What locations and equipment are needed?
Each group of people gathers in a room that's equipped with microphones, speakers, video cameras, video displays, and CODEC [compression/decompression] equipment). Our technicians establish a video broadband connection using multiple telephone lines (ISDN) or the Internet.
Are there many videoconferencing rooms out there?
Yes. You can connect to more than 80 sites in Montana for example including sites that currently exist in cities, small towns, tribal colleges, and hospitals. The growth of IP video over Internet has the added benefit of reducing costs for locations to support videoconferencing. And, the network grows larger every day.
Videoconferencing networks serving Montana:
- SummitNet Video Network
- VisionNet
- EMTN (Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network)
- REACH Montana Telemedicine Network
What is the connection range?
Videoconference reach is worldwide. We have connected clients in Montana to locations in Canada, Mexico, Chile, Ireland, England, Germany, France, Japan and New Zealand.
How does videoconferencing work?
Videoconferencing uses two-way interactive video. Room equipment compresses the analog audio-video signal into a digital signal and sends it over the broadband connection. The signal is received at the other end and decompressed into an analog signal and displayed. Technology allows transmission of full motion video, audio, and still pictures, for a high-quality user experience.
The BTC has multiple types of videoconferencing with H.323-IP rooms available
ISDN Video
We can connect via ISDN using a 3rd party bridging solution.
IP Video
IP (Internet Protocol) video uses the Internet to make a video broadband connection.
Montana State University is a member of the Internet 2 consortium, so IP
video connections to other Internet 2 institutions are of high quality and
relatively immune to network congestion.
