Video conferencing information

Video conferencing

What is video conferencing?

Video conferencing (VC) is a critical part of the advanced communications and technology strategy used throughout UHI for learning, teaching and administration.

Currently there are approximately 150 VC units throughout the university network. There are also multipoint control units (or 'bridges'), which enable multi-site conferences to be scheduled, monitored and remotely managed. UHI manages more than 5000 multi-site conferences per year in addition to many locally dialled point-to-point calls. This makes UHI one of the biggest users of videoconferencing in the UK and the video conferencing service (VCS) staff work closely with the manufacturers in developing and testing new equipment and facilities in order to continuously develop and improve the service.

The VCS is part of the Learning & Information Services department and is staffed by a video conferencing co-ordinator and three full time technicians who manage the day-to-day scheduling of all multi-site conferences. They also provide technical support to staff and student users. Each academic partner also offers local first line support and basic training.

Within UHI video conferencing is used to teach, host seminars and to hold meetings. It allows geographically disperse groups to interact without having the burden and cost of travel.

It also allows people to share applications, files and data which makes it easy to hold presentations and review documents in a VC session.

When is video conferencing available?

This service should be available during office hours and in the evenings dependent on local site access. However there will be times when we need to carryout essential maintenance work, this will be required to address a service fault, or to carryout service improvement work. Whilst we will endeavour to give notice of any work that will require an outage this may not always be possible.

Is there any work scheduled? Information on planned works is available from the service announcements page.

Where can I get more help with video conferencing?

Contact the VC Master in the first instance.

How do I report a problem?

If you have problems with this service please contact the helpdesk.

Handy links

See our VC Service guide.

Unsure about some of the terminology and jargon used here? See our glossary.

Have you got something you want to say? If so, we would like you to give us some feedback.

VC FAQs

Answers to many of the common questions asked of the Helpdesk can be found on this page.

Q: How do I book a videoconference?

A: Whether you are booking a point-to-point or a multi-point videoconference, the first step is to contact your technician. He or she will book the suite and check that the bridge is available in the case of a multi-point conference. You should give the technician the following information:

Conference title
What sites you are linking to
How many people will be present locally
Dates
Start and finish times
Any equipment to be used, eg document cameras, PowerPoint presentation etc

Book well in advance. It is preferable to do this by email, rather than telephone

Q: How many sites can we link into a video conference at the same time?

A: It is possible to link up 100+ sites at any one time

Q: Can we connect our video conferencing system to an external system?

A: If you are linking to an outside agency, let the technical staff know well in advance. Arrangements should be made to have a test with remote sites before the actual meeting.

Q: Who do I contact if a problem arises during a conference?

A: It is best to contact the VCmaster on 155 (externally 01463 279155).

VC technical guides

There are a number of guides available covering the video conferencing kit in use around the partnership:

Tandberg 800 technical description

Tandberg 800 user manual

Comprehensive user guide to the current online booking service

Training materials are available for the videoconferencing kit that was installed throughout the UHI network in 2010.

There is a module on the VLE which is open to all. It should appear under the 'Training' section of the Course Catalog when you log onto the VLE. The code is TRAIN_NGNVC and the title is "Next Generation Videoconferencing".