Conference Room/Small Classroom Installations

Our recommendations for conference rooms and small classrooms is the Polycom Viewstation, model 128. The unit contains a remote controllable camera, encoding/decoding electronics, excellent echo cancellation characteristics, and a wired microphone that can be moved to the middle of a conference table and has the capability to daisy chain a second microphone. The unit requires its own Internet connection (switched 10/100 Mbps Ethernet), and can support encoding/decoding rates up to 768 Kbps. The unit also has jacks to connect optional ISDN lines rather than IP connectivity, but it will only run at 128 Kbps using ISDN. Normally we do not use ISDN connectivity, but if you do then you should buy a Polycom Viewstation, model 512 that is the same as the model 128 except it can run at 512 Kbps using ISDN connectivity. The main monitor output of the Viewstation has both composite and S-video jacks, and requires an external monitor and speaker system. Jacks for a second camera input are supplied, but a second camera is normally not required for small to medium sized rooms. The price is in the $3,000 to $3,500 range. The unit is available from a number of distributors, but we have obtained good pricing and service from SKC.

Videoconferencing
VidConference@listserv.it.northwestern.edu