Implementing Intercom-like Videoconferencing?

Tangential asks: "I run a small (~100 person) consulting company with developers located in several locations (including SOHO's.) We run a VPN, so network connectivity isn't an issue. I'd like to improve day-to-day interactions between everyone here and I'm thinking of setting up (for lack of a better term) a video-intercom. I want people to be able to see and converse with each other at their desks, much as they would if they were all in the same office. Some of the folks here use Windows and some of us use Linux. I'm looking for a software and hardware solution that will operate pretty well between them and not swamp my systems staff. I need it to carry both the audio and the video connection and it is safe to assume that all workstations and laptops here are at least 1 GHz units. I'd especially like recommendations on which cameras to use on the Linux boxes."

Comments

Re:Eyeball

[rmohr02]

Replying to myself, but o well...

There seems to be a Linux server, but no Linux client.

I have a 100 IT consultant

[Anonymous Coward]

But i will still ask /., cause they are cheap...

gnomemeeting and netmeeting

[bigmo]

work together relatively well. There are some connection issues, but they don't seem to be a big problem. I've recently used gnomemeeting to connect to Polycom videoconfernece units and had success, except with the Polycom FX model. Gnomemeeting will work from behind a basic NAT with no problem. Net Meeting doesn't seem to work with a NAT though, but it sounds like you've got control of that sort of thing internally. I've used GM with a WinTV Go card and a logitech quickcam. I have an odd problem with it trying to load up two copies of itself under Mandrake 9.1 right now, but I haven't really put a lot of time into fixing it so far.

I used to think all the videoconferencing stuff was just geek love, but after working with it over the last couple weeks, I think it really does add something useful to the interaction.

for a Windows environment..

[magores]

www.cuworld.com -- No hardware (other than camera) required. Audio and Video better than Netmeeting. Depending on circumstances, CUworld might be able to work with you on a dedicated solution that includes linux via h323. They host, so no stress on your staff.

I know in a windows environment you can get up to 25 people in one "room" at once and 30 video frames per second. Would like to see how the linux solution works out myself.

Hope this helps

Video Conferencing.......

[MeThOdXxX]

If you would like some advice about video conferencing you could go to Inview video conferencing. Inview is part of Intercall, which is the third largest conferencing center in the U.S.

Intercall offers "Complete Conferencing Solutions" for all audio, video, and web conferencing.

Three-way

[cpt kangarooski]

Don't forget that if a conversation involves more than two parties, the video displays should divide themselves up. As in all else in life, Voltron provides the best example of this.

Videoconferencing solutions

[The Clockwork Troll]

My company, Clockwork Enterprises, will gladly share our videoconferencing expertise with your staff.

We charge a nominal fee of $1,000 per consultant per day and expect our research will take a minimum 28 staff-days.

Implementation of discovered solutions is extra, as is bandwidth consumed during research.

Webcam

[rikkus-x]

I recently acquired a Philips ToUCam Pro 740. It works perfectly with Linux. It was a breeze to make work. Anticipating its arrival, I changed my kernel config to include the Philips webcam module(s). If you're using some nice dist like SuSE, you may have them already built.

When the cam arrived, I just plugged it in and started gnomemeeting. It worked.

It works very well in low light, which is handy if you like to work in semi darkness sometimes.

Rik

Grouplab Notification Collage

[Tony.Tang]

The problem with a lot of video conferencing software out there is that it's heavy-weight. It's hard to get it running, and by the time you do get it running (esp. in a small company), and sort of chatting over the system ("hey! can you hear me?" "what?"), you wonder to yourself whether you should have just walked over to the person's desk instead.

I suggest using the Notification Collage, which supports casual communication between close groups of collaborators (smaller teams within your company). It's an extremely lightweight application that has a clean install/uninstall process, and is easy to run (and leave running) all day.

Close collaborators can maintain awareness of each other using video snapshots, as well as desktop snapshots (both automagically taken at set intervals), and can communicate with sticky notes and chat items. They can share photos and stuff with each other too.

I should point out that I belong to the lab that created this little app. To be fair, it is a research prototype, but it is quite neat. We all run it in our lab to stay in touch because a few of us telecommute.

Asterisk

[dpoulson]

How about setting up an asterisk (www.asterisk.org) exchange. This way you can also tie it all in with the phone system. Net meeting 4.[67] will work with SIP over the network, and you can use gnophone on the linux side of things. I've not personally tried video with it, but I do use it at home.

VIC + related applications may do what you want.

[David McBride]

University College London have been developing a number of multimedia applications -- see http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/.

The VIC tool, which provides peer-to-peer video streaming via multicast or unicast can be used to transmit video images to others whilst RAT handles the audio side.

It's free, there's source, and it works. We use it here regularly for conference calls with other institutions in the UK and the US.