Affordable and Usable Video Conferencing?

Sabalon writes "I work at a state university with remote sites, minimal space, and all the other usual bits. We used to have some dedicated-circuit video conferencing tools but those have fallen into disuse. The administration is now interested in being able to stream a class from site to site, or at least have a student at one site have visual interaction with a person at another site. My thought is that if Skype, uStream and others can do live video, there has to be some things out there that don't cost a fortune but work effectively. Key things would be the ability to use commodity web cams as a source, viewable on a PC (preferably all the main OSes) and the ability to add in other devices (say H.323 encoders) or desktop/application sharing. Are there decent products and solutions out there for us mere mortals?"

Comments

Dim Dim

[ya really]

I've been recently setting up video streaming for a client and found that dim dim is free for up to 20 people (using their closed source software) and unlimited if you feel like building it yourself with the opensource version. It's not bad either, I can't complain for the price :)

Have you checked out Google?

[RobertM1968]

Google offers videoconferencing, and I believe it is free (sans the cost of the cheap USB camera you will have to buy).

Check out this article, then check out the links for it on Google's site...
Google to offer Video Conferencing

Mbone & VIC

[JynxMe]

A few years back, my multi-site development group set up a web cam on just a regular PC running windows. Then we just set up Mbone and VIC to run the actual conferencing part. It worked really well and supported as many clients as we needed it to. I'm not sure if it's still around or under any development - but you can't beat the price ($0). And they have clients for most OSes.

Don't forget tablet, projector and whiteboard app

[pc_goes_hmm]

We've had good success with the following at each location:

- Mac Mini

- DVI Splitter (active not a simple cable -- bought ours at Fry's)

- Wacom Intuos (integrated tablet and video monitor -- the smaller model is recommended)

- DVI Projector (Sharp Electronics WXGA 2500) + screen

- Polycomm conference phone (new model with the cellphone noise-cancelling)

It's hard to have a technical conversation without a whiteboard, and while webex/dimdim/vyew/etc. have shared whiteboard apps, trying to draw with a mouse on a pad DOWN THERE while looking UP HERE while discussing your topic is just too danged disruptive (like trying to walk while rubbing your belly and patting your head). Drawing right on the "whiteboard" (screen) with a stylus removes most of the cognitive friction.

The only tricky bit is that you really need to project the screen if you'll ever have more than one person in the room. An *active* DVI splitter (passive cabling won't work) does the trick, but you have to ensure that the Mac only "sees" the Wacom monitor initially when it sets up it's display modes. Every time we have a power outage, we need to temporarily unplug the projector from the splitter then force the Mac to re-discover its displays (the Wacom needs the Mac to have the display resolution exactly right). It's also necessary to get a decent projector that can sync to the Wacom's resolution (we use the Sharp Electronics WXGA 2500 which has been terrific).