What equipment is needed?

There are three types of equipment available for use for IP video: room systems, set-top systems, and desktop systems. These systems are aptly named, for each system performs its own unique purpose. Your technology coordinator and others will work to determine what combination of equipment best suits the needs of your organization.

Room System
A room system is a vendor’s top-of-the-line product designed to provide medium and large corporations, government, and educational institutions with custom room configurations. These are used in situations requiring high-quality video performance and extensive conferencing capabilities for applications such as distance learning, boardroom conferencing, and high performance multi-site conferencing. Room systems typically support multiple video and audio inputs such as document cameras, computer video converters, and VCRs. Support for one to three video displays is common. Complete systems may come with two or more 32" viewing monitors or can be used with larger projection systems, and can be permanently built into a room or set up as semi-mobile units that can be taken to another room if necessary.

Set-top System
The term set-top system usually refers to a vendor’s mid-level product designed for small to medium sized conference rooms. A set-top system can look just like the room system with monitors and carts, or it can be a smaller unit that sits on top of a monitor. One advantage to the set-top solution is that products on the lower end of this pricing scale can give a user excellent conference room or classroom performance as long as they do not require the extra services or options offered by the room systems.

Desktop System
A desktop system, simply put, is a video conferencing terminal, either hardware or software, that interacts directly with the personal computer on a desk. It is designed to be a one-person unit, making it unsuitable for a conference room environment; but it can be very useful for an office or classroom/lab-station solution. The speed of the computer processor will directly affect performance. The advantage of such a unit is its low-cost focus on an individual user, with no special room or setup needed. Within minutes of installation, a user can talk face to face to someone using another desktop system or someone with a $50,000 room system. The disadvantage to this type of system is that it is not suitable for use by more than one person.

Once your equipment is in place, your organization’s technology coordinator will work with IHETS to certify your site to participate in IP video conferencing. This process ensures that video conferencing endpoints meet minimum specifications prior to participation in point-to-point or multipoint (3 or more participants) conferencing across the Indiana Telecommunications Network (ITN). Through this process, IHETS will verify the operating configuration and specifications of your network and will certify that your endpoint can participate with others and maintain a consistent, high-quality video signal.