March, 2005

The ViDe Videoconferencing Cookbook is brought to you by the Video Development Initiative with contributions from

Videoconferencing Cookbook Editors

Mary Trauner (mary.trauner@oit.gatech.edu)
Mary Fran Yafchak (maryfran@sura.org)

Videoconferencing Cookbook Version 4.x Authors

Christos Aposkitis, Network Applications Manager, Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET)

Christos Aposkitis is managing the deployment of multimedia and Grid applications for GRNET. He has worked for many teleteaching and videoconferencing projects since 1997 sponsored by the Education, Research and Development and Economy Ministries. In that period, he also started his own small business specializing in videoconferencing, which brought him in contact with most major videoconference vendors worldwide. He holds an MSc in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. He has been involved a lot in helping end users get to know and make good use of multimedia collaborative technologies, particularly in the Greek educational sector.

Sean Brennan, Georgia Institute of Technology, Technical Manager, Classroom Technology, Academic and Research Technologies, Office of Information Technology

Mark Bryan, Video Support Engineer, OneNet, Oklahoma's Telecommunications Network

Brian Corrie, New Media Innovation Centre, Research Scientist, Director, Immersive Media Lab

Brian Corrie is a Research Scientist and the Director of the Immersive Media Lab at the New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Brian's research interests are in collaborative environments, computer graphics, scientific visualization, virtual environments (VE), and grid computing. Over the last ten years Brian has been involved in the establishment of three virtual environment facilities including the Virtual Environments lab at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, the Virtual Environments Technology Centre (VETC) at the National Research Council of Canada's Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute in London, Ontario, and the Immersive Media Lab at the New Media Innovation Centre. He was the Project Leader for the Collaborative VE project at ANU, the Technical Leader at the VETC, and is currently the research leader for the Immersive and Collaborative Environments research program at NewMIC.

Benjamin Deaton, Instructional Technology, Learning and Performance Support Laboratory, University of Georgia

Ben is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Instructional Technology conducting research in the Learning & Performance Support Laboratory. He has previously earned a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science. Current projects include the Virtual Solar System, Virtual Gorilla, and Video Case Tools. (See http://lpsl.coe.uga.edu. )

Bob Dixon, (Robert S. Dixon, Ph D, PE), Chief Research Engineer, Ohio State University, Office of the CIO, and, Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARNet)

Stacey Donahue, Merit Network, Inc.

Stacey Donahue's first encounter with videoconferencing was on a futuristic ride through the AT&T exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. (see Cookbook Intro) She didn't imagine that 30 years later she'd be lost in cables, protocols and usability issues using these devices to bridge campuses for distance learning or to facilitate multipoint meetings for scientists and researchers. In those 30+ years, Stacey has been a teacher, technology manager and an IT trainer and consultant. She is particularly interested in the effective integration of collaborative tools into the workplace as well as issues surrounding usability and interface design for the things we encounter in our daily lives.

Steve Egyhazi, Engineer - Video, Digital Media Network Services, University Information Technology Services, Indiana University

Before joining Digital Media Network Services Steve worked in a variety of television production roles: producer, camera, post production, and distance learning studio manager. As lead videoconferencing engineer with DMNS, Steve supports the ongoing operation and deployment of elements associated with Indiana University's H.323 network, including terminals, gatekeeper, directory, and MCU's, as well as conference room and classroom vc technology integration.

Jill Gemmill, Assistant Director, Academic Computing, Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Jill serves as an interface between the university's information technology infrastructure and the university's research and teaching IT requirements. Working as a grant co-investigator, IT ombudsperson, or assisting a faculty member to pioneer new Internet technologies, Jill and her department also evaluate the impact of new technologies on the existing infrastructure and pilot new IT services. Her research has received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Southeastern Universities' Research Association, and the UAB Health Services Foundation. Jill's current interests include use of single-sign-on authentication architectures, transparent authorization, secure videoconferencing, end-to-end application performance, grid computing, and developing better collaboration tools for virtual organizations. Jill is member of ViDe and has served as ViDe Chair and Program Chair for ViDe's annual Digital Video Workshops. She also likes to go canoing with co-author Mary Trauner in the swamps of south Georgia.

Tyler Johnson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Director, CAVNER Center for Advanced Video Network Engineering and Research, Telecommunications Systems Engineer, Networking and Communications Group

Tyler Miller Johnson is a telecommunications systems analyst with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His background is in electrical and computer engineering, with an emphasis on network transport of real time data streams, especially audio and video. Tyler is a founding member of ViDe and is a principle architect for ViDeNet, the developing global video and voice over IP network. He participates in the Internet2 Commons, QoS Applications, Voice over IP and Video Middleware working groups and was the Editor of the ITU-T H.350 series of standards.

