The
Joint Universities Computer Centre (JUCC) is a cooperative
effort on the development of information technology and services
among the Computer Centres of the eight government-funded
tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. As an active member, the
Computing Services Centre (CSC) has participated in many joint
functions. Video collaboration is one of the major roles in
which we work together for video broadcast and video conferencing
services over our highly integrated data and video network.
Several
years ago, JUCC's Video Task Force (VTF) was established within
the JUCC organization. The aim is to enable collaboration
among institutions for better video service solutions. As
one of the important investments, the VTF had purchased a
most powerful machine, called the Accord (now becomes PolyCom)
Multi-Point Conference Unit (MCU). This MCU enables multiple
participants in a single or multiple video conferencing session(s).
In order
to provide a better video conferencing solution, the MCU has
recently been upgraded to support the latest video protocol
called H.264. The H.264 video compression enables video conferencing
users to experience either significantly improved video quality
at the same bit rate, or current quality at approximately
half the bit rate required previously. For example, a high-quality
H.263 encoded video in 768Kbps is achievable using H.264 at
384Kbps. Another benefit of this new standard is the greatly
improved performance over network errors. What this means
is that when a video data loss is caused by network errors,
the video quality will degrade gracefully instead of breaking
up completely, rendering the video image unusable like the
previous standards. This error tolerance is very important
especially when the Internet is used as the communication
channel where transmission errors due to data collision are
considered normal.
Although
a better video conferencing quality may result by adopting
H.264, one criterion must be fulfilled. In order to use H.264,
all video conferencing equipment involved in a conference
must support this standard or else the system will automatically
be switched back to an older standard, say H.263. As H.264
is relatively new, most of the old video conference equipment
either does not support it or need to upgrade their firmware
in order to accommodate this feature. In view of this, the
CityU has recently upgraded the video conferencing equipment
to support this standard.
To promote
the usage of the MCU, JUCC had organized regular functions,
for example, a recent seminar called the "Joint Universities
Video Conference 2004" (JUVC 2004) was held on October
15, 2004. A similar event held for the second time not only
demonstrated the power of the MCU, but also verified the latest
video technology development over the network infrastructure.
As a hot subject in the academic field, remote teaching using
video Web casting was the theme of this year's JUVC event.
Four speakers were invited to present various related topics.
These included "Virtual
Integrated Teaching & Learning Environment (VITLE)"
presented by Hong Kong Baptist University (presentation held
at HKBU), "Navipresenter
- Web Colloration System" presented by Ultra Active
Technology Ltd. (presentation held at HKU), "Centra:
Real-time Interactive e-Meeting System" presented
by EZY-Tech Ltd. (presentation held at CUHK) and finally "Integrated
Rich-Media Conferencing - Secure Voice and Web Conferencing
for Cross-Organiztion and Cross-Border Collaboration"
(presentation held at CityU). Instead of moving from one location
to another, audiences can simply sit in the different venues
set up by the 8 JUCC institutions and be able to enjoy these
seminars by looking at the screens where video and audio were
delivered from the presenters in various locations using the
MCU. The success of these seminars had proved that it is possible
for potential users to make use of the video conferencing
technology in their work.
Apart
from organizing similar events regularly, the JUCC's VTF also
participates in the MegaConference,
a truly interactive global event being held every year where
all presentations take advantage of the interactive videoconferencing,
presenting from multiple locations. Last year over 187 institutions
in 28 countries participated remotely in this grand video
conferencing event. This year, more than 300 institutions
had registered to join the event on December 9, 2004. Like
before, the CSC had set up a venue within the university for
those who would like to participate and witness this grand
event.
Behind
all efforts, the CSC's most important aim in this area is
in fact to promote users' awareness of multi-media technology
in teaching, learning and research work, as well as to join
forces with the other institutions by sharing our resources
and experiences.