Case Study 1
Research Group Meetings between Australia and New Zealand : EVO to an H.323 client
The research group of Professor Alan Cooper (Australian Centre for Ancient DNA) has a regular fortnightly meeting with colleagues at Massey University in New Zealand, using EVO as the client at the Australian end. This occurs in the eResearchSA Meeting Room in the Physics Building at the University of Adelaide. This room is set up with two projectors, three cameras (though more can be added...) and an echo-cancelling audio system for convenient and comfortable speech pick-up and reproduction.
The researchers at Massey meet in a room which has H.323 conference equipment. All that is required for EVO to connect to that room is the IP address or Gatekeeper details for that room. This information is entered into EVO's "Call" dialogue box, via the "Call" menu item in Koala, and the green phone icon is pressed (shown in the accompanying figure).
- EVO "Call" dialogue for H.323 connections:
A successful connection to the remote H.323 client will result in vievo (EVO's video display utility) starting, assuming that vievo is set to auto-start when entering a meeting or joining an H.323 call. If the connection is not successful, an error message will be given.
The eResearchSA room is able to send several video streams, including a shared desktop. Shared Desktop is an included facility within EVO that allows part or all of one of the user's computer monitors to be seen as a video stream at the other participant's display. (Of course, if more than two sites are present, all sites will be able to see this stream). This allows both a presentation, be it using PowerPoint or other software, to be sent as well as one or more camera views of the participants in Adelaide, allowing the Massey room to view both the presentation and the Adelaide group. (However, do note that, in EVO, all participants are able to choose which video streams will be displayed locally, so that Massey may choose to see only the presentation if it wishes).
However, the Massey site is able to send only one video stream, so when Massey is presenting, Adelaide can see only the presentation, or the Massey group, and not both at the same time (and which is sent is decided at Massey). Generally, it is preferred that both a presenter and a presentation be viewable by the receiving site at once, although this is by no means essential. Furthermore, it must be noted that this is not a limitation of EVO itself; such issues are determined by the configuration of the H.323 facility at the remote site.
NOTE: I have been informed that, using the connection method outlined above, it is possible for EVO to connect also to H.263-based conference facilities.