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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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