High Speed Network and VideoConferencing help needed

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Permalink Reply by elvis01 on March 12, 2008 at 7:31pm

Hi Liz,

I am somewhat knowledgeable about the Sony video conferecing product.

Please let me know if you are interested.

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Permalink Reply by Liz Dodds on March 12, 2008 at 7:59pm

Yes, please tell me.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Phillips on March 13, 2008 at 10:55am

Hi Liz,
I am very familiar and knowledgeable about videoconferencing. There are many options available from manufacturers such as Tandberg, Polycom and Sony. Within those manufacturers you will have a plethora of options from about $1,500 on up to the tens of thousands, but it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There is also standard definition and high definition.

CalSAVE has negotiated pricing for Polycom products which has very good pricing. If you visit CalSAVE's website at calsave.org you should find the price list under Solutionz Conferencing who is the vendor who was awared the contract through CalSAVE.

The one item you want to make sure you get is an H.323 capable endpoint, stay away from proprietary solutions. Here in California we have set up a videoconferencing solution based on H.323. We provide bridging, streaming at no cost to all CA K-12 educators, our system is set up with a dial plan for CA which is also connected to I2's dialing plan.

I have a lot of knowledge and would be happy to help you in anyway I can. Please feel free to contact me alanp@icoe.org or you can always call the office 760-312-6158.

Thanks,
Alan

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Pape on March 13, 2008 at 11:15am

I purchased a Polycom system last year and it's great. Alan Phillips helped me out and I purchased it through Solutionz. It's easy to set up and you can use it with or without a computer. I purchased the VSX 7000 system.
Check out my website: http://www.ctsx.com/vc/vc/index.html
You can find pictures of the system and additional info.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Gale, PhD on March 16, 2008 at 8:37pm

Liz,

Perhaps this is obvious, but do you definitely need to see people face to face and/or watch live video as opposed to sharing materials and photos? The reason I mention this is because of the differing requirements for each. If you don't need to see people face to face, GotoMeeting allows sharing of materials for up to 15 persons (powerpoints, etc) for as low as $30/month for unlimited use per user ($99 for up to 1,000 webinar style).

If you or anyone knows of a system that is affordable combines video and screen sharing, I'd be interested in knowing about it. Adobe Connect, SightSpeed, and WebEx can get pricy. For screen sharing only, yuuguu.com seems interesting. We're in the process of learning more about it. I'm trying to combine the benefits of GotoWebinar with video and/or audio streaming through ustream.tv.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Lauchner on March 19, 2008 at 5:13pm

Liz,

I work for a company that installs and supports the LifeSize video conferencing products. I agree with Alan that you should only consider a H.323 system. Both the LifeSize and the Polycom 7000 are great units.

LifeSize products are all HD capable and very easy to use. Prices start at around 6K for the 'point to point' unit and just under 13K for a 'multi-point' solution that allows you to conference with up to 6 sites at a time.

Please feel free to call me if I can help in any way 707 318-9484.

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Permalink Reply by Glen Warren on March 22, 2008 at 4:49am

Liz,
Alan has a great program called KIDS... It is a wonderful way to start for free. But if you have the money, Polycom or Tanberg are wonderful units. Make sure you join the Teacher Librarian Videoconference Ning for connection information for Monday.

http://libraianvideoconference.ning.com/

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Pape on March 11, 2009 at 6:38pm

Did you ever get your video conferencing system set up?

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