H323 video conferencing

[pete10uk]

Hi all

 

I'm completely new to video conferencing and wondered if anyone out there could shed a bit of light on the basics and point me in the direction to solve a customer request.

 

I'm working with a client fitting out their board room. We've installed a new projector and sound system but the client has had a request from their us office to include video conferencing functionality. They have offered to sell him a polycom system but this is big bucks and the client is reluctant to spend this amount as he feels it will only be used a handful of times a year.

 

The US office say any h323 system will work and the client has asked me to see if I can install him one.

 

I've googled h323 and understand that this is a protocol, we have a prittey desent win7 pc in the room and thought I could get a h323 client to work in a similar way to Skype. My confusion comes when trying to figure out how the connection would be made, with Skype you can search for users or type in a user to make a call but with 2 different h323 systems how do you call? Is it ip based?

 

What would be ideal would recommendations on some program's to use and a quick insight to the basic use of the protocol as well as recomendations on good cameras for use in aboard room or 8-10 people.

 

I'm thinking the camera would need a zoom and please feel free to point me in the direction of a hardware solution but please bare in mind the need to keep costs low ish, there is a budget available but it isn't £1000s

 

Thanks for any advice offered.

[sleepytom]

If your new to this I'd suggest keeping things simple and going for the software version of Polycom http://www.polycom.co.uk/products-services/hd-telepresence-video-conferencing/realpresence-desktop/realpresence-desktop-telepresence-m100.html#stab1 this is designed for people who need to link into existing VC systems, so it should be fairly easy to get working with your american users.

 

For a camera then the old Sony EVI PTZ Cameras are a popular choice for video conferencing - ebay is full of them.

good luck.

[mac.calder]

H.323 you can either dial by IP address or configure it with an H.323 Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper acts like a shared address book which allows you to "dial" an extension or phone number style address. It can also does some bandwidth management stuff to manage congestion and various other bits and pieces. If you are setting up as part of a multinational firm check with their IT department whether they want you to connect through a gatekeeper - there is nothing to stop your system from working if you don't have one though.

 

The other way some multi-nats do it is arrange all VC's through an MCU (often called the bridge) - so the system can be configured to auto-dial one IP (the MCU) then the user is prompted to enter a conference code and away you go - or the MCU can be configured to dial each end-point - so everyone gathers and at the appointed time, all sites connect together. The advantage of the MCU dialing the end points is that almost all MCUs have a web interface, so the meeting organiser just logs in, selects all the sites from the MCU's address book, sets a start and end time and who the leader is and away it goes. Best bet is to chat to the guy who manages the conference systems after everything is ready to go and find out exactly how he wants it set.