We learned that the videoconferencing industry, which has been largely based on proprietary coding-decoding systems (codecs), is working quickly to incorporate, or at least be able to communicate with, the newer, TCP/IP-based desktop systems. While the incorporation of desktop video systems is not high on our list of system requirements, we don't want to get involved with systems that aren't headed in this direction without a major upgrade. On the other hand, if we want to be able to move our videoconferencing systems around campus, or to acquire more than one, we are likely to have to consider how we'll network them at these locations. For now, the usual approach is to terminate some ISDN lines at a specific location and connection to that fixed location. The new videoconferencing systems will allow us to use ATM-based campus networks to locate our systems at more than one location fixed by the ISDN terminations. The new systems will eventually allow us to use ATM protocols to integrate on- and off-campus desktop video systems into our classroom-to-classroom videoconferences.
Note the prominence of ATM in this future. Larry Tucker heard much the same at the teleconference meeting he attended in March. ATM is the current network standard for assuring quality of service since it allows some part of the bandwidth to be set aside for video data.
At the demo, we learned that PictureTel and First Virtual have desktop add-ons for $800 that allow a desktop system to receive conference mateirals over ATM, and for $3000 that allow a desktop to receive and send videoconference materials over ATM (that includes the ATM network interface card). First Virtual also makes a Vcache product for storing parts or all of a videoconference to disk so that it can be referenced and pulled up at a later date. More information about First Virtual is at www.fvc.com [Note: in the end, these features were not considered important in our selection]