400 system camera can capture a crisp video image of everyone in the room, and position presets allow the camera to automatically zoom in on a speaker with the click of a button. The capabilities of this high-tech camera go far beyond those of a typical webcam, according to Taylor. “With a webcam, you can only see the face of one person, and the webcam software will not give you full-screen video at a high frame rate,” explained Taylor.

The Polycom system includes specialized hardware that transmits smooth and compressed video via the Internet at 384 kilobits per second (kbps), or less than one percent of Vassar’s 45 Mbps of available bandwidth. Multiple microphones also help with the sound.

The point-to-point system can make video conferencing calls with another system, or with multiple systems, like a three-way call. Webcams can communicate with the system by using applications such as Xmeeting (xmeeting.sourceforge.net) that emulate the special protocol required to communicate with the system. For example, on a personal computer, Xmeeting treats the webcam and the computer as a video conferencing system, and sends out the right kind of signal to communicate with the Polycom system. In addition to feeding the recipient with the video images from the camera, the conferencing system can also transmit content from external sources such as a computer, DVD player, or another camera.

After the two conversations with Germany, the system was used again for a long-distance job interview and communication with another college. But the system is not solely for these specific purposes and anyone interested in using this system can contact CIS. “It is typically not used constantly, but we hope more people will use it,” said Taylor.