Cathy King, Project Manager, Rural Advanced Community of Learners (RACOL), University of Alberta

Cathy King is currently the project manager on the Rural Advanced Community of Learners (RACOL) project (http://www.racol.ualberta.ca) and advises on institution wide project management issues. She is also a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), a professional association of project managers' worldwide. She is the regional manager for Netera Alliance (http://www.netera.ca), where she is responsible for managing various projects, staff, technical and networking initiatives and communications programs for Netera's members in Northern Alberta. Cathy's professional experience includes project management, public speaking, event coordination and facilitation, market research and analysis, training and collaborating with researchers and educators at the University of Alberta and other post secondary institutions in the areas of Distance Education, High Performance Computing, Visualization, Video Streaming and Technology Based Collaboration. Cathy's academic background includes a degree in criminology from the University of Alberta and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from the University of Lethbridge.

Tina Kinkennon, University of Alabama System

John CW Krienke, Internet2 Commons Management Team, Internet2

Brian Ladrido, Penn State University

Brian is a 1996 graduate of Penn State University. He has worked for the University since 1997, with his most recent position in the Office of Telecommunications as part of Network Planning and Integration (NPI), in the Network Applications Services (NAS) group. NAS handles designs including OSI layer 4 and higher; everything from Video and Voice over networks to videoconferencing room designs.

Peter Marshall, Director of Network Applications, CANARIE Inc.

Graciela Machado Leopoldino Martins, Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP)

Graciela is technical coordinator of videoconference projects and senior support analyst in the RNP in Campinas, S.P., Brazil. She has been working with videoconference applications since 1999. She is an Internet2 Commons Site Coordinator and the RNP is a Commons Member Organization. Her educational background includes Master' degrees in Computer Science and graduation in this same area. She is responsible for a listserv in Portuguese (videoconf@rnp.br) that includes information and technical questions about videoconference applications.

Kenn McCracken, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Content Editor: http://www.ViDe.net, I2 Commons Site Coordinator, IT Academic Computing Program Coordinator

Ed Price, Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Director, Interactive Media Technology Center, Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology

Ed is the research director at the Interactive Media Technology Center at Georgia Tech. He has been involved in videoconferencing research for over 10 years, including projects sponsored by Intel, Bell South, and the US Army. Currently, most of Ed's research is involved in wireless applications and in content management.

Art Recesso, Research Scientist, Learning & Performance Support Laboratory, University of Georgia

Before arriving at the LPSL (http://lpsl.coe.uga.edu) Art worked in K12 education in a variety of capacities to support teachers’ integration of technology into teaching. Recently his work has focused on emerging technologies to support the preparation and development of teacher’s practices. Recesso collaborates on videoconferencing projects to support live mentoring and communication with preparing and developing teachers and delivery of services to deaf and hard of hearing students in remote locations.

Fabian Romo, Technology for Education / CUDI Video Network Operations Center Manager, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), http://distancia.dgsca.unam.mx

Fabian Romo is the Manager of the Video Network Operations Center of Internet 2 - Mexico (CUDI). This VNOC provides interconnectivity services to UNAM's Video Network and the National Videoconference Network for Education (RNVE), based on H.320 and H.323, both networks operating since 1994 and 1997 respectively, serving in total more than 300 sites across the country. He also collaborates at UNAM as responsible of a project for distance education in computers and telecommunications using television programs broadcasted all over Latin America since 1999, called "SEPAcomputo".

Joel Rybicki
Cincinnati International Teleport
http://www.c-it.net

Amela Sadagic, PhD

Dr. Sadagic works as a Co-director of the "Partnership for Emerging Learning Environments" (www.pelegroup.net), a provider of strategic consulting and training on the effective use of emerging technologies for learning. She also worked as a Director of Programs for Advanced Network and Services, a non-profit company based in Armonk, NY. She currently consults on several projects that use videoconferencing technology, one of which is Megaconference Jr., a showcase of possibilities that this technology brings to the K-12 environment. In the past she designed and led "Imagining the Future", the project that actively involved K-12 community in exploring advanced digital technologies, and co-designed "Virtual Marine Biology - Seals on Camera", a distance learning project that used videoconferencing to connect high school students with researchers in the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk (this project was selected as one of Top 10 Innovative projects in 2003 by the Technology & Learning magazine). In addition to this work, Dr. Sadagic chaired the Application QoS Needs Design Team, one of four design teams within Internet2 QoS Working Group. Dr. Sadagic holds the degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Sarajevo, and PhD degree in Computer Science from the University College London.

Kenneth Tanner, Louisiana State University

Liane M Rockenbach Tarouco, Dr, Centro Interdisciplinar de Novas Tecnologias na Educaoção , Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil

Liane Tarouco is director of Interdisciplinar Center for New Technologies on Learning researching and teaching on videoconference and related technologies for distance education at the graduate program (PhD) Informatics on Education at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She also is chairman of distance education program Informatic on Education being offered to all over the country with students coming also from other south america countries using streaming video and videoconfernce services. Her educational background includes Master' degrees in Computer Science and PhD in Electrical Engineering, and she is also working with graduate program Computer Science at UFRGS teaching and researching on networking issues.

