| Video Conferencing - A Checklist
What do you wish to achieve? Point to Point two locations only at any one time
Broadcast Live from one site to many watch and listen
Broadcast pre-recorded from one site to many watch & listen
Multipoint three or more sites with Q&A between any, relayed to all
Multipoint - three or more plus broadcast from any to satellite sub-groups as a watch and listen.
Live with session taped for future edit and distribution
Person to person/s with video & audio & data manipulation across participants e.g. sharing documents, drawings with or without live edit and audit of changes made. With whom do you wish to communicate by videoconferencing? Only inside your company
From your company to sister/ contractor/ supplier companies
With your customers
With your prospects Frequency of system use Ad hoc
Estimated use per annum (min/max)
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly Installation type Custom built static installation i.e. a designated room
Desktop location/s i.e. from the office desktop PC
Mobile roll-about system -
Off-site facilities required going to a dedicated videoconference facility Options required Record, Edit & Distribute by hardcopy (CD/DVD)
Record, Edit & Distribute by softcopy (Web cast)
Broadcast live via direct links to named recipients/ groups
Broadcast pre-recorded across one or more time zones
Log who watched and listened and when
Multiple persons at One or Two (group to group videoconferencing e.g. design teams, board to local management)
Multiple participants at Three or more sites What are your current IT capabilities? ISDN 1
ISDN 2
ISDN 30
LAN Cat5/ Cat5e/ Cat6
LAN Fibre
LAN wireless type?
WAN bandwidth?
VPN bandwidth?
Internet access, dial-up 56k
Internet access , Dial-up 128K
Internet access , Broadband 1Mb
Internet access , Broadband 2Mb
Internet access , Broadband 4 Mb
Internet access , Satellite link
Internet access , permanent fibre/ cable link
T1 / T2 / T3 / T4 (aka DS-1/ DS-2/ DS-3/ DS-4)
OC-1 / OC-3 / OC-12 / OC-38 Impact on your system to be considered Bandwidth load
Current capacity used & unused & reserved (max/ min for each)
Planned bandwidth use excluding video conferencing
Contention ratio
Speed
Video quality predominantly static (talking head Yes/No)
Hardware at point of display
Hardware at point of transmission
Hardware at point of distribution Points to consider Budget
What do you spend currently on flights/ travel/ accommodation per annum?
Write-off period for cap ex
Leasing options
IT infrastructure
Cost and timescale of increased capacity and hardware -if required
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