Mary Trauner, Georgia Institute of Technology, Senior Research Scientist, Educational Technologies, Office of Information Technology

Mary Trauner is manager of a small group devoted to assisting faculty and graduate students in the use of advanced network applications including high performance computing and video conferencing. She also investigates new technologies in these areas and others such as grid computing and application sharing/data collaboration. Her educational background includes Master degrees in Computer Science and Atmospheric Science.

Dr.ir. Egon M. Verharen, Innovation Management, SURFnet, The Netherlands

James O. Whitlock, University at Buffalo

Mr. Whitlock has over thirty-five years of experience focused on the development, stabilization, deployment and refinement of core OS and communications systems technologies. He started in the late sixties at Carnegie Mellon on an R&D project with IBM to develop their first commercial time-sharing operating system and has stayed close to foundation information technologies ever since. He has published and presented his work internationally. For most of the last decade, Mr. Whitlock has been working to establish an Advanced Educational Technology Skunkworks at the University at Buffalo to support regional early adopters of emerging high performance Internet-based collaboration technologies. The Western New York High Performance Networked Video Initiative (WNY-HPNVI), a regional public-service project, has grown out of this effort. Mr. Whitlock was recently honored with a SUNY Chancellor⤙s Award for Excellence in Professional Service for this work.

Mary Fran Yafchak, SURA (http://www.sura.org), IT Program Coordinator

Mary Fran Yafchak is the IT Program Coordinator for SURA (Southeastern Universities Researach Association), where she works to further the development of regional information technology collaborations. She is an active member of ViDe (The Video Development Initiative, http://www.vide.net), Vidmid (http://middleware.internet2.edu/video), and past co-chair and current member of the Internet 2 Digital Video Initiative (http://dv.internet2.edu). Mary Fran is also leading the NMI (NSF Middleware Initiative) Testbed Program as part of an NSF-funded partnership with Internet 2, EDUCAUSE, and the GRIDS Center.

Videoconferencing Cookbook version 1.0-3.0 Authors

Grace Agnew, Georgia Institute of Technology, Assistant Director, Systems and Technical Services, Price Gilbert Library
Marc Boulerice, CA*net3 ARDNOC, http://www.canet3.net, Bell Nexxia
Sean Brennan, Georgia Institute of Technology, Technical Manager, Classroom Technology, Educational Technologies directorate of the Office of Information Technology
Markus Buchhorn, Information Infrastructure Services, Australian National University
Megan Crabb, Systems Specialist, OARnet
Phil Emer, North Carolina State University, Associate Director of Advanced Technology Development, NCState.Net
Roi Frank, NYSERNet, Inc.
Jill Gemmill, Assistant Director, Academic Computing, Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Jeremy George, Yale University
Chris Hodge, University of Tennessee, Coordinator, SunSITE@ UTK
Mark D. Johnson, University of South Carolina, Information Technology Manager, Internet Video Group
Tyler Miller Johnson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Director, CAVNER Center for Advanced Video Network Engineering and Research, Telecommunications Systems Engineer, Networking and Communications Group
Brian Ladrido, Penn State University
Ms. Mairead Martin, The University of Tennessee, Director, Advanced Internet Technologies, Office of Research and Information Technology
Zachary Pousman, Assistant Director of Technology
Ed Price, Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Director, Interactive Media Technology Center, Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology
William Rhodes , University of Tennessee, AIT
Sridharan Subramanian, Georgia Institute of Technology, Graduate Research Assistant
Ron Tipton, University of Tennessee, AIT
Mary Trauner, Georgia Institute of Technology, Senior Research Scientist, High Performance Computing, Educational Technologies
Pat Watson, University of Tennessee, Senior Comm and Elec Tech, Telecommunications & Network Services
Mary Fran Yafchak, SURA (http://www.sura.org), IT Program Coordinator
Graphics design assistance by Greg Noe, University of Tennessee

About ViDe

All proceeds from sales of this book benefit the ViDe organization. The Video Development Initiative (ViDe) promotes the deployment of digital video in research and higher education. Leveraging its members' collective resources and expertise, ViDe advances digital video deployment through promotion and development of interoperable, standardized, and cost-effective technologies. Founded by representatives from universities and education networks; ViDe members today include those interested in improving and deploying scalable, standards-based digital video architecture and services for use in research and higher education. ViDe has recently co-sponsored workshops and digital video projects with the Southeastern Universities Research Association, Internet2, the Coalition for Networked Information, Research Channel, and leading industry consortia.

ViDe projects include:

• ViDeNet, the global, virtual network providing video and voice over IP to advanced networking communities. The ViDeNet mesh of almost 200 H.323 zones is the largest network of its kind in the world.
• The ViDe Video Middleware Cookbook provides its audience with a good understanding of the theory and use of middleware for videoconferencing and voice over IP (VoIP).
• The annual SURA/ViDe Digital Video Workshop has become a significant annual event for learning about digital video.
• ViDe members participate in active working groups focusing on specific advancements in videoconferencing, video streaming, video asset management, and data collaboration.
• ViDe promotes use and development of tools for performance measurement and analysis that make the deployment of high quality video feasible.